UPDATE: Feb. 6, 3:54 p.m.
Big Charlie’s Saloon announced Monday that they have cancelled their Super Bowl party.
Original story below
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — While most Philadelphia bars will be bleeding green in support of the Eagles heading to the Super Bowl, one bar has made its dedication to the Kansas City Chiefs known.
Paul Staico’s, owner of Big Charlie’s Saloon on South 11th Street, love for the Chiefs began with a bet when he was just a kid living in Philadelphia.
“The father was placing a bet and he asked him, ‘Pick a team who's going to win – if they win, I’ll buy you a bike,’” said Laura Sessa, manager at Big Charlie’s. “The next day, he got his red bike and he just went with the Chiefs from then.”
Sessa said Staico’s dad bought Big Charlie’s in the late 1970s and passed away a few years later, in 1983.
After his father’s death, Staico took over the business and started watching the Chiefs’ games there. And 40 years later, the tradition still carries on.
Sessa said they plan to show the Eagles vs. the Chiefs game next Sunday and that under any other circumstance, Big Charlie’s would be throwing a Super Bowl block party with bars and TVs all over, fireworks and DJs.
“But we respect we’re in Philly and mostly everybody here is Eagles fans,” Sessa said. “So we're not going to do a big thing outside – we'll just keep it in the house.”
And “in the house,” the bar is pretty much decked out in Chiefs paraphernalia.
“A lot of people from Kansas City send things especially if they come and visit; people send their artwork to us. We put it on the wall,” Sessa said.
Sessa mentioned that their back room is also decorated, but only true fans can see what’s back there.
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“This is strictly Chiefs back here… They're kind of handpicked to come back here.”
Through the years their love for the team has had a lot of influence on neighborhood friends, like John Alessi, who is betting on the Chiefs to win over the Eagles.
He said he started rooting for the Chiefs from coming around Big Charlie’s so often.