Fresh off their first Super Bowl title, the Philadelphia Eagles arrived home to a hero's welcome on Monday afternoon, hours after overjoyed fans mobbed the streets in a sometimes unruly victory celebration nearly 60 years in the making.
Hundreds of fans greeted the team's plane at Philadelphia International Airport, cheering wildly and singing "Fly Eagles Fly" as Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie emerged with the Lombardi Trophy.
After getting off the plane, Lurie, Coach Doug Pederson and stars like tight end Zach Ertz and running back LeGarrette Blount approached the chain-link fence separating the team from the fans, smiling, pumping their arms and shooting video with their phones.
Fans stood on cars and news trucks to catch a glimpse.
"It's been a long journey to redemption," said John Hall, 49, who works at Philadelphia's public transit agency.
"We don't have to hear the negative anymore, that we don't have a ring. It's official now."
Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles wasn't on the team plane. The quarterback headed to Disney World, riding a float at the Orlando resort and fist-bumping Mickey Mouse amid a shower of green confetti.
"It's all right to yell," he told the cheering crowd.
"We're world champs! We did it! We did it!"
The underdog Eagles won their first NFL championship since 1960 on Sunday night with a surprise 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots, ending a drought that had long tormented the city's football-crazed fans.
The city scheduled a victory parade for Thursday along route that will stretch from the Eagles stadium complex to the steps of the Philadelphia art museum, whose steps Sylvester Stallone made famous when he ran up them in "Rocky."
Philadelphia had some cleaning up to do Monday after pockets of Eagles fans smashed department store windows, looted a gas station convenience store and toppled a number of the city's famously greased light poles.
The police commissioner said he and other officers were hit with bottles.
The vast majority of rfans celebrated peacefully, and police made three arrests, said Ajeenah Amir, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Kenney.
"Tens of thousands came out and celebrated this amazing victory, and but for a handful of bad actors, the celebration was peaceful and jubilant," Amir said.
