It’s no secret that there’s some genuine hatred among some fans involved in the New York Rangers-Philadelphia Flyers rivalry, but rarely does it get as stomach-churning as it did outside Geno’s Steaks on Jan. 2. The Philadelphia Police Department is on the lookout for several Flyers fans who savagely attacked Rangers fans outside of the famous eatery.
In fact, there’s actually low-quality video of the brutal attack, which you can see below via Broadstreet Hockey/Barstool Sports. (Warning: there’s some truly disturbing violence in this footage, so beware.)
The Newark Star-Ledger’s Tom Haydon reports that one of the Rangers fans was an off-duty police officer from Woodbridge, N. J.
This situation was ugly and strange enough based on the video alone, but it took another odd twist when someone (sort of?) came forward as a guilty party on Broadstreet Hockey’s Facebook page. As usual with these situations, the person in question went from inexplicably boasting about the crime to backtracking then finally deleting whatever he could in the process. (You can follow the bizarre and disturbing series of events here.)
It’s incidents like these that make sports fans - not just ones from Philly - look really bad. Wearing an opposing team’s jersey in “enemy territory” should be a question of personal style, not a major gamble for your safety.