Insults and injury for Cowboys fans in Eagles country

Since Dallas fan Lorne Stinnett moved here from Texas five years ago, he's had trouble keeping his perspective and his property.

His car trailer hitch, which bore a Cowboys logo, was the first to go.

"That thing was broken off twice," said Stinnett, 46, who relocated from San Antonio to Valley Forge for work.

On a business flight from Philadelphia, another passenger stopped talking to him once he realized Stinnett was a Dallas fan. And if he steps outside wearing a Cowboys hat, forget it.

That's the reality for Dallas fans who through chance or choice are living in the Philadelphia region, where people despise their team - and by extension, them - above all else.

The dislike is particularly intense this week as the Eagles face the Cowboys in a Thanksgiving battle for NFC East supremacy.

Hate is such an ugly word. But in this case it fits.

"It's almost like you're born with it," said lifelong Eagles fan and Fire Fighters union official Mike Bresnan, who is passing the trait to his 7-year-old daughter.

"I told her to tell the nun at school, it's the only acceptable 'hate' in our house - the Dallas Cowboys."

The girl answered, "They told us we can't hate."

"Tell them your daddy said so," Bresnan advised.

Some local Cowboys fans keep a quiet allegiance. Others, like Craig Coles, 52, of Sicklerville, joyfully shove any Cowboys success in the faces of Eagles fans.

"They hate us because we think they're insignificant, that they're not on our level," he said. "We're chasing Pittsburgh, trying to get the sixth ring. Philly hasn't won a Super Bowl."

Coles has built a special place in his house for his pet team. Don't call it a Cowboys room. It's a Cowboys shrine, painted in Dallas blue, draped in Cowboys curtains, and hung with the jerseys of star players. Eagles fans are welcome to genuflect, he laughed, to pay homage to his team's Super Bowl wins.

Coles has found there's a price to be paid for donning his Dallas duds.

A long-distance trucker, he pulled into the Philadelphia Produce Market this week wearing a Cowboys sweatshirt, only to learn that, inexplicably, there would be a delay in loading his rig.

Other times he's discovered that his cargo - how could this have happened? - came up a little short.

Coles chose his Dallas allegiance by the means that most galls Eagles fans - popularity.

He grew up in Asbury Park, N.J., which in the 1960s meant TV broadcasts from New York City. He didn't care for the Giants or Jets. But he favored the Cowboys in Super Bowl V, a 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Colts. And he loved running back Duane Thomas.

He's stayed loyal.

But that doesn't mean he's crazy.

Last year, he wore neutral clothing to see Dallas play the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.

"When I sat down amongst the Philly fans, they're like, 'Are you Dallas or Philly?' I'm like, 'Um, Philly.' Every time Dallas scored, I had to cheer under my breath."

Kristina Calhoun, 27, a math teacher at Cedarbrook Middle School in Cheltenham, has come into class to find her Cowboys memorabilia mysteriously turned upside down.

Born and raised here, her Dallas devotion began when her father had her pick from among several small gumball-machine helmets. She chose the Cowboys, and has been a fan since, twice traveling to Dallas for games and even braving the Linc in blue and white - accompanied by her police-officer dad.

"I definitely get tortured, by my family and friends, and my students," she said. "A lot of kids will ask their parents on Sunday, 'Did the Cowboys win? Is Ms. Calhoun going to be happy tomorrow?' "

NFL Hall of Fame sportswriter Ray Didinger traces the hard feelings back to 1966, when Dallas ran up the score in beating the Eagles 56-7.

The next season, the Cowboys' Lee Roy Jordan hit Timmy Brown with a cheap shot, breaking his jaw. In 1971, the Eagles' Mel Tom knocked out quarterback Roger Staubach.

In 1987, Tom Landry stomped Buddy Ryan's strike-replacement players, and Ryan later retaliated by having his team score on the last play of a sure win. The two Bounty Bowls of 1989 stoked bad blood, as did the 1999 incident where Eagles fans cheered the sight of Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin injured and motionless on the field.

Sportswriter Chris Murray said it boils down to this: The Cowboys are pretty. The Eagles are gritty.

"Eagles fans hate the Cowboys because their fans talk a lot of trash," he said. "When you have these pretty boys from Texas in your face, flaunting championships, you tend to get jealous."

Retired teacher Edwin Roberts, 73, of Abington, has been called a traitor for his Texas allegiance.

But he came by it honestly. A Trinidadian runner who competed in the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, winning two bronze medals, he was friends with the sprinter Bob Hayes, and became a Dallas fan the day Hayes was drafted by the Cowboys.

Stinnett said that "when I tell them I'm from Texas, they still hate me, but they understand that it's my hometown team." Special loathing, he noted, is reserved for native Philadelphians who favor Dallas.

That includes Terry Johnson, 44, who grew up in West Philadelphia. A school-bus driver who lives in Upper Darby, he isn't sure what first made him like the Cowboys. His friends tell him it was bad parenting.

"You can't even really cheer for your team at work," Johnson said. "When they lose, everyone wants to find you. When they win, you can't say nothing."

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@JeffGammage