For Jake Beckman, a devout Eagles fan who lives in St. Louis, last week’s Monday Night Football loss against the Los Angeles Chargers was a low point.
Beckman was a little drunk. Jalen Hurts was having a bad night. The Eagles would go on to lose 22-19 in overtime with Hurts committing five turnovers, including a personal record of four interceptions and a fumble.
“You saw the game,” Beckman said. “It really sucked.”
Like many chronically online fans, Beckman, 34, turned to Facebook during his misery — something he regrets now.
“I posted, ‘Probably going to kill myself. I’ll let you know,’” he recalled. “It wasn’t a real threat. It was a ‘Be right back, gonna go brush my teeth with sandpaper, gargle with Diesel, and floss with razor wire’ kind of thing.”
Self-effacing jokes and coping humor are common within NFL fandom. So much so, there’s even merch that leans into the bit.
About an hour later, at 11:30 p.m. there was a knock at Beckman’s door. A uniformed police officer was standing on his front porch.
“Someone called in reference to your Facebook post,” the officer can be heard saying in now-viral doorbell camera footage Beckman posted online afterward.
“The Eagles lost, man,” Beckman can be heard saying. “I know,” the officer responds. “I’m fine,” Beckman said.
The officer makes sure: “You don’t plan on hurting yourself?”
Beckman tersely responds, rattling off stats about Hurts’ poor performance.
The officer confirms once more, thanks Beckman for his time, and tells him to take it easy as Beckman can be heard closing his front door. Beckman turned to Facebook once again to post about the experience.
As the officer walks away, the doorbell footage shows him letting out the tiniest smirk.
“The cop who was at my door was a certified dude, and I absolutely appreciate that he was empathetic to what I was going through,” Beckman said.
The video’s been watched 15 million times on Beckman’s Instagram alone, and has been shared and reshared across countless social media platforms, sports fan pages, and accounts.
Beckman, a stand-up comic and writer covering the Eagles and NFL for the sports blog FanSided, said that when multiple people asked him if someone actually called the police, it inspired him to check his Ring doorbell app for footage. The entire exchange was recorded. He showed his friends.
“Looking back, I kind of knew it was funny, but I was bummed out,” he said. “I didn’t completely grasp that I had just told a cop, who was at my house for a wellness check, that Jalen Hurts threw a bunch of picks.”
A friend told Beckman to send him the video so he could format it for social media and add subtitles.
“He said that’s the kind of thing that’d go mega-viral,” Beckman said. “Turns out, he was right.”
Since then, he’s been glued to his phone looking at the responses. The majority are fellow NFL enthusiasts who recognize Beckman’s humor all too well. A few passed judgment.
“The Eagles lost and the dogs are barking. This man is overstimulated to the max,” one comment said. “As an Eagles fan, this is a legitimate wellness check,” another wrote.
All in all, Beckman says the experience has been affirming.
“People say the internet is … super negative,” he said. “They’re probably right, but having my notifications full of people all being on the same page about the absurdity of some dummy who was bummed out and dismissive when a cop was doing a wellness check has been pretty cool.”
He acknowledged that his joke probably took things too far.
“After all of this, I think I have to say that you shouldn’t joke about suicide,” he said. “That’s not cool.”
Still, the fandom is serious business — especially for an away fan like Beckman.
“People around here don’t get it. On Feb. 13, my wife and I drove 14 hours straight from St. Louis to Philly for the parade,” he said. “People understood why I did it, but they didn’t get it. Sports mean something in St. Louis, but it doesn’t mean everything.”
All that to say, Beckman said he’ll be a bit more careful with his Facebook posts moving forward. It doesn’t hurt that the Eagles went on to dominate in a 31-0 win over the Las Vegas Raiders this weekend.
