Philadelphia Eagles fans are under a national microscope after one of their own, Ryan Caldwell, was seen verbally assaulting a female Green Bay Packers fan in viral footage at a playoff game last Sunday.

But the fanbase’s history of abuse against women on the opposite side goes back much further than that.

Former Dallas Cowboys player DeMarcus Ware, who played a game in Philadelphia every year during his Dallas career from 2005 to 2013, told Pakinomist Digital that he once had to witness Eagles fans throw dangerous projectiles at his mother , Brenda Ann Ware, during a game his rookie year in 2005.

“My rookie season, when my mom was in the stands, I told her not to wear my jersey, and she was in the front row, and was up there in Philly, they were putting batteries in snowballs and throwing them, and one of the ​​those hit my mom,” Ware said.

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Watching his mother get caught in a snow-covered battery almost made Ware abandon his football duties and run into the stands to start a game.

“I turned around at that point and I didn’t care about football anymore. I wanted to pick up the guy that was in the stands. But I didn’t,” Ware said.

The linebacker held back so team safety could attend to the fan who injured his mother. But he let the memory of the incident stick in his mind and motivate him every time he took the field against the Eagles.

The Cowboys beat the Eagles 21-20 in that 2005 game in Philadelphia to sweep the season series.

In 17 career games against the Eagles, Ware totaled 16 sacks. The Cowboys went 9-8 against their rivals in the games that Ware played.

Ware had his most vengeful stretch against the Eagles in 2011. In January of that year, he had three sacks in Philadelphia in the 2010 season finale to help seal a 14–13 victory. The following season, in an October game at Philadelphia, he had four sacks, the most ever in a game against the archrival. He had two more sacks in the second meeting against the Eagles that year in December in Dallas.

But despite nearly a decade of animosity toward Eagle fans for what they did to his mother, he still respects the will of the fan base. The franchise’s former home, Veterans Stadium, had an on-site court and jail cells to deal with delinquent fans, which is not something Ware takes lightly.

“Philadelphia Eagles fans, they are very, very strong-willed fans,” he said.

“When you have a prison at the bottom of the stadium then, when you are able to go to prison because you perform, even from that point, every single time we played it was a rivalry game, if it was up there or at home. And their fans, they travel well, they’re just tenacious, and that’s just who they are.”

Caldwell’s latest viral video has revived certain stereotypes of the fan base as the team contends for a Super Bowl this season.

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January 12, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Eagles fans during a game against the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field. (Eric Hartline-Imagn Images)

The footage shows Caldwell calling nearby Packers fans vulgar and sexist names while taunting the man accompanying her with explicit gestures.

Caldwell has since been fired from his job as a project manager at NJ-based firm BCT Partners. He has apologized but also defended himself, insisting his actions “were not without provocation” and that the viral video “doesn’t show the full context” of what happened.

Still, Caldwell’s violent behavior is just the latest in a long history of unruly and at times illegal behavior by the fan base over the years.

In 1997, during a Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers, a mischievous Eagles fan fired a flare gun into the stands filled with other fans, endangering several lives.

After the flare was shot, several fistfights broke out around the stadium, with most of the violence directed at 49ers fans by Eagles fans.

“There was a large number of fights and intimidation, many directed at fans wearing 49ers jerseys,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote at the time.

After the game, Eagles owner Jeffrie Lurie was forced to denounce his own fans.

“Despite the fact that we feel we’ve made significant progress in recent years in terms of fan behavior at Veterans Stadium, what we saw last Monday was undoubtedly a step backwards,” Lurie told reporters at the time.

In 2018, an Eagles fan was arrested during the NFC divisional playoff game against the Falcons for punching the horse of a Philadelphia police officer.

According to a police report at the time, one man was ejected because “he was intoxicated and did not have a ticket.” After he was ejected from Lincoln Stadium, the man walked toward a police officer who was mounted on a horse and “began hitting the horse in the face, neck and shoulder area.”

Philadelphia Eagles fans climb poles after taking to the streets. (Pakinomist Digital)

After the Eagles won the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots that year, several violent riots broke out around the city. Looting and destruction was reported at several convenience stores and a local Macy’s department store. Cars were overturned, traffic lights and lampposts were torn down, and there were even unconfirmed reports of explosions.

One of the most famous examples of unruly Eagles fan behavior occurred way back in 1968, when a man dressed as Santa took the field. He was booed relentlessly by fans upset by a disappointing season, and like Ware’s mother, he was even hit with snowballs.

But it didn’t stop at snowballs as he was also hit with beer cans and even sandwiches.