Eagles fan loses job at DEI company after misogynistic attack on Packers fan

A Philadelphia Eagles fan who hurled crude insults at a woman rooting for the visiting Green Bay Packers during Sunday’s wild-card playoff game lost his job this week at a New Jersey company that specializes in DEI -work because of his behavior, which was caught on a viral video.

The fan, whose name was not released by his former employer, BCT Partners, was also barred from future events at Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles’ home stadium, a person briefed on the matter told The New York Times.

In it videowhich was shared online early Monday by the woman’s fiance and viewed more than 31 million times on X, the fan repeatedly called her a vulgar name and swore at her during the Eagles’ 22-10 opening-round playoff victory. The man was sitting in the upper deck, one row behind the couple, who were both wearing Packers jerseys and live outside of Philadelphia.

The woman’s fiance, Alexander Basara, a podcaster who focuses on the Packers, asked Internet searchers to help him identify the man.

“What it’s like to go to Philly and just try to root for your team…” he wrote. “Unprovoked, unsolicited. Packers twitter, help me find this guy… it’s not okay, I hate that my fiancé made this happen just by cheering for his team.”

In one posts on social media late Tuesday, BCT Partners, which is based in East Brunswick, NJ, wrote that it had “decided to part ways” with the employee immediately after conducting an internal investigation into his actions during the game.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the conduct of our former employees,” the company wrote. “This individual’s behavior and language was vile, disgusting, unacceptable and appalling and has no place in our workplace and society. Such behavior is not who we are and what we stand for.”

Efforts to reach the fan involved in the incident via phone, email and text message Wednesday were not immediately successful.

On BCT Partners’ website, the company describes itself as minority-owned and “THEY masters,” the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion. The site states that the group’s corporate culture is guided by “the South African principle of Ubuntu, translated as ‘I am because we are’ or ‘humanity towards others’.”

The company offered an apology to the woman in the video and said it was committed to gender equality.

The woman and her fiance, Mr. Basara, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

In an interview on Tuesday, the woman and Mr. Bazaar NBC10 in Philadelphia that the man sitting behind them became increasingly confrontational towards the end of the third quarter and began insulting her appearance.

“I think he attacked me more because I’m a woman and I’m not going to punch him in the face or he didn’t feel threatened by me,” she said.

In a city known for being merciless to visiting sports fans – and where Santa once was strewn with snowballs at halftime during a 1968 Eagles game — the fans’ actions drew national attention.

It wasn’t the first time this season in the National Football League that a fan’s offense made headlines.

In December, a Detroit Lions fan had his season ticket revoked by the team after he got into a shouting match with Packers coach Matt LaFleur on the field before a game. The fans had been invited to help hold a giant American flag for the national anthem when he began taunting visiting players and coaches, including making a throat-cutting gesture.

Also in December, the family of an 8-year-old cancer survivor who attended a Buffalo Bills game said they had went early after the girl, a fan of the San Francisco 49ers, the visitors that night, had been pushed by a fan of the home team.

Kirsten Noyes the contribution of research.