Philadelphia Eagles fan Ryan Caldwell’s life is going from bad to worse to nightmarish.
Caldwell is the Eagles fan who verbally abused a female Green Bay Packers fan Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field during the Eagles’ 22-10 victory in a wild-card playoff game.
The interaction was caught on video by the woman’s fiancé Alex Basara, who is an internet content creator with Basaraski Productions on YouTube.
Before attending the game, Basara set up a GoFundMe account asking people to send him to Philly – “the belly of the beast.” In the GoFundMe post, he talked about being a Packers fan who was born and raised in Pennsylvania and about having his cheese head hat ripped off and thrown into a fire bin while supporting his team in Philadelphia.
The 43-second video shows the Eagles fan leaning down to yell an inaudible statement at Basara’s fiancé, who was wearing Packers gear, after an in-stadium announcement about the result of an official’s review. Basara told the Eagles fan not to describe his fiancée as a “dumb (expletive),” which he then repeats back to her.
On Wednesday, Caldwell released a statement apologizing for the incident but defended himself saying his actions “were not without provocation.”
“While attending an NFL game last Sunday to support my beloved Philadelphia Eagles, an incident occurred that I deeply regret,” Caldwell said in a statement to the
.
“What began as banter with two Packers fans sitting near me escalated to something more serious, and I said things that were unacceptable. In the heat of the moment, I chose unforgiving words to address one of the fans, Ms. Ally Keller.
“I want to sincerely apologize to Ms. Keller for those words, and to my wife, family, and friends, my former employer and colleagues, Packer fans, Eagle fans, the Philadelphia Eagles, the City of Philadelphia, and all who were offended. That said, there are two sides to every story.
“The video clip circulating online does not reflect the full context of what transpired, and my actions were not without provocation. I will live with this experience, and I am certainly paying a personal price. For those who don’t know me, this incident does not reflect my values or the respect I have for others and is not indicative of the person I am.”
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Since the interaction was posted online, Eagles director of security Dom DiSandro reportedly was able to identify Caldwell, which resulted in him being banned from attending games at The Linc.
Caldwell’s employer found out about his actions and made a statement without naming him. BCT Partners, a management consulting firm based in East Brunswick, New Jersey, released a statement on social media Monday about “a video circulating involving an employee making offensive remarks outside of the workplace.” The company denounced the behavior and said it has opened an investigation “to determine what actions will be taken.”
According to a social media post from BCT Partners, Caldwell was fired from his job. The company announced it had completed its internal investigation and decided to part ways with Caldwell.
“In keeping with our company values, which are firmly centered on respect, dignity, and inclusion, we have decided to part company with the employee. This separation is effective immediately,” the social media statement from the company read. “We condemn our former employee’s conduct in the strongest possible terms. This individual’s conduct and language were vile, disgusting, unacceptable, and horrific and have no place in our workplace and society. Such conduct is not who we are and not what we stand for.”
Tom Schad contributed to this story.
This story was updated to include a statement from Ryan Caldwell.
