Over the weekend, we told you about the Philly shock jock, Mike Missanelli, who embarrassingly gloated about Victor Cruz’s season-ending knee injury. Missanelli deleted his tweet and tried to backtrack, but even that was full of glaring inconsistencies. That kind of gutter-dwelling behavior is typical of a radio host who has made a name for himself by behaving badly.
The New York Daily News capitalized on Missanelli’s tweet by featuring it on its cover (pictured above) and aiming the crosshairs at all Eagles fans for celebrating Cruz’s injury under the headline “Philthy.” (Oh those clever headline writers.) Philly fans don’t exactly have the best image around the nation, but was it fair to lump them all together as heathens like Missanelli? It appears that’s not the case.
The Eagles employee featured on the cover was unfortunately lumped in to this controversy as the NYDN snapped a photo of him cheering as the Giants pass fell incomplete and Cruz went down. The employee called into Philly radio to set the record straight and say he was being unfairly depicted by the Daily News. Via CBS Philly…
“Angelo, I never call the radio,” Charlie told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Monday morning. “I just want to be clear. I don’t want to make it look bad for Philadelphia, especially me. I got to live with myself. It was fourth and two, which is an exciting play, the ball was overthrown and I just reacted like we just stopped them, so I was just cheering. As soon as I saw him [Cruz] hurt, we—everyone stopped cheering. I didn’t cheer for that. And honestly, if anyone in the Philadelphia media followed it, they’ll see me go down to my knee—not with the players, but I’m actually, I said a prayer for him as well. It was terrible. I would never do that.”
“I just wasn’t portrayed right,” Charlie confirmed to CBSPhilly.com. “I’m upset. It just stinks. My email, my texts. I have friends in New York. I have nothing against New York.”
Indeed, other images show Charlie kneeling while personnel were treating Cruz on the field.
@JimmyKempski @NYDailyNews here's a photo I took from my seat of the man taking a knee for Cruz. (bottom left corner) pic.twitter.com/6WUpV7v0H5
— Colin Kerrigan (@colinkerrigan) October 13, 2014
It’s hard to believe Missanelli when he says he wasn’t celebrating Cruz’s injury when he can’t get his story straight and has a history of inflammatory remarks.
On the other hand, this NYDN picture of an Eagles employee came a millisecond after a big play in the game. Could Charlie’s brain have possibly processed Cruz’s injury in that moment? Highly unlikely. For the Daily News to assume that he was also rejoicing over his rival’s shredded kneecap is a serious error in judgment. It cheaply gives away the mythical moral high ground the Daily News is trying to proclaim.
Missanelli’s tweet was outrageous enough on its own. But instead of focusing on that, the Daily News bit off more than they could chew by trying to paint everyone in Philadelphia with the same brush. It’s simply unfair, inaccurate, and unnecessary.