Joe Lamberti/Courier Post-USA TODAY NETWORK
Eagles fans have an affinity for climbing light poles while celebrating a big win to the point where the city of Philadelphia has opted to grease them up as a preventative measure. It doesn’t sound like officials in New Orleans are planning on adopting the same strategy, but police have advised members of the Philly faithful to avoid doing so in The Big Easy due to “toppling” risks.
Philadelphia is far from the only city where (mostly) drunk sports fans make some questionable decisions after taking to the streets to bask in the glory of a victory, but it may be the only one that has repeatedly deployed crews of workers to grease up poles in the hopes of dissuading people from climbing them during the postgame festivities.
It’s a largely ineffective strategy that arguably only gives the city’s ambitious urban acrobats extra incentive to try to climb up the poles to prove a point, and we’ll have to wait and see if officials decide to harness that preventative measure once again before the Eagles face off against the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.
That game will take place at The Superdome in New Orleans, and the authorities there are already going out of their way to crack down on potential pole climbers ahead of The Big Game.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reached out to the New Orleans Police Department to, well, inquire about its approach to pole climbing when the Super Bowl arrives, and a spokesperson responded with a statement highlighting the citations offenders could receive for partaking in the activity as well as some other ramifications stemming from the age of that particular aspect of the infrastructure, saying:
“Regarding climbing street light poles, that is not only illegal (trespassing) but is unsafe as many of the street light poles in the French Quarter are quite old. Climbing on them risks toppling the light pole.”
We were already treated to a cautionary tale after an 18-year-old Eagles fan was placed on life support with the brain injury he suffered after falling from a pole in the wake of the team’s win over the Commanders in the NFC Championship, so here’s to hoping we can avoid any similarly tragic stories coming out of New Orleans.