New Jersey Governor and unabashed Mets fan Chris Christie isn’t in the business of endearing himself from a sports-fan perspective to many of his constituents, apparently. A good portion of New Jersey is in the Philadelphia area -- notably “South Jersey” which is nearly all Philly fans -- but yet, Christie still said this Wednesday night on SNY when Philadelphia was mentioned (via csnphilly.com): 

“The Phillies suck. Let’s just start with that,” Christie said. “They’re from Philadelphia. They’re an awful team. They’re an angry, bitter fan base and it’s not safe for civilized people to go to Citizens Bank Park if you want to root for the other team. Ya gotta believe what? Ya gotta believe we’re awful people.”

The video evidence, lest you accuse us of fake news: 

Looks like a guy yucking it up with his pals, but it’s the Internet era and he had to know that would reach Philly, so Gov. Christie obviously doesn’t care. I also couldn’t find any evidence that Citizens Bank Park is any more unsafe than any other big-league park. I mean, there was an idiot who threw a bottle at Ryan Howard last year, but that’s a home player and one rogue fan. Every park has idiots. Rogers Centre had one in the AL wild-card game almost disrupt play. 

But that’s what fans do, they talk smack about the teams and fan bases they hate. It’s just surprising to see a politician not tone it down when it comes to his own state. 

Then again, maybe Gov. Christie’s looking to jump to D.C. soon anyway? 

Hat-tip: Hardball Talk