Judge Seamus McCaffery Presided Over "Eagles Court"

Published on July 11th, 2022 12:59 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Philadelphia fans are known for their - rowdiness.

There is a legend that Veterans Stadium (former home to the Eagles and Phillies) had a jail inside of it.

That legend is absolutely true.

As a matter of fact, the stadium had a jail, a courtroom and a judge that would quickly hand out sentences to unruly fans.

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Sure, almost all stadiums have a holding cell inside of them, where unruly fans can be placed before the police arrive to deal with them.

Veterans Stadium in Philadephia, however, went above and beyond that.

In order to expedite the process of dealing with unruly fans, Veterans Stadium would have a jail, a courtroom and a judge.

You see, most of the infractions would be relatively minor - drunken shoving matches, etc.

In order to avoid clogging up traditional courtrooms, a judge at the Vet would quickly process the delinquents, usually handing out relatively minor sentences (small fines, etc).

If there was anything major (such as a violent fight), the people would be removed from the stadium and dealt with via a traditional courtroom.

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There wasn't always a jail inside of Veterans Stadium.

After an embarrassing Monday Night Football game in 1997 that featured dozens of fistfights in the stands, the Philadelphia Eagles elected to build a jail and court under their stadium.

This court/jail started in 1998 and was run by Judge Seamus McCaffery, who would deal with the unruly fans.

If you were found to be getting into mischief during a game, you would be transported by security to "Eagles Court", where Judge McCaffery would swiftly deal with you.

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Veterans Stadium was demolished in 2004, taking "Eagles Court" with it.

Lincoln Financial Field (the new home of the Eagles) has a holding room, but "Eagles Court" is a thing of the past.