Watering hole favors Eagles fans. Patriots faithful root elsewhere ‘for their safety’

Most Sundays out of the year, fans of the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots are good old chums at Slim’s Place in Anna Maria.

Faithful followers of both East Coast football teams frequently share in their revelry during the NFL season.

Not this Sunday. Not this year.

At Slim’s, which has been set up as a traditional Philly sports bar, they were only pickin’ the Eagles.

For Patriots fans who happened to show up before the big game, it was time to go long before the coin toss.

Anna Maria Island residents and New England Patriots fans Jack and Debbie Connors, who are regulars at Slim’s Place, watched the epic battle at home Sunday.

The couple were told the bar was going to be all green for the Super Bowl.

“The owners here are great,” Jack Connors said, enjoying a few final cold beverages at Slim’s Sunday afternoon before leaving with his Patriots-rooting spouse. “We come here every Sunday. But they asked us to leave for today’s game.”

“But this time Philadelphia is in it, so we are going home,” Debbie Connors said with a smile.

Slim’s Place owner Chris Smargisso explained it thusly: “We have a bunch of Patriots fans are we are happy to share the bar with them usually. But we had to kick them out for this game. We’re not allowing them in, which is kind of funny, but it’s for their own safety.”

It wasn’t that Smargisso was being mean. He just wants to keep his Patriots friends in good health.

Like the 100 other Eagles fans watching the Super Bowl at Slim’s Place Sunday night, Smargisso described himself as wound up pretty tightly for this game.

“I have been an Eagles fan my whole life,” said Smargisso, who grew up on Ashford Street in southwest Philly. “The last time the Eagles won the championship was 1960 (prior to the Super Bowl era), and so I am chomping at the bit man. I’m going crazy.”

In their history, the Eagles have made two prior Super Bowl appearances and lost them both. Their last appearance was 13 years ago when they lost to the Patriots 24-21. Since that time, the Patriots have won two Super Bowls and are going for the sixth in the team’s history.

It can’t happen again, Smargisso said.

‘Do your job!’

Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick was a couple of thousand miles away in Minnesota on Sunday, but the Connors were upholding his credo — “Do your job” — as they held down their two bar stools at Slim’s Place as they concluded their pregame warmups.

The couple said they wouldn’t challenge Smargisso’s request to clear out. They didn’t want to be anywhere close if that fuse on every Eagles fan did go bang.

Asked how Eagles and Patriots fans are different, Debbie Connors said, “Patriots fans aren’t as violent as Eagles fans. Eagles fans are pretty rough. But both fans are loyal.”

“We don’t talk trash,” Jack Connors added. “We don’t give ammunition to the other team before a game. As Belichick says, just ‘Do your job.’”

This story was originally published February 4, 2018 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Watering hole favors Eagles fans. Patriots faithful root elsewhere ‘for their safety’."