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A Philadelphia Eagles helmet is shown during the first half of an NFL preseason football game at Giants Stadium, Sept. 3, 2009 in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP)
Fly, Kamala, Fly? No, the Philadelphia Eagles did not endorse Harris for president
If Your Time is short
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The Philadelphia Eagles said ads saying they endorsed Kamala Harris for president are fake.
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Intersection, the company that owns the bus stop shelters, said the Eagles didn’t create the ads and the ads were unauthorized to be there.
Have the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as president? No, but fake ads showing the Eagles doing so have appeared at bus stops across Philadelphia.
A Sep. 2 Instagram reel shows a man standing near a bus stop with an ad featuring a graphic depicting Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, wearing an Eagles helmet and holding a football. Text at the bottom of the ad reads, "Kamala official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles."
Text overlaying the video says, "Eagles endorse Kamala for president."
The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
But the Eagles didn’t sponsor the poster. "We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed," the Eagles said Sept. 2 in an X statement.
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Eagles spokesperson Bob Lange told PolitiFact the team’s statement referred to the Harris bus stop ads.
An unknown person or group of people illegally replaced paid advertisements in the bus shelters with unauthorized posters, Intersection, the company that owns the bus shelters where the ads were posted, said in an email to PolitiFact.
"We note that neither the Eagles nor Intersection had anything to do with the creation or posting of this unauthorized content," the company said, adding that seven of the ads have already been removed. Intersection is surveying other bus stops for other unauthorized posters.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to PolitiFact’s question about whether it authorized the posters. But a Harris spokesperson told NBC Philadelphia that it did not purchase the ads.
It would be unusual for an NFL team to endorse a political candidate. We searched Google and the Nexis news database and found no instances of an NFL team doing so.
We rate the claim that the Eagles endorsed Kamala Harris for president False.
Our Sources
Instagram reel (archived), Sep. 2, 2024
X post, Sep. 2, 2024
Email interview, Bob Lange, Philadelphia Eagles spokesperson, Sep. 3, 2024
Email interview, Katie Vroom, Intersection Media spokesperson, Sep. 3, 2024
NBC Philadelphia, Fake ads in Philly falsely claim the Eagles are endorsing Kamala Harris, Sep. 2, 2024
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Fly, Kamala, Fly? No, the Philadelphia Eagles did not endorse Harris for president
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