The Empire State Building’s green lights for the Eagles had New Yorkers furious. It’s in an annual tradition.
This literally happens every year.
The Empire State Building turned green Sunday night, and it left some New Yorkers seeing red.
To commemorate the Eagles’ winning the NFC championship and heading to the Super Bowl, the building lit up in green and white.
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A tweet congratulating the Eagles and showing off the building’s temporary green hue sparked a tirade of angry, butt-hurt comments across social media.
New York’s Sanitation Department called it “treacherous, traitorous, and unforgivable.” New York City Council member Keith Powers said it was “absolutely ridiculous.” A parody tweet viewed more than a million times said an “angry mob” gathered outside the building decrying the green (it hadn’t). Dave Portnoy, founder of the popular bro sports blog Barstool Sports, said in a tweet that the gesture was “lame” and the building should be knocked down. The Empire State Building’s Twitter account clapped back, quote-tweeting Portnoy’s comments with a GIF of him crying.
But if any of the aghast tweeters had bothered to fact-check, they’d know that this happens annually (and they were upset about it in 2018, too).
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Every year since at least 2016, the Empire State Building has donned the colors of both the NFC and AFC championship winners, archives show. Empire State Building officials did not immediately respond to questions about exactly when the practice started. The plan to light up in the color schemes for each winning team was listed on the building’s publicly available light scheme calendar. Later Sunday night, after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, the building lit up in red and gold.
“That hurt us more than it hurt you,” the building’s Twitter account wrote. “We’re now lit for the @chiefs in honor of their AFC Championship Win.”
Still, the green lights outshined everything else — amassing 35 million views on the original tweet (compared with 2 million for the Chiefs’ red tweet). To be fair, it’s not every day locals’ NFC East rivals are the ones who win.
In response to the drama, the Giants’ official account tweeted a simple: “I’m just here for the comments.” Better luck next year, guys.
But there’s also more bad news: If the Eagles should win the Super Bowl, New Yorkers are going to have to see green lights on their beloved Empire State Building all over again. Because that’s an annual tradition, too.