Inman: What it'll be like for 49ers flying into Eagles' notorious nest

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Jan 28

PHILADELPHIA — Do you travel with the team?

It's a question folks ask often sportswriters, and the answer is no — except one memorable time for me in Philadelphia.

The convoy of 49ers' buses was lined up at the Market Street curb when a colleague and I stepped out of the hotel and into snowy, cold conditions near historic City Hall.

The last bus to Veterans Stadium was reserved for VIP guests — see: corporate sponsors — and allegedly the media, though none of the latter had taken that ride in my early years as a beat reporter.

This would be the day, rather than hail a cab in the elements or suddenly invent a ride-share app (before mobile phones had apps, about 20 years ago).

Surprisingly that last bus had other recognizable stowaways in a few players, who didn't seem to mind a reporter or two tagging along for a behind-the-scenes look into one of sports' ultimate stadium approaches.

Philly fans did not disappoint. As the 49ers buses slowed entering Lincoln Financial Field's parking lots, fans abandoned their tailgates to rush for the chain-link fences. They greeted the 49ers with a salute that, well, let's just say it resembled the moniker of the football team's mascot, a bird.

Players, behind the buses' blacked-out windows, howled with delight.

That scene repeated last season when the 49ers ventured back there. A group of fans welcomed them in the parking lot by dropping trou and showing their backsides, including a woman, to the dismay of at least one 49ers' staffer.

It's not a myth that Philadelphia possesses passionate fans, all the way down to Santa Claus getting booed and pelted with snowballs at a game 50 years ago. Under cloudy skies Sunday and a temperature as high as 50, there won't be snowballs to throw, unlike in 2009 when the 49ers kept on their helmets for sideline protection and their fans ducked for cover in the stands.

Ideally, there won't be a fan shooting off a flare gun, as one did in the brawl-filled stands during the 49ers' 1997 visit on Monday Night Football, which led to Philadelphia adding an on-site courtroom for future incidents.

The last time a Bay Area team came to town with a championship on the line was the 2010 San Francisco Giants' invasion for the National League Championship Series.

In Game 1, wolf whistles rang out at the baseball stadium across the street from the Eagles' home, with those playful taunts aimed at Tim Lincecum, a freakish pitcher with long hair, a free spirit, and a gutty team of underdogs behind him. Those Giants went into Philadelphia and knocked off ace Roy Halladay (see: Cody Rose home runs) to open the NLCS.

A week later, Bruce Bochy's band of misfits and standout bullpen won again in Philly, clinching a World Series trip that would end the Giants' title drought (dating to their 1958 move from New York).

Heck, before the Warriors came to the Bay Area and became a ring factory with Steph Curry, the franchise won its first NBA championship in 1956, when it called Philadelphia home and celebrated inside the Civic Center after finishing off the Fort Wayne Pistons.

"We know it's going to be loud," 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel said. "But no stadium is as loud as ours. They're at home in the NFC Championship. They're going to be all riled up. We don't feed too much into all that."

Visiting teams can win here. The 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 2003 Carolina Panthers won NFC crowns in Philadelphia. The Seattle Seahawks won in last year's wild-card round, four months after the 49ers jumped out to a 17-3 lead and settled for a 17-11 win in the home debut of Eagles first-year coach Nick Sirianni.

Right tackle Mike McGlinchey, a Philadelphia-area native, celebrated with a cheesesteak. "It is definitely a die-hard food there," he said, "but you just call it a cheesesteak. You don't need to put Philly on it because you're obviously there. … My personal favorite is Dalessandro's."

Yes, I've taken McGlinchey's recommendation and devoured Dalessandro's, nearly two decades after my first Philadelphia visit that included my Pat's-or-Geno's cheesesteak baptism, followed the next day by a memorable bus ride with the 49ers to their game.

This visit won't be easy, it won't be quiet, but it could be even more memorable.

"Philly is one of those places where those fans, they make a difference," left tackle Trent Williams, who visited annually in his decade with Washington's franchise. "They get under your skin. They yell at you. They don't stop.

"When you walk into there, they let you know that you're not welcome."

They also let you as you bus by them before storming the gates. Enjoy the commute, and the ballgame.