The Green Legion

Fly Eagles (Fans) Fly

The Philadelphia Eagles arguably have more fans at NFL road games than any team in the league. It’s become a part of their DNA.

Watch an Eagles road game on TV and the cameras, at some point, will invariably pan to the green-clad fans as the announcers talk about the thousands of die-hard Birds followers who made the trip.

At some road games, Eagles fans number in the tens of thousands.

The Green Legion, founded and owned by Craig “Quimby” Chenosky in 2004, is one of the companies that arrange many of the Eagles trips, along with tailgate parties and pep rallies that accompany it. This year’s first trip was in Brazil, the site of the Birds’ season-opening, 34-29 win over the Green Bay Packers. The night before the game, the Green Legion hosted a pep rally at a Sao Paulo pub that included the moms of Eagles players Nakobe Dean and Jordan Davis.

At the game, Eagles fans were plentiful. As always. The Green Legion was a big reason. On average, between 300 to 1,200 fans – and sometimes more – travel with the Green Legion to games in which airfare is involved.

“If you hear fans in opposing stadiums, that’s us!” the Green Legion says on Facebook.

Chenosky, 53, who is known by almost everyone as “Quimby,” is overwhelmed by the Green Legion’s success.

“I don’t think anyone could have expected it to be what it has turned into,” he said. “Also, the speed in which it took place. There probably could have been some inclination when I sold 200 spots to Miami in less than two hours back in ‘03, but I was in my early 30s and pretty naive. Then we added a swimsuit calendar of all Eagles fans.”

He smiled.

“That,” he said, “was probably as popular as our trips.”

Provide festive atmosphere

Some road games have more than 10,000 Eagles fans in the stands. And while only a fraction of that number traveled with the Green Legion, many of the fans meet up at the energetic pep rallies and tailgate parties that are arranged by the Green Legion, providing a festive atmosphere for the weekend.

The Green Legion gets glowing reviews from 248 people on Facebook, where 98% of the folks recommend using them for traveling to Eagles away games. Transportation, hotel accommodations, transfers from the hotel to the stadium, and game tickets are included in the package; some fans elect to buy just part of the package. The trips also offer optional sightseeing visits. (For information, go to https://trips.greenlegion.com/.) The Green Legion also does a handful of Phillies road trips.

During the NFL season, trips are made to all Eagles road games, most by plane, and the closer ones by bus. About 300 fans made the trip through the Green Legion to Brazil, but people who traveled to the game on their own joined the Green Legion group at the pep rally, swelling that number to at least 600.

Mike Diaz, who is a media liaison for the Green Legion, said one of the company’s biggest trips occurred in 2017 when 1,000 travelers went to Los Angeles, and the tailgate party before the game had close to 2,000. That was the game in which quarterback Carson Wentz, who was having an MVP-type season, suffered a knee injury. Nick Foles stepped in late in the season, of course, and led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win.

Diaz said Chenosky arranged for a trip “for a group of friends” in 2003, a Monday night game in Miami. “And the group ended up being like 300 people,” Diaz said. “Word kept spreading… So, the next year, 2004, is when” he decided to start the company.

It was good timing. Led by Donovan McNabb, the Eagles had a terrific season and ended up in the Super Bowl; the Green Legion had just one trip that year – to Dallas.

Company grows

“And from there, it got bigger and bigger,” said Diaz, a Montgomery County resident whose full-time job is as a financial planner, which is not affiliated with the Green Legion.

At first, only premier cities were chosen for road trips each season. For the last decade, every road game has had trips planned by the Green Legion.

“The trips basically provide a chance for people to get together,” Diaz said.

People usually fly out on Friday for Sunday games. They can join the group for planned events or do things on their own. Most attend the pep rallies and tailgate parties.

The popularity of the trips depends on the city. “For San Diego, we had 1,200 people,” Diaz said. “We got 600 for New Orleans.” And maybe half of that for Cleveland.

“I was a customer at first,” Diaz said. “I was a traveler with them, And I told (Chenosky), ‘You’ve got to get on Twitter, you’ve got to do this and that.’ He said, ‘You can do this.’” Diaz was given “free” trips for his services. “And then my role just kept getting bigger,” he said.

Diaz and his wife, Abby, now have young children so he doesn’t go on many trips anymore, but he said he has friends in cities spread all over the country thanks to meeting them on Eagles excursions.

That, he said, is one of the best perks of the trips for all of the Eagles fans who travel to the games.

“People get to meet other people and have a good time, and it grows each time you go,” Diaz said. “It is a very cool thing.”

He added that “everyone feels they’re the biggest Eagles fan around. Some of them go to every single game, and it’s really cool that friendships are built around the Eagles. There are people I met in New Orleans in 2007, and then there are people I met in Miami in 2011, the Canadians I met who came down to Buffalo in 2019. And once every year or once every two years, we get back together and talk about the old times. And what’s nice about it is that everyone is on vacation (during the trips) and has a vacation mindset, where you’re not worrying about work or kids or family. So, it’s kind of a vacation or party atmosphere, and you start building that bond with people.”

Chenosky was asked about his favorite part of the trips.

Orchestrated 8 marriages

Without question, watching people with “zero similarity in backgrounds become friends,” he said. “I know for a fact I’m responsible for eight marriages…Not sure how many divorces but that’s a topic for another time.”

He said the travelers have become like one big family through the years. And the eight marriages that have resulted make him feel “truly humbled. They like to give me credit, but I refuse. I just put excellent people together and they forge relationships that will last them their entire lives! For many, one or two road trips or home tailgates at Xfinity are the only times they are all together and they waste zero time before they start enjoying the hell out of themselves. Watching them forget about life and responsibilities is the most rewarding part of all of this.”

There is no question, Chenosky said, that Eagles fans travel to road games more than any NFL team.

“I don’t want to hear about how well Pittsburgh fans travel. Or Packers fans. Or the Bills Mafia,” he said. “Sure, they travel well, but no visiting fan base has ever changed the course of home-field advantage like Philadelphia Eagles fans. Anytime in Miami, Tampa, or (Washington), we take over! It has been the case for years and we never received credit until October 1, 2017.”

That, he said, is when broadcasters Dick Stockton and Mark Schlereth were calling the game between the Eagles and the host Los Angeles Chargers. “And finally let the entire world know” about Eagles fans’ devotion. “Jordan Hicks raised his arms on a big third-down play in the fourth quarter. This was in the endzone where The Green Legion was sitting. And every Eagles fan exploded (in joy)!”

One of the announcers said he had “never seen anything like this” from visiting fans, Chenosky proudly added.

Chenosky said if fans have never taken an Eagles road trip with his group, “it’s time to lose your virginity. Whether you go with us, by yourself, or even our competition, it needs to be on your bucket list!”

When he’s not arranging trips, Chenosky hosts Green Legion Radio and calls it “sports talk with no holding back.” In his radio bio, he proudly proclaims he is “one of the loudest mouths on the planet.”

It is a characteristic of many Eagles fans.

Chenosky, a Pottstown native who attended Valley Forge Military Academy and Drexel University, does the show with Diaz. Their show, which can be heard on 102.5 FM in Philadelphia and South Jersey and worldwide on the iHeartRadio app, talks about all of the Philly sports teams, with an emphasis on the Eagles.

The Green Legion does a pregame radio show for every matchup, home and away.

“We host the FOX Sports pregame show for Philadelphia on 102.5 FM,” Chenosky said. “I never studied broadcasting or had any radio experience except for Angelo (Cataldi, formerly of WIP) bringing me in before big road games. When I think back about it, I’m just happy as hell and try not to look a gift horse in the mouth.”