Philadelphia fans, Eagles fans in particular, often get a lot of grief from the media about being out of control and awful. However, nothing is more out of control and awful these days than the Dallas Cowboys organization.
With the recent publication of a series of photographs of the ex-girlfriend of Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy from Deadspin causing wide spread outrage, some within the Philadelphia took matters into their own hands to make something positive come out of this whole mess.
To see the photos click on this link, but do so at your own discretion as these photos are graphic.
Philadelphia radio station 94WIP afternoon hosts Josh Innes, Hollis Thomas, and Spike Eskin were not only outraged by the photos, but also by the lack of attention given to the photos by the Dallas media. Fed up with this, and the constant bashing of Philadelphia fans, the crew decided that they were going to take action since the Dallas media was not going to.
So, they started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Genisis Women’s Shelter in Dallas. The page was originally going to be up for the duration of their show, but the hosts decided to keep it going until Monday afternoon at 2 pm, per the Entitle Books Blog. In the span of 90 minutes, they had raised over $5000 for the shelter. The latest count as of Sunday afternoon was $19,740.
Genesis Senior Director of Funds and Community Development Bianca Jackson, who coincidentally is a Temple University graduate, broke down while on the air with WIP on Friday after hearing how much money was raised in just a couple hours.
The WIP afternoon crew even tried to contact 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, but numerous attempts to reach them were unsuccessful. They were able to call them, but The Fan simply wouldn’t answer the call.
While Eagles fans were busy raising money for a women’s shelter, the Cowboys continued to support Hardy, who many people were outraged at the Cowboys for signing in the first place. The Dallas radio stations were noticeably mum on the situation. Instead, Dallas’ flagship station had NASCAR driver Danica Patrick on their show and made little to no mention of Greg Hardy.
What’s worse is Cowboys owner Jerry Jones continued support of Hardy, despite his conviction. Yes the case was dismissed after Hardy’s ex-girlfriend refused to testify against him, but that doesn’t do anything to change everyone’s perspective of Hardy – especially after Deadspin released the photos of his ex-girlfriend.
In fact, Jones and Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett called Hardy one of the team’s leaders after he smacked the clipboard out of the hands of the Cowboys’ special teams coach and yelled at teammates on the sideline.
Some would argue that Hardy did his time, but quite frankly missing 14 games in two years is not exactly doing time for somebody convicted of domestic violence. And yet, Hardy’s face will be plastered all over TV when the Eagles and Cowboys face off on Sunday Night Football.
At any rate, what’s important now, since it doesn’t appear that Greg Hardy will face any more discipline, is to stay positive and try to make something positive out of this. That’s what the afternoon crew at 94WIP did, and in a little over a day Eagles fans managed to raise nearly $20,000 for Genesis Women’s Shelter in Dallas.
There’s a reason they call Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Love, and it goes beyond the literal translation of the city’s name. Since Dallas seems to want to stay mum on the whole situation, Philadelphia decided to send some of their brotherly love down to Dallas and do something about this themselves.
Kudos to 94WIP and their afternoon crew, as well as the city of Philadelphia and Eagles fans everywhere.
(To contribute to the GoFundMe page, click here: https://www.gofundme.com/genesisshelter)