By Peter Gleason
Here’s how the New York Times describes the green light scandal:
In a nauseating hometown sight for Giants fans, the lights atop the Empire State Building turned green and white on Sunday night — and it was definitely not in honor of the Jets.
Instead, it was for the Giants’ hated rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, who won the N.F.C. championship on Sunday and advanced to the Super Bowl, just a week after knocking the Giants out of the playoffs in a humiliating blowout.
The light display really did not go over well.
The New York City Sanitation Department called it “treacherous, traitorous, and unforgivable.” Keith Powers, a City Council member who represents an area of Manhattan that includes the Empire State Building, deemed it “absolutely ridiculous.” The New York Post considered the news front-page-worthy, calling it an “off-color” mistake. The Daily News asked, “Where’s yer loyalty?!?”
“What on Earth… Let me close these blinds,” Julian Love, a player for the Giants, said on Twitter.
After about four hours of comments piling up on social media on Sunday, the building tweeted shortly after 10 p.m. that it was switching to red in honor of the Kansas City Chiefs, who had just won the A.F.C. championship. At long last, the nightmare was over.
“That hurt us more than it hurt you,” the building’s Twitter account said.
Fly @Eagles Fly! We’re going Green and White in honor of the Eagles NFC Championship Victory. pic.twitter.com/RNiwbCIkt7
— Empire State Building (@EmpireStateBldg) January 29, 2023
