Inside the Eagles’ Women’s Football Festival, featuring Jalen Hurts, Mike Quick, and a whole lot of fans

Whether you’re an aspiring football player or just a fan, there was something for you at the Eagles’ Women’s Football Festival. That was certainly the case for me, a retired high school athlete — and a massive football fan — who has never played a snap of football outside of my grandpa’s yard.

The Eagles have become one of the NFL’s leading organizations in cultivating female fans and local girls’ football. They have played a major role in the campaigns to develop and sanction girls’ flag football in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But this event, now in its seventh year, was for anyone interested in football or the Eagles. Fans as young as 15 months were joined by fans in their 70s as they came together Sunday to celebrate one of their collective favorite things — the Birds.

To get a better sense of just what takes place down at the Linc during this event, I went to go check it out. Here’s what happened …

Jalen Hurts was scheduled to open the program at 10 a.m., but the doors opened an hour earlier.

The Eagles’ drum line played everyone in, and a massive line of people waited to take photos with Swoop and some of the Eagles cheerleaders. Fans were already on the concourse getting their faces painted, reading “Go Birds” or with an Eagles logo or wing (like the one from the side of their helmets). Some also went to the team store, which for the first time sold specific Women’s Football Festival T-shirts.

The program got started. Based on a quick hand raise, it appeared about half of the women in attendance had been to the Women’s Football Festival before. Hurts took the stage to talk about the relationships he’s had with women in his life, both his family and his all-female agent team.

“Women are thrusted into positions to have to overcome this, overcome that, and they lack the respect that they deserve,” Hurts told the crowd, in sharp contrast to the commencement speech made by Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker earlier this month. “I’m here advocating for it, not only in football but in every situation. We all know the woman is the rock of everything.”

Jeremiah Trotter Sr. then took the stage to talk about the rise of women in the fan base. One woman behind me shouted, “No, we were here! Y’all just didn’t have this!”

Trotter then talked about his son, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., who was drafted by the Eagles in April. He still lives at home in Hainesport, N.J., and the elder Trotter said he likes to ask him where he’s headed to work, just so he can hear him say “for the Eagles.”

The crowd split up to participate in the various activities around Lincoln Financial Field. I took a lap to see what was up, and ran into two women having their own run-out-of-the-tunnel moment.

“How often do you get to do this?” said Lisa Babb, of Sellersville, Bucks County.

Babb and Melissa Cook met when they were 11 at summer camp in Chester County, and have matching midnight green Volkswagens. Cook moved to Fort Worth, Texas, 18 years ago, and has “GO BIRDS” as her license plate. She hasn’t gotten rear-ended yet — but she said people never let her merge on the freeway.

She traveled from Texas to come to the Women’s Football Festival, which the two friends attended for the first time 12 years ago, back when it was called the Women’s Academy and Babb was battling cancer. Now that Babb is cancer-free, they’re back to enjoy the festivities.

Inside the Eagles’ interview room, fans lined up for the opportunity to meet Mike Quick, the former Eagles All-Pro receiver and one of the team’s longtime radio announcers. The other, Merrill Reese, was scheduled to run the activity later in the afternoon.

A few fans took to the mic to try their own calls. One gave a spirited curse to the Cowboys before calling Sydney Brown’s 99-yard pick-six against the Cardinals, and another called a Dak Prescott interception with glee. Quick interjected with some advice: “This is a long one, you’ve got to let us feel it.”

Next, I took a trip to the Eagles’ locker room, where the Lombardi Trophy was prominently displayed in the center of the room.

Fans took photos at their favorite players’ lockers. That led to a massive line for Hurts’ locker, which was one of just three with a jersey and helmet in it — DeVonta Smith’s and Brandon Graham’s were the others. New running back Saquon Barkley’s was also a favorite.

Fans wore jerseys for a number of different players, new and old. The oldest jersey I saw was a Tommy McDonald, worn by Marilyn Dunham of Mount Laurel. McDonald was the first player she ever saw play, back at Franklin Field in 1960. Over the years, the jersey has been signed by more than 20 Eagles, including Harold Carmichael, Ron Jaworski, and Bill Bergey, and she was hoping to add Reese to that list Sunday. She and her friends and family had attended the Women’s Football Festival for a number of years, and called themselves Eagles groupies — she’d followed the team to London and Mexico, and plans on making the trip to Brazil for the season opener against the Packers.

It was also in the locker room where I met easily the best dressed person of the day — 15-month-old Molly McDonald, who came outfitted in a little eagle costume. Watch out, Swoop. She’s coming for your job soon.

I returned to the field, where fans were dancing, taking photos, and participating in football drills, led by the Philly Phantomz, a local women’s pro full-contact football team.

The drills had us working on footwork with cones and practice pads, working with tackling dummies, and trying to accurately throw a football. Cathy “Turtle” Lewis, a linebacker and running back who’s been with the Phantomz since their beginning in 2015, said some of the participants had real athletic talent and that maybe they needed to be on the recruiting trail.

Let’s just say, I don’t think they were talking about my shrimp arm. But a number of people of all ages participated in the various competitions, some who’d clearly come ready to work out — and others in tutus or skirts, just out there having a blast with their friends.

Meanwhile, on stage, Eagles players Jordan Mailata and Tanner McKee competed in a game of Pictionary, working with fans from the audience to draw football terms like 40-yard dash or referee. At one point, Mailata punted away his Sharpie after missing a term.

Graham and Ike Reese were the two signing autographs from noon to 1 p.m. Security gave a quick warning to the whole line, saying the players would each sign one item, and had cards to give away if you didn’t have an item, but no pictures were allowed. I sneaked in the side door, just to see the scene.

Graham and Reese quickly ignored the “no pictures” rule, posing for photos with everyone who asked.

“My wife always makes fun of the men who wait in long lines for autographs,” one of the security guards told me. “Now I can show her!”

One woman, who already had Graham’s signature on the No. 55 jersey she was wearing, asked him to sign her stomach.

I journeyed back down to the field level. I aimed to get into one of the film sessions with Nakobe Dean and Jordan Davis, but clearly that event was very popular — by the time I arrived, the line was out the door and no one else was getting let in. Fans who had purchased an extra VIP package were painting with Tra Thomas, who was doing his best Bob Ross impression. Up in the press box, you could play Eagles bingo.

I spent the rest of the event hanging around the stage, watching Mailata and McKee finish up their Pictionary game and then watching fans play Heads’ Up and Name That Tune with Brown, Dean, Fred Johnson, and new Eagles draft pick Jalyx Hunt. It felt virtually impossible to fight through the massive crowd to get chosen to participate, but the players frequently reached down to sign hats, shirts, and footballs for the fans not selected to come up on stage.

Coming into the festival, I expected most of the attendees to be kids or younger girls. There were definitely some there, but the overwhelming majority of the crowd was adult women who just love the Eagles. I even saw a small number of men and boys at the event, who looked to be having just as much fun as the women.

More than anything, the event was a celebration of all the people who make up the Eagles’ fan base. It felt more festival than football, with a number of people spending much of the event just hanging out on the field. And perhaps that was the main takeaway here. Whoever you are, however you watch, don’t be afraid to enjoy football on your own terms.