With their 15-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons, the Philadelphia Eagles punched their ticket to the NFC Championship game next week and are just one win away from the Super Bowl.
Because Joel Embiid is a man of the people and a near ubiquitous presence in Philadelphia, the talented Sixers center was in attendance at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday to cheer on his local team and join a few fans in a friendly game of touch football (or jackpot or some football game of some kind) at a tailgate party.
But that friendly game turned decidedly less congenial when a fan took the “touch” in touch football a little too seriously, at least as far as Embiid was concerned.
From the looks of it, the fan in question gave Embiid a slight nudge to get free for a pass, and Embiid had a seemingly disproportionate reaction by forcefully shoving the man to the ground. Granted, from a brief cell phone video, it’s hard to know the context and whether the man might have said or done something else to provoke Embiid, but either way, it’s not a good look for a 7’2, 250-pound human to give an aggressive shove to an averaged-sized person.
Embiid has built his brand in no small measure due to viral internet moments, but this will probably end up being one instance he wishes he could take back.
