If you are an Eagles Season Ticket holder, or a frequent visitor to Lincoln Financial Field during the NFL season, you’ve no doubt been present for one of Philadelphia’s Halftime banner-raising ceremonies. The Eagles have captured the NFC East Division Title ten times since the year 2000, and won the NFC Conference four times (1981, 2005, 2018, 2023.)
This year, the Eagles quietly hoisted the 2023 NFC Championship Banner with as much secrecy as the Jolly Roger in the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 prior to a public practice during Training Camp on August 6th.
If you attended the first Eagles home game of the season against the Minnesota Vikings staring to the heavens looking for the Banner Raising Celebration in the midst of every mobile device turning Lincoln Financial Field into a glowing green northern lights scene on steroids, you were not alone.
It has been an odd year for Eagles Merchandise.
It began after the Super Bowl loss when manufacturers and distributors had to dispose of a ton of Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Championship merchandise such as pallets of t-shirts, hats, and hoodies some being 24 pallets deep.
Organizations like Nonprofit Good360 a 503 © (3)stepped in to assist getting the merchandise to underserved areas around the globe. American and British film crews returned from remote filming locations in bewilderment after seeing merchandise claiming that the wrong team was 2023 Super Bowl Champions.
Then in the summer, the Eagles announced the return of the traditional Kelly Green as alternate uniforms for home games against the Dolphins and Bills in 2023. Fans flocked online to order the merchandise, harkening back to the Eagles days of old.
But there was a problem. For some fans, when the items arrived, the numbers were crooked. Fanatics quickly stopped shipments of the flawed merchandise, claiming a quality control issue.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in business — own your mistakes,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubins said, “Anytime we let any fan down, it’s a failure on our part and that’s on me.”
“Last year we sold nearly four million units of Eagles merchandise,” he continued. “That’s just Eagles products, which shows Philly fans truly are the greatest! That said, I let some of you down and I apologize. Even though this specific issue only affected a few dozen customers, it is still completely unacceptable that this mistake happened. One bad product and one unhappy customer is one too many.”
Fanatics has taken steps to contact each fan who received the crooked merchandise.
The Eagles have cruised through September as an undefeated 3–0 and are favored at home later today against the Washington Commanders. Their offense has not yet hit their stride.
So who cares that our merchandise is crooked?
Or that we missed a chance to party when our colours hit the rafters?
Now, where is that championship banner?
