How Petty Can You Get? Viral Video Of Christie Falling At Radio Station Answers That

Where do you draw the line between being fanatical about your team and being obsessed to the point of meanness? For many Philadelphians, that line has always been blurred, particularly when it comes to the city’s beloved NFL team, the Eagles.

The city will never live down the incident where Eagles fans booed and pelted Santa Claus with snowballs, and Veterans Stadium officials went so far as to install a jail and bringing in a judge during Eagles games to deal with unruly fans.

That line has been blurred again, as Sportsradio 94WIP on Friday morning released a video clip of Gov. Chris Christie falling off a chair during a June studio visit, apparently in retaliation for Christie’s declared allegiance to the Dallas Cowboys. Christie’s allegiance and his ties to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones drew national attention during the team’s playoff run.

But it apparently so infuriated morning show host Angelo Cataldi that he released the clip of Christie falling after keeping it private for months.

Cataldi, an avid Eagles fan, and his co-host, Al Morganti, railed at the governor on the radio following Christie’s appearance in Jones’s box during the Cowboys-Eagles game in December at Lincoln Financial Field.

But why release the video now, months after the fall, when the Cowboys aren’t even participating in Sunday’s Super Bowl?

Politicians‘ public pratfalls have long been spread around the airwaves. There are infamous videos of President Gerald Ford falling down the steps of Air Force One in the 1970s, and President George H.W. Bush vomiting at a state dinner overseas in the late 1980s.

But this wasn’t a public pratfall by Christie. Releasing the video -- especially six months after the incident -- is simply another display of the meanness and over-the-top machismo that has long characterized sports talk radio and WIP’s broadcasts in particular.

Christie probably will brush this off, like he does all criticism and negative comments -- even when the criticism is legitimate.

Sometimes, however, meanness for the sake of meanness needs to be called out.

The video is here if you want to take a look. Tell us what you think in the comments below.