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Monson: Path to the Super Bowl: ‘Insult my mother and chuck a beer at my forehead!’

Fans cheer during the first half of the NFL football NFC championship game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Fans behaving badly isn’t exactly breaking news, and a quick scan of the road to the Super Bowl indicates such behavior borders both sides of that boulevard, certainly in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, and in Boston, too.

In some corners, the love, the sportsmanship, isn’t brotherly at all.

The Patriots fans, Massholes that they are, aren’t angels, either.

I’ve attended football games in and around both of those towns, and in and around a hundred others, and let’s just put it this way — observing fan behavior is a fascinating psychological study.

A little over a week ago in this space, some of the outrageous expectations Minnesota Vikings fans had for some Philadelphia Eagles fans at the NFC championship game were examined, complete with warnings for Vikings fans to cover their colors at Lincoln Financial Field as a means of staying safe.

Wearing purple there was like hanging a sign around your neck that said: “Please insult my mother and chuck a beer at my forehead.”

That’s a pathetic state of affairs, when fans from one team cannot comfortably express their loyalty on account of a fear for their well-being. And while that concern might seem overblown, a kind of lazy stereotype, it wasn’t to Vikings fans who did have obscenities and debris — cans, bottles, trash — thrown at them at the Philly venue, and a few Vikings hats swiped and tossed into urinals.

Apparently, a 38-7 Eagles win and an invitation to the Super Bowl weren’t quite enough for some rowdies, who not only pelted visiting fans, but also hurled items at the Vikings team bus in the aftermath.

Vikings receiver Adam Thielen told TwinCities.com that the whole episode was a bad look for the NFL.

“Yeah, I think that’s kind of ridiculous for fans to be acting that way. You know, I guess it is what it is.”

Wait. What the hell is it?

What were those Vikings fans to that mob of volatile Philly fans?

Invaders? Enemies? Dogs?

With a sober, clear view, they were just sports fans wanting to support the team for which they root and watch a freaking football game.

Psychologists and cultural anthropologists have pointed out that modern sports in America — and in other countries, too; European soccer, anyone? — is a recent incarnation, or at least a representation, of battles between armies of city-states in ancient times. Sports teams represent those cities and those armies on the field, on the court, on the diamond, in a more civil way, attempting to show not only which team is superior, but also which community.

The mentality of some fans reflects to varying degrees the connection between individuals’ self-worth/self-esteem, and the identity they tie to a group of players they otherwise may not know or associate with, other than those players are wearing the jersey of the fans’ team.

Sometimes that connection is healthy and sometimes it’s plain stupid.

If the team is a winner, the fans are winners — although the fans, besides buying tickets and team gear and screaming their heads off, have little to do with the actual victory on the playing surface.

It’s all good, a fun and decent diversion, a distraction from real life — until it gets taken too far, until somebody gets hit on the nose with a bottle of Kenzinger.

Vikings quarterback Case Keenum told a Minneapolis radio station last week that his family needed protection at the game and that he was none too happy about those circumstances:

“It was tough. I’m not gonna tell you any stories. There were some situations that were not good. … I’m glad I had some of my friends there to intercede. It was tough on everyone, not just us on the field.”

We all get it. A pro football game isn’t exactly cotillion. It isn’t necessarily all polite and sweet-faced. But it shouldn’t be a prison fight, either. Paying customers, whichever team they root for, should never feel as though they could get hurt.

“Honestly, it’s just a game,” Thielen said. “You love when fans are passionate about their team and stuff like that. When it starts crossing the line, I think that’s …”

Ridiculous.

The irony to the story is that the Eagles will play this week in the Super Bowl in Minneapolis, a city whose favorite color, of course, is purple, where people are known to have strong feelings for their Vikings but also known to be generally and collectively polite.

Some Vikings fans want revenge on Eagles fans, calling for Uber drivers to take the visitors to locations they don’t want to go in and around the Twin Cities and other untoward actions, reactions.

An eye for an eye, a hucked beer for a hucked beer.

Having also been to football games in Minnesota, I doubt folks there will take much revenge. A few pranks might be pulled, but … the Super Bowl likely will be Minnesota Nice. The same way many of the folks in and around Philadelphia, a place close to my heart since that’s where I grew up, are warm and welcoming.

A number of Eagles fans, fed up with the behavior of some of their fellow fans, have contributed to charities in Minnesota, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer’s charity in particular, to apologize.

Turns out, there are other ways to show how great a city-state is beyond what happens on a football field.

Gordon Monson hosts “The Big Show” with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.