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San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel has boldly decided to give bulletin board material to the Philly faithful who will be in the stands for Sunday’s NFC Championship game.
Speaking to the media ahead of Sunday’s highly-anticipated title match, Samuel — who caught 56 balls for 632 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for another 232 yards and 3 touchdowns in 13 games this season — said that Philly is no louder than San Fran.
“We know it’s going to be loud, but no stadium is as loud as ours at the end of the day. They’re at home, NFC Championship. They’re going to be all riled up. We don’t really too much feed into all that because we put the pads on and just go to work,” Samuel told reporters.
I was raised in New Jersey, which is equal parts a New York City state and equal parts a Philly state. And while the cities have their similarities, they also have their differences.
While the personality types are largely the same, the relative size of Phily compared to NYC (1.5M people vs. 8.5M) means that their energy and essence are far more concentrated.
In the New York area, there are: two baseball teams, two basketball teams, two football teams, three hockey teams (if you count the Devils), and two soccer teams. In Philly, on the other hand, there is but one of each, which ultimately makes the fan bases of those teams more passionate.
This is all to say that, despite being a New York guy, I admire the sports fan culture of Philadelphia as it feels far more small-town passion as opposed to big-city passing interest, and that if I were Deebo Samuel, I’d be careful about poking that bear.
Heading into Sunday’s match-up, MVP candidate Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles are currently favored by 2.5 over Deebo Samuel, Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate Brock Purdy, and the San Francisco 49ers.