The Empire State Building, for many the embodiment of New York, does not understand its city well after all.
On Sunday night, the skyscraper attracted a large proportion of New Yorkers by being lit up in the colors of the Philadelphia Eagles, who had earlier advanced to the Super Bowl by defeating the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. The only standoff: The Eagles are fierce rivals of the New York Giants, whom Philadelphia crushed in the previous round of this year’s NFL playoffs.
Empire State’s tweet showing the lights in the Eagles’ green and white quickly trended on social media, with angry Giants fans wondering if the building’s official account had been hacked. Some wondered if the building would honor New York’s other NFL team, the Jets, who also play in green and white.
“Did you all lose the bet,” asked lead NFL journalist Mina Kimes on Twitter.
The Empire State regularly lights up in different colors to honor different causes, teams and organizations. The building’s calendar showed some time scheduled to light up in the colors of the winners of Sunday’s AFC and NFC Championship games.
The building has previously honored the Eagle. New Yorkers were outraged in 2018, when the Empire State was lit up in green and white after the Eagles won that year’s Super Bowl.