NY Daily News Front Page Blasts Missanelli, Misses the Mark on Philadelphia (Shock!)

Oct 12, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz (80) is injured on the field as his teammates and players from the Philadelphia Eagles huddle around him during the third quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Personally, aside from the general annoyance of hearing about ‘Snowballs at Santa’ or throwing batteries during a game broadcast, I don’t really care too much about what people think about Philadelphia. I discuss sports with people from this city every single day and, though it is not without its fair share of stubborn ladies and gentlemen when it comes to following the four major teams, Philly has to possess some of the smartest, most loyal fans in the country. I have had significant exposure in almost every major market along the east coast and, for my money, there is nothing like being a Philadelphia sports fan.

The city’s relationship with the national media is a contentious one at best. Incidents that occurred generations ago have pigeonholed Philadelphia fans as a crude, volatile group and major coverage loves nothing more than to run back reminders of such ordeals. The catch-22 of living in a sports town is that, while you know that so much of what the national media says about your city is incorrect, no one wants to (or cares, frankly) provide the sort of real exposure that can reverse the type of narrative that has surrounded Philadelphia since I’ve been old enough to cheer for its teams.

Sunday night’s Eagles win over the Giants was as enjoyable as a regular season win can be, given the factors. Beating a division opponent in convincing fashion, doing it on primetime television, and knowing that there are two weeks of bliss and football nirvana ahead as the Eagles enter their bye week on a winning note. At the one point of the game in the second half where it appeared the Giants might be able to stage a rally, an unfortunate incident occurred that is never easy to watch as a football fan. When Victor Cruz went down in the endzone on a 4th and goal incompletion, it was easy to see right away how much pain the star wideout was in. Cruz had made his mark in the league roughly three years ago in Philadelphia with Nnamdi Asomugha playing the part of sacrificial lamb as a star was born. Here was Cruz, crumbled in pain on the ground with players from both teams knelt in prayer alongside him, realizing his season was probably over and months of arduous rehab lay in front of him.

Following the play, 975 The Fanatic host Mike Missanelli sent out a Tweet towards Giants fans poking fun towards, as he later described, Cruz’s depleted skills as a receiver. What Missanelli, allegedly, did not realize is what had happened after Eli Manning’s pass fell incomplete. According to Missanelli in a series of retraction Tweets, he had watched the play on a screen as he was heading to his car and did not realize Cruz was injured.

While the Twitterverse was getting on Mikey Miss for his thumbs-in-mouth moment, there was another narrative making the rounds about how the fans of a city, whose rival had just seen one of its stars come crashing to the ground, turned off the hate for a moment and gave Cruz the moment he deserved.

Cruz’s emotional cart ride into the tunnel was only amplified by the stirring ovation given to him by the Lincoln Financial Field crowd. There was no way of twisting the story on the air. It was as genuine a moment as one will find in sports and brought some brightness to an otherwise devastating moment for one of the league’s most exciting players.

Though the on-air presentation of the game left know loopholes to bring up the Philadelphia narrative, print is another story. When the newspapers hit the streets in the Big Apple Monday, Cruz’s injury was undoubtedly a focal point, minimizing the result of the actual game. It was impossible, however, for there not to be one outlet that wanted to drum up the Philly hate with how they saw how the incident occurred Sunday night. The New York Daily News front cover, in embarrassing fashion, stuck with the lazy route. For a city that boasts itself as the mecca of communication and news, to have one of their remaining newspapers run such shallow fodder as its cover tells me that they’re wearing the blinders as much as any other outlet that falls back on the old Philadelphia narrative.

The photo taken captures the excitement seconds after the Eagles had stopped a 4th and goal up against their own goal line. There was no shot of the hushed crowd not even a minute later as Cruz lay on the grass or the cheering crowd as he was carted off. Instead, by capturing a moment of blissful celebration as Cruz had just gone down after failing to make the catch provided the Daily News with the ammunition to lump in an entire Philadelphia fanbase with Missanelli’s misguided Tweet.

So after a week of high-level back-and-forth banter, a tremendous build up, and a crushing defeat to the team they cover, the New York Daily News decided to use Cruz’s injury for martyrdom’s sake in blasting the Philadelphia fanbase. All week, all I could think of was how cool it was that the Eagles-Giants rivalry was as fiery between the fans and players as its been in years. Now, just a day after, to have the whole game summed up with a narrative that has been tired since Clinton was in office leaves me feeling shortchanged as a sports fan.