PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A jubilant Eagles fan took his celebration a little too literally, plummeting 25 feet to the ground while rejoicing in his team’s NFC title win.
Eyewitnesses said the fan, dressed in a green Eagles jersey and sporting a feathered hat, was perched on the top of a temporary pole erected in the middle of Broad Street in center city Philadelphia around 11 p.m. Sunday, mere hours after the Eagles defeated the Minnesota Vikings 38-7 to clinch the NFC East title and a spot in the upcoming NFC Championship game.
One witness reported that the excitable fan, identified as 25-year-old Brian Gannon, was doing a backflip off the top of the pole, chanting “E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!” at the top of his lungs, when he lost his balance and tumbled to the ground.
“It was like something out of a movie,” said John, a bystander who witnessed the incident. “I was laughing so hard, I thought I was going to cry. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Emergency responders rushed to the scene and treated Gannon for minor injuries, including bumps and bruises. Miraculously, he did not suffer any serious harm.
“I’m just a little shaken up, but I’m feeling great,” Gannon said in a statement to reporters. “I didn’t think I’d make it to the top of the pole, let alone do a backflip off of it. But, as an Eagles fan, you’ve got to go all out, right?”
Gannon’s harrowing tumble has since become an instant meme, with social media users across the country poking fun at his wild celebration. However, it appears that Gannon has taken it all in stride, even using the incident to raise money for a local children’s hospital and sporting goods charity.
“I’m just glad I could do something crazy and make people smile,” Gannon said. “And as for the hype surrounding my fall, I guess you could say I’m the ‘poles apart’ kind of guy.”