PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nestled in the eye of South Philadelphia, just about a dozen blocks from where Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and the Eagles play each weekend, sits a corner bar that's stuffed on game days with locals who have backed this year’s Super Bowl team for decades.
Just not the team you might be thinking of.
The banner that often hangs outside on the brick wall of Big Charlie's Saloon says it all in big, bold, red and gold letters: CHIEFS.
Who let a bunch of Kansas City Chiefs fans infiltrate Rocky Balboa's turf?
The Chiefs shrine inside Big Charlie's makes the bar seem more fit to stand among the cluster of watering holes in Kansas City's Westport district than in one of Philly's gritty working-class neighborhoods.
It's a spot where bar owner Paul Staico is as popular in these parts as Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and the only place in town where cereal boxes of Mahomes Magic Crunch rest atop the refrigerator.
Big Charlie's has been slinging beers to Chiefs fanatics on gamedays since the early 1980s — but it's calling timeout for the Super Bow l. Just as it did two years ago when the Chiefs and Eagles played in the Super Bowl, the bar will close Sunday for a variety of reasons, with Staico citing patron safety as one of the key factors, even in the face of a potential massive revenue loss.
“We never wanted to play the Eagles,” Staico said. “We never wanted where it is us against them. We don't want to close but we have respect for the city. Our customers are basically Philly fans, Philly people.”
Big Charlie's burst from about a half-dozen or so regulars into hundreds that pack two bars over the years for each championship game or Super Bowl watch party. When the Chiefs played San Francisco in the 2020 Super Bowl, fans arrived around lunch time just to nab a standing-room spot at the bar. Big Charlie's charged $20 for admission and the event came with a credential — with Mahomes pumping his fist as the photo — and adjacent streets were shut down for food stands and, eventually, fireworks that exploded overhead as jubilant fans shouted, “thank you, Paulie!. Thank you, Paulie!”
Big Charlie's attracts its share of curiosity seekers each week — there's a welcoming Chiefs bench outside the front door painted with the team's Arrowhead logo — who can escape the home of the Liberty Bell and get a history lesson on Bobby Bell.
Also welcome, Eagles fans.
“Our friends are Eagles fans,” Staico said. “They're our friends, too. We're like family. Our family goes No. 1 and our sports teams are No. 2.”
The bar affectionately known as Arrowhead East in a nod to the Chiefs' home of Arrowhead Stadium has also enjoyed visits from scores of famous football faces. Former Eagles and Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil has popped in and current Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and his wife count themselves as fans.
“It can get a little shaky,” Spagnuolo said. "We’re glad they’re still having people at Charlie’s Saloon.”
Spagnuolo gifted the bar a replica Lombardi Trophy after the Chiefs beat the Eagles in the 2023 Super Bowl, and Big Charlie's regulars donated to the cause to help the bar acquire three more. The trophies sit behind the bar — as does an Emmy Award received from an NFL Films documentary about the bar in the early 2000s.
Staico can trace his love of the Chiefs to a bet his father made — yup, “Big Charlie,” — in the 1970 Super Bowl that won big when Kansas City beat Minnesota. The winnings paid for a bike for Staico and the kid formed a lifelong attachment to the Chiefs. When Big Charlie died in 1983, Staico took over the bar and the joint is now stuffed with Chiefs helmets, jerseys, framed magazine covers. Every conceivable piece of merchandise and memorabilia connected to the franchise is affixed to the walls.
“I knew it was going to work,” Staico said. “But not like this. I thought our friends were always going to show up.”
Michael Puggi, a South Philly native and regular at Big Charlie's, is one of those friends “recruited” by Staico who has tried not to miss many games since 1990. Puggi, who has visited Arrowhead Stadium five times and raved about Kansas City's barbecue scene, said the fellowship has made the place as popular as the football.
“We try to accommodate all the people that come here, try to make them feel at home and have a good time,” he said. “It's not just the Chiefs. It's the people that make the place.”
Big Charlie's will be closed to the public Sunday but Staico will open the doors for those closest to him to watch the Chiefs — certainly, no sports villain on this block — try to become the first team to ever win three straight Super Bowls.
“This ain't a business,” Staico said. “This is my home.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Dan Gelston, The Associated Press
