Glorious Bootleg Shirts of Philly

yeah, a lot of em are vulgar

In an earlier post, I described getting yoinked into the basement cop shop of Giants Stadium for selling bootleg t-shirts to ungrateful Jets fans in the parking lot.

Over the years, I’ve bought a lot of bootleg shirts, some of them outside of the cluster of stadiums in South Philadelphia (where I was once called a “fucking dweeb” by a drunk woman for not being patriotic enough at halftime of an Eagles game before she passed out in her seat). So I was delighted to see that Philly native and sports journalist Dan McQuade was showing off over one hundred bootleg Eagles shirts he’s collected dating back 40-ish years at an actual IRL event.

Of course, nowadays, a “meme” travels faster. But for many years, sports fans relied on analog solutions, dispatched (cash only) around stadiums, gas stations, or bars and restaurants to convey their sentiments. On second thought, the meme or solution didn’t necessarily have to be an object at all. Perhaps it was something as simple as a descriptive and foul chant going “viral” in the stands. Something in the moment, that you really couldn’t replicate anywhere except the actual game. But for those of us who crave a unique totem — often falling well outside of the boundaries of the team’s image, good taste, or what’s even legal—there are bootleg t-shirts.

Unlicensed. Made by fans. Aspiring artists. People with grudges. Hilarious people. Corny people. Bizarre people. Often associating or intertwining a moment in culture, or a copyright-infringement with the successes or problems of their team, rival, or a favorite player or hated opponent. Or just a depiction of pissing. Bootleg shirts are a way to communicate your fandom. When legit merch isn’t good enough. Doesn’t say the right thing. Is generic as hell. Or not passionate enough. You need a shirt that might never be “on sale” again.

Enjoy ‘em, and check out the interview with Dan, below.

You grew up here.

I grew up in far northeast Philadelphia. I've lived here my whole life, despite making several attempts to escape. This is the only place I want to live.

What percentage of this collection did you get onsite outside of the stadiums?

Maybe half to 60% are my own purchases. I do some haggling. Sometimes I wait until an event is over. I got a lot of shirts at the end of the Eagles Super Bowl parade, when guys were just trying to unload the rest of their stash. And then the other stuff I sourced from vintage guys in the area, eBay, thrift stores, and apps where you can buy and sell clothes. There's also a lot of good vintage people on Instagram. A lot of the vintage guys here in Philly are great. And they began looking out for me.

At what point did you think, “I should show this stuff off?”

To people? So, for a long time I did a column covering the T-shirts on the Wildwood Boardwalk in New Jersey every year. And I didn't buy those. I just walked by, took photos and video, and then would write about it. I discovered it was something I was interested in.

And once I had some of these shirts, just from years of going to Eagles games, I was like, oh, this could be a thing. I don't have any connections to art galleries or anything. I started doing this in earnest, maybe like a year and a half ago. I started trying to sort everything I had, and I just realized, oh, maybe this can actually happen. Maybe I can find a space for it.

The real reason why I did this is so my wife would accept my pack rat tendencies, and I guess I succeeded. Now I need to figure out how to keep these without angering her too much. I also collect Penn Relays t-shirts, both bootleg and licensed ones. What's great about that is I believe I'm the only person who does that. I hope it’s the next thing I get to exhibit. But we'll see.

I'm very interested in fan art that people make for the Eagles in general. Not just the stuff that's sold outside the stadiums, but things that artists make or the things that people just make for themselves. I love when stores do their own Eagles. I don't have any of those in this exhibit.

Like Wawa?

Wawa doesn't make them, but I have a Wawa Eagles shirt that a bootlegger made.

example:

Is now your favorite era of the Eagles? Does your fandom continue to grow?

No. I mean, it's never going to be like when I was a kid. I'm not a kid anymore. I've been a sports writer since I was 17. I'm 40 now. So I'm dead inside for sports in some ways because of my job. But obviously I'm still an Eagles fan. I still yell at the TV. I do think the memories that are best are from when I was a kid. But you know what? You my favorite memories of watching the Eagles really do span different eras.

When I was a kid, my dad and I went to this game at the VET, a playoff game where the Eagles played the Lions, and the Lions’ Lomas Brown guaranteed victory.

It was one of the most amazing games I've ever been to. And then I think of watching the NFC Championship in the year they won the Super Bowl in my old apartment with my wife and some of our friends and some people there weren't football people, and the Eagles ran a flea flicker. Me and this other guy were demonstrating to them what a flea flicker was. And so these are the things that I still really love about sports.

And sometimes those games are losses.

I went to a Phillies game once in high school with friends where the Reds set the record for most home runs ever hit in a National League game. They beat the Phillies 22-3. We had a blast in the 700 level. There was nobody there. We were playing tag. We were 17, we were well past tag ages, but it was just, it felt like being nine or something.

Was the 700 level at the Vet really as dangerous as the myth suggests?

I never had any issues. I was also a kid for most of it. The Vet closed when I was 21. I think a lot of people were out of control there. These are the same people in the new stadium for the most part now. There was a game at the Vet where someone fired a bottle rocket across the stands, but I think a lot of that stuff is overblown.

I do think that people get drunk and they get really angry and really rude. But I would say most people are there to have a good time and be friendly to other people. And lots of other people are not, it's not insignificant thing. But I don't know. As the Vet gets further and further into the past, stories get embellished.

At the barbershop, the person ahead of me and the hairdresser were talking about the time they threw snowballs at Santa Claus. And the hairdresser said they threw batteries at Santa Claus. And then the other guy said, “Well, yeah, he deserved it. He was a meth addict.” And I was like, “Hey, I'm a sports writer. None of that is true. You're way off.”

How would they know the Vet Santa was a meth addict?

It was funny. He was a bad Santa pulled from the stands. They had just won two meaningless games at the end of the season. And so the Eagles were missing out on drafting OJ Simpson. So the fans were pissed off.

I've seen recently where shit is being thrown in Philly

There's a couple of famous ones where [points at stage where CityPigeons podcast happening] Jesse Rendell, his father threw a snowball at the Vet during a game before he was mayor.

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There are shirts that I did not show tonight. I feel like I'm going to show the real offensive ones at some point. There are shirts that are gay jokes:

Dallas Sucks. TO Swallows.

Romo’s a homo.

Not good. But there’s one that says: Dallas Sucks, TO Swallows Pills. (It was created when) he had accidentally overdosed the week before. So I was like, “Oh, this is rough.” And then I wondered what signs fans brought to the game. So I looked on the wire archive and saw photos of so many signs saying “We're sad that you didn't die.” And I was like, this is what people should talk about. This is one of the worst things I've ever seen. This is what people should be focusing on. Of it, even if some of it is kind of gross.

If you enjoyed this post, you must:

And you are legally obligated to read David Berman x Football

Our survey of fucked up 1981 Topps NFL Cards

And the Al Pacino thing