The Philadelphia Eagles clinched an NFC wild card berth with Sunday's 20-16 win over the Washington Football Team and a little help from around the NFL. They'll be lucky to have Jalen Hurts suiting up at quarterback after a terrifying incident that happened as he left the field yesterday.
Hurts was leaving the field to head to the visiting locker room at FedExField when a guardrail near the tunnel collapsed under the weight of fans reaching out to give the quarterback a high five.
The most frightening angle was captured on the cellphone of one of the fans who crashed to the ground.
Andrew Collins, an Eagles fan from Brooklawn, New Jersey, told 6ABC the incident got him much closer to Hurts (in multiple senses) than he had bargained for on Sunday.
"It totally caught everybody off guard. I wasn't expecting the thing to break, but it doesn't surprise me that it did," Collins said. "I was trying to give Hurts a high five. I thought I gave him a high five - next thing I know, I look up and he's on top of me, pulling me up, giving me a hug."
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Hurts stuck around to make sure that there were no serious injuries and addressed the situation during his post-game press conference.
"I’m just happy everybody is safe from it," Hurts said. "It is crazy. It is crazy stuff right there. That was a really dangerous situation. I’m just so happy that everybody bounced back from it. Passionate Eagles fans. I love it."
A spokesperson for the Washington Football Team told the Washington Post that the area where the railing collapsed is the stadium's ADA-accessible section. It's supposed to be able to withstand up to six wheelchairs and companions, but was not built to sustain the weight of fans leaning against it.
“To our knowledge, everyone involved was offered onsite medical evaluation and left the stadium of their own accord. We’re very glad no one appears to have been seriously injured," the team said. "The safety of our fans and guests is of the utmost importance and we are looking into what occurred.”
FedExField, which opened in 1997, has been a mess this season and also has shown signs of disrepair during other games.
During the Football Team's home opener against the Los Angeles Chargers in September, a pipe burst in an upper section of the stadium and showered fans with what the team claimed was rainwater from a storage tank. The fans were moved to a suite for the rest of the game.
In another incident, the sprinkler system inside a suite went off during the team's week 12 "Monday Night Football" matchup against the Seattle Seahawks.
Even the steam system the team uses during player introductions malfunctioned and obscured their entrance due to overly humid conditions.
The Football Team, who were eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday, have had a rough go in recent years after becoming the center of an NFL investigation into pervasive misconduct at the management level.
It's reassuring that Jalen Hurts and the fans who fell were not seriously injured, but the Eagles were a few inches away from what might have been a complete disaster.
Fans reacted to Sunday's incident with a mix of relief and ridicule.