Burst pipe at Philadelphia hotel almost leads to Giants being stinkier than usual

I have never traveled with an NFL team before, but I’d assume one of the things that all of the players and staff like to do on the morning of a big game is take a nice, long, hot shower. Ahead of Saturday night’s NFC Divisional Round game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the New York Giants awoke to some bad news.

According to multiple reports, the water wasn’t working at New York’s Center City hotel due to a burst pipe and no one could get a glass of water, let alone a shower.

There is a long history of sports fans setting off fireworks outside of a visiting team’s hotel, or pulling the fire alarm in the middle of the night, to try and rattle their opponent, but I think bashing open a pipe in a hotel to take out the water supply is a bridge too far, even for an Eagles fan.

The New York Daily News reported that the water was fixed and back on right around noon ET, so the Giants should be able to at least smell nice before they stink up Lincoln Financial Field with their play Saturday night.

While the pipes in New York’s hotel weren’t well lubricated, you can be certain that Eagles fans will be by the time the game kicks off at 8:15 p.m. ET. The parking lots usually don’t open until four hours before kickoff, but with the NLL’s Philadelphia Wings playing a game at 1:00 p.m. ET at the Wells Fargo Center, many enterprising Birds fans purchased tickets for that game so they could get into the lots early Saturday morning.

Further down in Brenna Weick’s thread she notes that some of the lots for the Eagles game would be opening earlier than the four hours before kickoff they usually open, but fans with Wings tickets got in to set up tailgates at 10:00 a.m. ET.

You will not keep Philadelphians from drinking beer and grilling meats at all hours of the day with your draconian parking lot rules, Eagles!

The Eagles and Giants kickoff on FOX at 8:15 p.m. ET and the winner will move on to the NFC Championship Game. As an appetizer, the Jaguars and Chiefs play on NBC at 4:30 p.m. ET with the winner heading to the AFC Championship game.