November 20-26, 2003

city beat

Gale Warning

by Daryl Gale

Me, the Eagles and a Fellow Named Jack

It’s not a secret that Philly is a party town. So it’s no surprise that the good folks at Jack Daniel’s would come here looking for people willing to drink themselves delirious. Even less of a surprise is where they went looking: the Lincoln Financial Field’s parking lot.

The Jack Daniel’s Great American Tailgate Party rolled into town last Sunday morning in a 45-foot, $780,000 bus equipped with a dozen television sets and Jack Daniel’s on tap. Yes, on tap. Push a button on the tap next to the sink and out pours Old No. 7. It’s a beautiful thing, but I’m getting off the point.

The promotional team at Jack Daniel’s is looking for the most elaborate, most organized, most shamelessly outrageous display of parking lot debauchery in America.

They came to the right place.

"The criteria is pretty high," says Jack Daniel’s public relations spokesperson Heather MacDonald. "We’re not just looking for tailgaters, we’re looking for the most dedicated tailgaters in the country."

And how does Philly stack up against the drunken partiers elsewhere?

"You folks certainly have the most rabid fans here," MacDonald says. At that moment, two Giants fans walk by wearing blue jerseys, and get an unmerciful heckling from the Eagles faithful. "Go back to Jersey, asshole!" screams one. Another fan jumps into the pair’s path to show them the front of his T-shirt, which reads, "Giants Suck."

"These people really live and die with the Eagles," MacDonald says. "It’s a great atmosphere, and a really unique attitude."

At 9 o’clock Sunday morning, the kickoff against the despised New York Giants is still four hours away, but the party in the parking lots is already in full swing. There are green buses and vans everywhere, and literally hundreds of grills are already cooking burgers, ribs and sausages. One enterprising bunch brought a whole pig to roast; still others are deep-frying whole chickens and turkeys.

The drinking has started early too and is just as sophisticated. One group of guys has a bar set up, having dragged it here on a trailer. A real bar -- with three kegs of draft beer on tap, at least a dozen bottles of hard liquor on shelves, and bar stools. They brought in their own band, and several dummies of Giants’ players to burn in effigy. And these guys didn’t even win the Jack Daniel’s contest.

The winner was Bobby Cavanaugh, the guy with the whole pig and a large Jack Daniel’s banner at his campsite. All of Cavanaugh’s dishes, including the pig, contain generous amounts of Jack Daniel’s. For his efforts, Cavanaugh won a Jack Daniel’s barrelhead trophy festooned with barbeque tools, and a chance to go to the Super Bowl. If the Eagles go to the big dance in January, Cavanaugh and five of his buddies will be flown to Houston, given tickets to the game and all the Jack they can drink. If this tailgate party is any indication, that’s going to be a lot. The award was presented by Lynne Tolley, cookbook author, owner of a bed and breakfast in Lynchburg, Tenn., and great-grandniece of Mr. Daniel himself.

"You can use Jack Daniel’s in hundreds of everyday recipes," Tolley says in her honey-dripping Tennessee drawl. "In fact, any recipe that calls for vanilla extract, you can substitute Jack Daniel’s."

Local chef and restaurant owner Jack McDavid of Jack’s Firehouse is here too. He’s grilling chicken, which he liberally sprinkles with Jack Daniel’s every few minutes.

An interesting fact about the majority of the tailgaters, and one that MacDonald said is also uniquely Philadelphian, is that most of these people aren’t going to the game. Most of them brought their televisions and plan to watch the game from the parking lot. They’ve brought couches and lounge chairs, and will cheer on the Eagles from here. At most of the cities they stop in, according to MacDonald, the tailgaters have tickets to the game, and consider the pre-game party a warm-up activity for the game. Not here.

"Out here, I can drink and eat and cuss as much as I want," said one tailgater, already having well acquainted himself with Mr. Daniel’s product. "And there’s no line for the bathroom," he continued, pointing to the nearby column of port-o-potties.

By 12:30 p.m., the Jack Daniel’s tailgate winner decided, MacDonald, Tolley and the Jack Daniel’s team board the bus and begin packing up for the next city. Those tailgaters who have tickets drain their glasses and stumble toward the stadium, leaving their half-soused brethren to cheer from the parking lot.

As one partier throws up near a fence, his bleary-eyed buddy points to some lettering on the back of the Jack Daniel’s bus as it pulls away and cackles madly. It says, "Your friends at Jack Daniel’s remind you to drink responsibly."

Daryl Gale’s weekly radio show, Dialogues, with co-hosts Rotan Lee and Bill Miller, is burning up the airwaves Fridays 7-10 a.m. on WURD (900 AM) in Philadelphia.