PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Malcolm Garland is such a proud Philadelphia sports fan, that it doesn’t bother him that one of his many tattoos recognizes the Eagles disappointing Super Bowl LVII loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I just felt like we were gonna bring it all the way home,” the 32-year-old professional mover from Elkins Park said about one of his newest pieces of ink.
Garland got a Super Bowl LVII Champs tattoo with an Eagles logo on his left leg before the big game. But when things didn’t go the Eagles way, Garland didn't want to go back on his decision.
Instead, he came up with a solution – and one that makes him laugh.
How can you be from Philadelphia and not like their teams?
Garland is North Philadelphia born and raised with fandom passed down to him from his grandfather. To him, if you’re from here you don’t stray. No Cowboys. No Celtics. No Mets. No Penguins.
“I can never understand why people are from Philly and like other teams,” he said. “My [three] kids are not allowed to like any other team. Everybody is Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, everything.”
There’s something about his fellow Philadelphia sports fans that Garland is drawn to.
“We got the best fans,” said Garland. “They just so crazy. I just love it. I love living on the edge, so the way our fans is embodies me.”
Garland says he went to this past season’s playoff games by himself and it felt like he was with family.
“No matter if you white, Black, African, Jamaican. Whatever race, ethnicity — all that goes out the window. We all bleed green at the end of the day,” he said.
‘You have one life to live. Why not express yourself?’
Garland has more than 80 tattoos and six of them done by South Philly tattoo artist Taquan ‘Fon’ Carr. Fon gave Garland his Super Bowl LVII Champs tattoo.
“If I had the opportunity to get a tattoo as well, I would have done it too,” he said, “because I felt like this year was definitely our year to win it all basically … When he hit me up about the tattoo, I was pumped up to do it.”
Fon referred to tattoos as stories that he helps make happen. Garland says all of his tattoos have meaning.
“You have one life to live,” Garland says. “Why not express yourself?”
After getting his tattoo that predicted the Eagles would beat the Chiefs, Garland never felt the need to do anything superstitious. He never felt any concern, even when the Eagles trailed in the fourth quarter.
Related
“I wasn’t worried,” Garland said before laughing, “until the clock hit zeroes.”
Then, yellow and red confetti sprayed everywhere at State Farm Stadium. The Chiefs beat the Eagles 38-35 after erasing a 10-point halftime deficit.
At that moment Garland’s mind was not on the tattoo – until his phone was blowing up from friends who are fans of other teams.
“Everybody and their mom decided to call me,” he said. “I wasn’t upset. I wasn’t mad. I was literally salty. I was just like dang,” Garland paused. “Damn.”
When in need, call in the G.O.A.T.
In comes the Michael Jordan Crying meme.
During his speech for getting enshrined into the NBA Hall of Fame, Jordan was famously photographed with tears running down his face.
Garland couldn’t resist the connection.
“Usually, a lot of my friends, what they do is if you’re salty, they’ll put the Jordan face over your face,” said Garland. “That always was a thing … I decided once I seen that, I was like, ‘That’s exactly how I feel.’”
“I think like two hours after the game,” Fon said, “he texted me like, ‘I think I got an idea.’”
The Jordan meme was inserted above the Super Bowl LVII Champs tattoo. Fon calls it one of his favorite tattoos. Garland, who believes the Eagles will return to the Super Bowl next season, wouldn’t exactly say he’s happy about his new tattoo combination, but he gets a kick out of it.
“I do stuff like this all the time,” he said while Fon was laughing in the background. “Everything’s a joke. I like to have fun, so not proud because it comes from a crazy situation."
"It’s a moment in life that it just stands out. You have hope with something. It doesn’t work in your favor and now you sitting there looking dumb. It just is what it is but it’s definitely a funny moment. That’s what life is about. It’s about funny moments.”