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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Kyle O'Sullivan

Empire State Building turns green and people are seething at 'unforgivable betrayal'

The Empire State Building changed colour on Sunday night - and now furious people are throwing insults at the inanimate tower.

The iconic New York landmark, which is often lit up in different colours for various celebrations, turned green and white after the Philadelphia Eagles won a place in the Super Bowl LVII final.

The Eagles demolished the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game and booked their spot in the biggest NFL game of the season.

A tweet on the Empire State Building's official Twitter account read: "Fly @Eagles Fly! We're going Green and White in honor of the Eagles NFC Championship Victory."

But New Yorkers are fuming that the tower has been lit up in the colours of one of their biggest rivals, especially as Philly were the ones who knocked out the New York Giants just last week in the NFC Divisional round.

People weren't happy (twitter.com/EmpireStateBldg)

The wounds are clearly still sore, with Philadelphia defeating the Giants in all three of their contests this season, as New York residents have labelled it "treacherous, traitorous and unforgivable".

"This has to be a joke. A terrible one at that," one person tweeted, while another added: "This is a disgrace."

"This is beyond embarrassing," wrote a third, while a fourth said: "You would think the signature building of the city would support the cities team but no."

The Empire State Building then changed its lights to the Chiefs colors after Kansas City beat the Bengals in the AFC Championship game.

The building's owners had planned to light it up in the colours of any of the four teams competing in this weekend's championship games - and did admit: "That hurt us more than it hurt you."

The Empire State Building lit up in red for the Chinese Lunar New Year (Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock)
The tower went red, white and blue for the US Men's soccer team in November (Getty Images)

The people running the Twitter account decided to completely humiliate Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who took his anger out on the building itself.

An angry Portnoy wrote: "How lame is the Empire State Building? Lighting up a NY building in the colors of a NFC East rival? What an absolute piece of s*** building. I'd be embarrassed to have it in my city. They should knock it down."

In response, the Empire State's official Twitter account uploaded a video of Portnoy himself sarcastically crying while saying "life is so unfair".

This managed to anger even more people, but others pointed out it was hilarious that a building was managing to troll everyone.

"Imagine getting owned by the Empire State Building lmao," wrote one person, to which another replied: "Imagine trolling the Empire State Building in the first place."

Sports columnist Mike Vaccaro was incandescent with rage, claiming it was "sportsmanship elevated to absurd levels"

Writing for the New York Post, he said: "And, well, the reaction was predictable. New York is ticked. New York feels betrayed. New York, which has long championed the Empire State Building as the greatest skyscraper in the world, has been … dare we say … cuckolded.

"How did this happen? How could this happen? This isn’t a building that has ever given any pretense to being anything but a parochial treasure. It has New York’s own nickname IN ITS NAME for crying out loud. It is not the International Brotherhood Building. It is not the All-U.S.-Sports-Fans-Deserve-To-Be-Treated-Fairly Building.

"It is the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING."

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