Pugh feels no love for Philly fans
Once a diehard Eagles fan, Justin Pugh now has disdain for the city he calls home. And there’s good reason for his change of heart.
As Pugh tells it, the Giants offensive lineman was once at a charity event near Philadelphia benefiting the Autism Cares Foundation. Pugh was auctioning off one of his Big Blue jerseys, hoping to make some money for a good cause. Instead, he garnered an unexpected reaction.
“I had this chick booing me, coming up to the table saying, ‘You suck!’ And I’m like, ‘We’re at a charity event!’” Pugh told the Daily News on Wednesday. “They’re so ruthless down there.”
That’s just one example of the backlash Pugh has dealt with in Philly since the Giants drafted him in the first round of the 2013 draft out of Syracuse. Pugh was born and raised in Newtown, Pennsylvania and attended high school at Council Rock South, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia.
“I just don’t like Philly, to be honest,” Pugh said. “Every time I go back there, I don’t get treated right.”
Pugh said he’ll go out to dinner with his mother when he’s back in Pennsylvania, only to hear Eagles chants directed at him from fans in the restaurant. He experiences similarly obnoxious behavior from Eagles fans when he’s at his beach house in Sea Isle City, New Jersey.
But Pugh knows he was once in their shoes.
“I was that kid. I can say that personally because I was that 18-year-old kid that thought he was big, bad, tough, I’ll come wherever wearing my Philly jersey,” Pugh said with a chuckle. “And now I don’t like that kid that I was. Now that kid’s booing me when I come home.”
Pugh believes the Philly-fan persona is an act.
“They try to live up to that, and kids, like when I was 18 years old, you wanted to be like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re Philly fans. We’re ruthless,’” Pugh said. “But they’re harmless.”
Pugh traces the origins of his Philly flipflop to his first game at Lincoln Financial Field as a rookie in 2014. Pugh started at right tackle and had what he called “the worst game of my career.” Pugh says he let up five sacks, and the Giants lost, 27-0, in primetime on Sunday Night Football.
“I’m in my hometown. I was all jacked up. And that was something that was embarrassing to me,” Pugh told the News of the performance. “I was questioning if I could even play in the NFL after that. Like, can I even play at this level? So that was probably one of the worst times in my career. And it was handed to me by the team I grew up watching. So that’s probably part of the reason why I dislike them even more.”