In a city notorious for combativeness, residents are suddenly chanting happily in the streets. Flags are flying. Neighbors who haven’t spoken in a year are stopping by to catch up.
Philadelphia is a town where losing has been a bitter drink before breakfast for about as long as anyone can remember, and where a stadium full of angry fans once rained boos and snowballs even on a hapless Santa Claus. But since the hometown Eagles punched their ticket to Super Bowl LII last Sunday, it has a whole new outlook.
“It’s like Christmas morning,” says Tom Burgoyne, who for the last three decades has donned the hometown Phillie Phanatic costume at Phillies baseball games.