Eagles fans were ready to party. They experienced ‘heartbreak’ instead.

Super Bowl LVII will likely be remembered as one of the most exciting, cardiac-challenging NFL title games ever played, but for Philadelphia sports fans it is more likely to be remembered as another exercise in heartbreak.

The Eagles lost a game they had dominated much of the way, and in the end, the defense was unable to put the Patrick Mahomes genie back in the bottle.

The poles were greased, the streets blocked off, the parade plans ready, but it wasn’t to be in 2023.

At Broad and Wharton Streets a dozen Philadelphia police officers held onto their bikes with no revelers to watch over.

Eagles fans spilled out of bars around 15th and Locust Streets just before 10:30 p.m. Most were silent. Some cried. Others mumbled about poor refereeing or simply screamed profanities as they headed for the subway or waited for Ubers.

After a brief silence from patrons as the clock ran out and the confetti floated on their television screens, the anger and heartbreak kicked in at Grumpy’s in South Philly.

» READ MORE: Fans, Lebron, enraged over late holding call

”Not happy,” was all Grumpy’s manager Keith D’Alfonso could muster as he paced with his arms locked above his head. He’d been hoping to hug his family after an Eagles win. Now, he could only join the chorus of expletives heard throughout the bar.

Fans were angry at the referees, angry at the football gods, but overall, Eagles fans appeared to take the defeat with a certain, perhaps surprising, equanimity, as if to show the nation that they weren’t quite the spoiled quasi-barbarians that outsiders think they are.

Some even gathered in the chilly rain on Broad Street to toast the team on an overall remarkable season.

“You’re always gonna have ups and downs any time you play this game,” philosophized Jamel Fanning, 40, of Southwest Philly. “We still got to support our team. We don’t drop support because they lost.”

Someone played “Don’t Stop Believing,” and the crowd sang along. Pole climbers were even sighted near City Hall.

Not that the mood in the city was remotely festive.

A whole lot of bitterness was directed at the officiating after a questionable holding call against the Eagles essentially sealed the game for the Chiefs as they were able to run down the clock and kick the winning field goal that was a kick in the gut to Eagles fans.

“Deciding a super bowl on THAT is embarrassing,” wrote Jamie Lynch, former host of 97.5 The Fanatic.

Rittenhouse Square resident Sush Shah, 30, one of the hundreds crammed into Xfinity Live at the stadium complex, remarked that along with the Eagles’ defense, the referees were a factor. “But here we are.”

“I’m just torturing myself,” said Ashton Crawford, 31, glumly staring at a TV screen at Reale’s Sports Bar & Grill on Frankford Avenue as grinning Chiefs players clutched the Lombardi Trophy. “I thought we had it. I thought we would be outside in the streets, celebrating.”

The ending on a dismal rainy evening was a counterpoint to the enthusiasm and optimism that fans have shown for the last two weeks and lasted at least through the first two quarters Sunday night.

David Bell, a former Delaware County resident now living in a Phoenix suburb, didn’t have to fly to Arizona for the Super Bowl this time around. It came to him.

Thousands of fans made the pilgrimage to Glendale, so that at times the Super Bowl sounded as if it were being played at the Linc during a wild first half. Meanwhile, Bell decided to head 2,300 miles in the other direction to get what he really wanted: to luxuriate in an authentic Eagles fan experience, unavailable in the arid lands of the Southwest.

» READ MORE: Eagles fans came to State Farm Stadium with smiles and left in anger

On Sunday night, 28 years after he moved away, he was back in Delaware County at his best friend’s house among about 15 “like-minded people,” ready to live and die with the fortunes of the team he never stopped rooting for.

As a cardiologist, he has some idea of what this can do to the heart of a true Eagles fan. And, as someone who has lived in four states, Bell affirms that, yes, the hearts and minds of Philly fans are different from those of their counterparts elsewhere in the nation.

At McGillin’s Olde Ale House, when the Eagles took the lead on a bomb from quarterback Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown, drinks were spilled in seats, a cowbell was rung and an Eagles chant rocked the house. Fans said they came to watch the game at McGillin’s to feel that Philly connection with other fans. ”The energy is tangible, it’s palpable, it rings through every part of your being, to the tips of your toes,” Stacey Smith said.

At Grumpy’s patrons broke out the kazoos to accompany their rendition of the fight song.

In Center City, the electric-green lights and TV screens flickered from apartment windows and businesses, the dreary, damp night punctuated with occasional screams along streets as empty as they’ve been since the stores closed on Christmas Eve.

People in bus shelters sat glued to their phones as passersby carrying to-go orders and dog walkers in green moved quickly, watching their screens for score updates and exchanging “Go Birds.”

» READ MORE: Patrick Mahomes delivered the game-winning drive

At McKenna’s Bar near Frankford and Cottman, the fans were in a celebratory mood even in the final minutes. Then came that kick in the gut.

“It’s heartbreak,” Mike Oberholtzer said.

Despite the loss, said Eric A. Zillmer, a neuropsychology professor at Drexel University, Eagles fans ultimately should be “grateful. Grateful for this incredible season, for the eye-opening performance of our quarterback ... for the incredible run in the playoffs, and for the two weeks of amazing positive vibes in our city.”

Mayor Jim Kenney concurred. “While the team fell just short of the ultimate goal, you brought us together and made every Philadelphian proud,” he said in a statement.

For many Eagles fans, however, gratitude may have to wait.

At McKenna’s, Alex Hathaway, 28, ruefully stabbed an Eagles pennant into a box of supermarket cookies.

He said he wasn’t ready to talk about the outcome of the game.

“Too soon,” he said. “It’s too fresh of a wound.”

Staff writers Kristen A. Graham, Erin McCarthy, Samantha Melamed, Jason Nark, and Vinny Vella contributed to this article.