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The Philadelphia Eagles were forced to issue a statement on Monday after a series of political ads bearing the team’s name and logo popped up around the city.
The advertisements, which were placed on several bus stops across Philadelphia, suggested that the Eagles organization had endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed,” a team statement read.
City Of Philadelphia Responds To Counterfeit Eagles Political Endorsement
But as of Monday night, the ads remained in place and some fans from South Philadelphia even took matters into their own hands, taping copies of the team’s statement over the ads.
“A number of illegally placed posters of Kamala Harris and the Philadelphia Eagles were placed in bus shelters in Philadelphia. These were not digital ads placed by the Harris campaign, the Philadelphia EAGLES, SEPTA, The City of Philadelphia or the media agency, Intersection, that handles the transit ad space,” the city said in a statement to CBS News. “This was not a digital breach. Whomever is responsible for the illegally placed posters, broke into the securely covered shelter ad space and somehow put the posters in the space. Intersection has advised the City’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) that they plan to conduct a full inventory tomorrow of all bus shelters, and remove any illegal posters. The City has a process to review all bus shelter ads. But this, again, was not a digital ad.”
Some fans were unhappy with the alleged endorsement. While most others realized that there was no way they were real.
“The very dumbest people on this app actually thought the Eagles were endorsing a presidential candidate,” one fan wrote.
“Eagles backpedaling faster than their whole secondary,” said another.
The NFL and NFLPA jointly launched the “NFL Votes” program in 2020. But the program did not endorse any specific candidate.