Lehigh Valley professor learns lesson about rooting against Eagles

Wisconsin native Craig Coenen says Eagles fans lived up to their reputation and vandalized his car outside the Linc.

A college professor from Lower Macungie Township who wrote a book about the first 50 years of the NFL knew Philly fans had a reputation for mistreating visiting fans, but the Wisconsin native said he didn't know how bad it could be until he went to the Eagles game Sunday.

Craig Coenen and his father, Peter Coenen, left Lincoln Financial Field jubilant after watching their beloved Green Bay Packers defeat the Eagles in the NFC wild card playoff game.

"We were just thinking about how nice a day it was and it was a good memory," Peter Coenen said. "Then I looked up and said, 'Oh my God.' "

His son's Toyota Camry had been stomped on, kicked and beaten (kind of like the Eagles). Fans tore out the windshield wipers and motors and used them to scratch the paint, broke off the side mirrors and left footprints and dents on the hood, trunk and roof.

"It was just drunk, obnoxious Eagles fans," Craig Coenen said Monday after getting a repair estimate of $2,163. "Philadelphia is notorious for this, but hopefully the fans who did this are the exception, not the rule."

More likely, it will go down as another example of Philadelphia sports fans at their worst and add to their reputation as out-of-control, violent, destructive drunks and all-around sore losers.

"When I left Green Bay everyone said to be careful — the Philadelphia fans have a reputation," said Peter Coenen, who still lives in Wisconsin and took his son to the game as an early birthday gift. "My son had a Green Bay Packers shirt on. As we drove in, they gave us the finger."

The reputation dates to 1949 when fans threw glass bottles at an umpire for a bad call during a Phillies game. Incidents continued over the years, including the hurling of snowballs at Santa Claus at Franklin Field in 1968 and at the Dallas Cowboys at Veterans Stadium in 1989.

In April, Philadelphia Phillies fan Matthew Clemmens, 21, of Cherry Hill, N.J., became known as "Pukemon" after he purposely vomited on other Phillies fans, an 11-year-old girl and her father, an off-duty Easton police captain.

Coenen, 40, who grew up 20 miles south of Green Bay's historic Lambeau Field, has been a Packers fan all his life. While working on his master's degree at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, he embarked on research that eventually became a book, "From Sandlots to the Super Bowl: The National Football League 1920-1967."The book ends with the Green Bay Packers winning the first Super Bowl in NFL history.

Coenen, who now teaches at Lehigh as well as Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, said he became well aware of Philly fans' reputation during his research and from living in the Lehigh Valley for 18 years. And he admitted he should have known better than to wear Packers clothing to Sunday's game.