- On Tuesday the White House hosted “a celebration of the American flag with Eagles fans” after canceling the team’s White House visit.
- While the White House claimed that they expected 1,000 Eagles fans and that the crowd was even larger than expected, a few notes raised suspicions.
- A Philadelphia reporter found that the crowd was mostly unaware of the team’s Super Bowl hero, and three different photographers appeared to identify just one fan holding a jersey.
- More telling were the photos as the many noted that the “fans” simply didn’t look like standard NFL fans attending a Super Bowl celebration.
On Tuesday the White House hosted “a celebration of the American flag with Eagles fans.”
At the event, Trump once again bragged about the size of the gathered crowd. “This is a beautiful, big celebration,” Trump said. “Actually, to be honest, it’s even bigger than we had anticipated.”
But further examination of the event raises an essential question – were any actual Eagles fans in attendance?
On Twitter, the evidence was unconvincing.
Do all Eagles fans wear business suits? pic.twitter.com/3si36WMOpf
— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) June 5, 2018
Tim Furlong of Philadelphia's NBC10 passed along another anecdote that raised my suspicion.
I’ve asked 6 of the “fans” at the White House who was the @Eagles quarterback during the super bowl. Not ONE person knew. @NBCPhiladelphia
— Tim Furlong (@tfurlong) June 5, 2018
Additionally, going through photos of the event, only one fan was photographed with a Eagles jersey, by three different photographers.
No other "fans" present appeared to have Eagles jerseys.
AP names the man pictured here as Tim Dagit of Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. Contacted over Facebook, Dagit told Business Insider that he and his group of family and friends had gone to D.C. specifically for the occasion.
While Dagit's true Eagles fandom checks out, him being the only one in the crowd pictured with a jersey still raises questions about how so many Eagles fans could be in possession of so few jerseys, and this one wasn't even being worn.
Dagit said that in person, there was more Eagles representation than we've seen in images of the event.
"The people immediately next to our group had ties (more subtle I will say) and were from a close by town to where I went to high school," Dagit told Business Insider. He added that the invitation for the event specified business attire, which would certainly help explain the lack of more vibrant fandom in the crowd.
Still, a group of more than 1,000 fans with apparently just one jersey and a few Eagles ties amongst them certainly raises eyebrows among us Eagles fans.
Eagles fans climb poles that have been greased up with Crisco. Then, when the city upgrades its pole security from Crisco to hydraulic fluid, we climb those poles too. Eagles fans belt out our fight song when asked to "tone it down" on an airplane.
While Dagit and the group around him certainly give off the impression of full-fledged Eagles fans, and its not hard to imagine a few amongst the crowd like him that had made the trip from Pennsylvania for the day, the lack of Eagles jerseys still leaves some questions unanswered.
When explaining its decision to disinvite the Eagles, the White House claimed that the Eagles were taking part in a "political stunt" by backing out of the event. But to Eagles die-hards who have grown up surrounded by friends and family that bleed green, this doesn't look like a crowd of Eagles fans.