PHILADELPHIA and GREEN BAY, WIS. — With a bird’s beak on his nose, a Philadelphia Eagles fan expressed his disdain for the opponent of the day by dragging a Jacksonville Jaguars helmet along the ground on a strap.
Nearly 1,000 miles northwest, green and yellow Green Bay Packers flags pierced the otherwise gloomy, rainy gray sky as the Wisconsin faithful replaced their signature cheesehead hats with ponchos and tried to stay dry under pop-up tents for their game with the Detroit Lions.
On Sunday, two days before the election, football took center stage for fans who also happen to be voters in two of the country’s most divided states that will determine control of the White House.
Over cheesesteaks and Yuengling beer in Philadelphia and an outrageous variety of sausages and Miller Lite cans in Green Bay, fans tried to quell their election anxiety for a few hours of tailgating and four quarters of football.
Watching the game in person allowed them to escape the nonstop attack ads that blanketed battleground states with increasing intensity for months leading up to Election Day on Tuesday.
“I’ve stopped watching TV, and it’s almost impossible to listen to the radio because you want to try to get a moment of peace, but you just can’t,” said Tim Ellsworth, 63, who lives in suburban Green Bay and tailgating across from Lambeau Field.
The retiree, who previously ran paper mills, is a supporter of former President Trump, but he is tired of the politics of politicians on both sides of the aisle.
‘It’s just who can lie more? You can’t believe anything from either side. It’s just sad on both sides,” he said.
A friend and fellow Packers-Trump fan he had been tailgating with since 10 a.m. unsteadily brandished a bottle of beer and showed a reporter rounds of spent shotgun shells before asking Ellsworth what Trump had lied about.
“It’s all over,” Ellsworth replied. ‘Absolutely. At the Senate level, down to the local, state level. They lie. So I’m just looking forward to Tuesday.”
Dave Schofield, who wore the eagle’s beak on his nose outside Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, said he fears Trump is ruining the election because “he can’t keep his mouth shut.”
“Some of the things he says are fine to say in a bar with your friends, but you don’t say those things out loud,” said Schofield, a 63-year-old chemical salesman.
But Schofield and his friends weren’t checking or scanning the latest polling averages on Sunday.
“Everyone is more concerned about the game these days,” said his friend Everett Terry, a 65-year-old police officer who had a “Trump Safety/Kamala Crime” sign on his truck. On Monday, he said, they can worry about politics again and then, like everyone else, wait for Tuesday’s results.
Despite the country’s political polarization, many people in these tailgate groups weren’t even sure who their football friends supported.
“We’re here to talk about the Eagles,” said Mike Warren, a 67-year-old supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris in the same tailgate group as Schofield and Terry.
Warren preferred to show off the green artwork on the van he bought with his brother this year, depicting LeSean McCoy and other Eagles legends making spectacular catches.
But underneath that, Warren is also scared.
Trump “will go against everything the rules say he should do,” said Warren, who works in human resources. “The majority says one thing: it disagrees. He finds a way around it. That’s what scares me.”
Steve Rostloch, a 41-year-old carpet installer from Mequon near Milwaukee, is a Harris supporter and said he expected her to win.
‘She’s a woman. Women always win,” he said. “I’m not voting for that idiot.”
But if Eagle and Packers fans shared anything, it’s the recognition that Trump and Harris remain neck and neck.
“I hope Trump wins, but I don’t know. This is difficult to say. I mean, it seems like it’s really close in so many places,” said Cyle Wanek, 42, outside Lambeau Field.
Wanek grew up so close to Lambeau that as a child he could hear the crowd roaring. His father registered the family for the season ticket lottery more than twenty years ago. Last year they finally got their season tickets.
Grilling cheddar wieners from Konop Meats near Stangelville – “Go there for meat!” Wanek advised: The aluminum foundry worker said he predicted the Packers would win by 20, but wasn’t sure who would prevail on Tuesday. (His prediction would prove as suspect as some polls.)
Camaraderie among fans of rival teams was also on display Sunday, albeit with a heavy dose of ribbing.
Mike Kleczka, 60, and his wife, Debbie, a nurse, grew up in Wisconsin. They live in Kansas, but said it was fun to get involved in politics for a few hours while running before the game with their daughter Rachel and her husband.
“That’s right, because we’ll get back to it tomorrow, right?” Kleczka, a direct marketer, said.
While the family largely agrees on politics, the biggest divide is sports. Rachel, 23, married Josh Forgie, 26, a Michigan native who wore a blue Lions jersey in the sea of ​​Packer green and yellow. They had some interesting conversations around the dinner table, chuckling.
“It was kind of easy to fool the Lions,” Kleczka said.
Forgie smiled as he shot back, “The five games we played you? We won.”
(This was a few hours before the Lions defeated the Packers again, 24-14.)
In Philadelphia and Green Bay, however, overt political expressions were rare
Tim Biegalski, a 26-year-old contractor from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, wore the closest thing to a political jersey: a green shirt with a “Hurts/Barkley ’24” logo. For the uninitiated, those are the team’s quarterback and running back, Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley.
He is voting for Trump after supporting President Biden four years ago and Trump in 2016, but calls this year’s election “a no-win situation.”
Biegalski hopes Trump wins. But unlike most fans who asked whether they would prefer a White House victory or a Super Bowl, Biegalski said if he had to choose — in a city so passionate about sports that it was home to the first NFL stadium to incorporate a prison. gut – he would rather have another Eagles championship.
“Super Bowl all day,” he said. “That will bring more joy than the elections.”
Bierman reported from Philadelphia, Mehta from Green Bay.
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