One of the worst mistakes a player can make is criticizing the home fans. Lane Johnson made that mistake this week and quickly apologized.
Johnson’s Philadelphia Eagles got thrashed at home by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 45-17 on Sunday to fall to 4-6 on the season. In comments to Philly Mag’s Josh Paunil Tuesday, Johnson said that the team’s struggles leads to fans turning on them, essentially wiping out their homefield advantage.
“If we get down by any significant amount of points or we don’t make any first downs, we’re going to get booed,” Johnson told Birds 24/7. “That’s just kind of how it is. It’s not really home field advantage playing here anymore. Really, that’s the truth. Cats here, they really don’t care.
“I’ve heard it so much since I’ve been here that it don’t really phase me like it used to. When I first got here though, I was like ‘Holy sh-t.'”
Johnson’s comments were obviously out of frustration. It’s widely known that Philly sports fans are among the most passionate in the country. One of the reasons they boo is because they care so much about their teams, so you can throw the notion that they “really don’t care” out the window.
It didn’t take long after his comments were publicized for Johnson to realize the error of his ways and apologize.
#EaglesNation pic.twitter.com/sG0DkS0eGW
— Lane Johnson (@Lanejohnson65) November 24, 2015
Johnson isn’t alone regarding his thoughts on Eagles fans — the difference is players usually wait til they’re off the team to criticize them. At least Johnson did recognize that it’s on him and his teammates to give the fans a reason to be supportive.
