Unless you have been living under a rock, you were most likely included in non exaggerated statistic of everyone in every corner of the United States of America either watching or at least knowing, that the Super Bowl was coming around; and, just like those times before, this round was a doozy. It was five-time veterans, the New England Patriots, vs. first-time newcomers, the Philadelphia Eagles. Both teams played extremely well throughout the season and it was a toss-up between the two teams. However, no one expected the Eagles to play the way that they did, let alone claim the championship with a 41-33 win over the Patriots. Philadelphia’s city hall was an adrenaline and joy-filled mad-house that was complete with firecrackers, flipping cars and hundreds of people flooding the streets. There were so many videos to show the excitement of the city, but I had the pleasure of interviewing Arleen Charles — my dear friend, roommate and witness to the whole atmosphere of what was going down in the City of Brotherly Love.
HC: To start off, my first, obvious question: Eagles or Patriots fan?
AC: Don’t care.
HC: Okay, why not?
AC: Because I’m not into football [laughs].
HC: We know that you went into Philly, but where exactly did you go for Super Bowl Sunday? Whose house did you go to and can you explain the atmosphere before the game started?
AC: I went to my sister’s place and she lives with her boyfriend. It was mostly my sister’s boyfriend’s family that attended. It was a little get-together with a little of our family and some of their friends. The atmosphere was anticipation and excitement. Everyone was looking forward to the game and it was mostly a huge party, which was fun.
HC: Was there food?
AC: There was a lot of food. There was food for days; in fact, it was funny. When we got there, my sister’s boyfriend was making food. As people were coming in, his family was BRINGING food. So, it started with five dishes and it ended up being at least ten to 11 different types of things that we can eat. It was a lot of food.
HC: Drinks, too?
AC: Yes. Lots of drinks.
HC: Alcohol?
AC: Lots of alcohol [laughs].
HC: What were your thoughts during the game? Other than not caring all that much, what were you thinking while it was happening?
AC: Interestingly enough, even though I don’t particularly like football, being in that type of atmosphere where everyone was chanting and screaming, you really get into it. So, I ended up rooting for the Eagles even though I’m not a particular Eagles fan. It was fun and it was something different. It’s almost like being at the game itself, but in a smaller, closer, environment.
HC: You’re chanting with everybody, everybody’s cheering on the Eagles and the Eagles win. How did you feel after it was over and they won? Explain the atmosphere at your sister’s boyfriend’s place.
AC: Well at first, I wasn’t sure that they were going to win. If you were watching the game, there were a couple of pauses when the Eagles had certain touchdowns, but when they actually got that last touchdown, it was a guarantee — it was game-over. So basically, we were just waiting for the clock to run out. When it did, you could pretty much say all hell broke loose. By the time that clock hit zero, people were already walking to City Hall. The streets were filled, people were in their cars, you could hear people yelling and stuff — it was wild. The whole family was yelling in the apartment building. It was a lot of excitement and a lot of joy.
HC: So there was a lot of joy inside the apartment, even MORE JOY when you went outside into the city to City Hall and you obviously saw the chaos of people celebrating the Eagles win. I heard it was wild, but explain what you saw and experienced.
AC: Whoo! Okay. Chaos is an understatement [laughs]. It was more like a big, uncontrolled party…at least that’s how I would say it. To start off, as we were starting to get into City Hall, it was pretty quiet and bare. But slowly, the closer we got, there would be more and more people in the street that you would see walking and not just in the street, you would see people in their cars. I think the people in their cars were the wildest out of everyone that entire time. There were people hanging outside their windows, sitting on top of their cars while they’re driving, coming out of the tops of their cars and some were even basically hitting the gas so hard so that they could get up out of their seats and just hang out the doors. Meanwhile, just yelling and waving without their hands on the steering wheel. That part was wild. People in the cars were super excited. There was dancing, twerking — especially if you had a truck— there was a hell of a lot of people in those. There were even people in the streets. One of the major sayings was “F-k Tom Brady” [laughs]. That was heard mostly over everything. People were breaking bottle glasses, liquor, they lit fires of Tom Brady’s jersey — that was entertaining. I’m pretty sure I saw more police officers on the street than I have ever seen in my entire life in that one day. And-
HC: And these cops were totally okay with them burning Tom Brady’s jersey?
AC: Well, what were they gonna do? There were people breaking signs, there were people climbing traffic lights, poles, climbing anything, really. People were just being wild. Honestly, I’m surprised people weren’t breaking into stores and stealing stuff at that point. They were lighting firecrackers in the street, people were doing a lot of wild stuff. Honestly, the police couldn’t really do anything. People were driving recklessly and they [the cops] weren’t doing anything. At this point, the best that they could do was just kind of stand there and at least make sure that no one pulled out a gun. But yeah, it was insane. Honestly, the citizens were making it so much harder for the police to do their jobs. Like there was a fire truck who was coming to set out a fire close to City Hall that was probably caused by one of the firecrackers and there were so many people in the street that the fire truck itself couldn’t get through. So it just repeatedly started honking over and over again to get people out of the way. Then as people were moving out of the way, there was still one guy in a wheelchair in the middle of the street blocking this fire truck’s pathway and nobody went to go move the guy! Thankfully, everybody finally noticed, but then the little wheelchair guy actually started moving himself. I guess it was one of those remote-ones, but I don’t know why he didn’t move in the first place. He was literally in front of that fire truck for a good minute before he started to move out of the way. All the people in the streets were definitely not making it easy for any type of security or fire truck, or emergency-type vehicles to get through.
HC: Just out of curiosity, what did you do when you went to the city?
AC: I walked, I screamed and I joined in on the excitement. My favorite part, actually, was when there was this one car and it had this huge speaker and it started playing the Meek Mill anthem [Dreams and Nightmares]. So many people crowded around this one car and was jumping up, screaming this song. I think the funniest part about it was that NO ONE, not one person, was in the street yelling “Free Meek Mill” that entire time [Meek Mill was recently sent back to jail for two-four years for a probation violation, which many people saw as harsh and unfair], but everyone was playing his song, over and over again, repeatedly. But no one was saying “Free Meek Mill” so, you know, clearly, that they didn’t give a f-k about him [laughs]…The Eagles definitely had priority.
HC: My last question for you is would you ever go through that experience again? If so, why?
AC: Oh yeah, I’m planning on the next Super Bowl. I’m just hoping it’s the Giants because New York? Whoo! So much more fun. But why would I go through that experience again? It’s just kind of a really fun high. All that excitement, all that love and relief is just really fun to be a part of. If you can really get into it and really appreciate why everyone’s acting the way that they are, it’s something that you would want to experience with something that you love.