He may be a hero to Falcons fans, but the lone eggman allegedly responsible for pelting the New Orleans Saints team bus Wednesday night could face trouble from his employer.
“This type of behavior, or misbehavior, is totally unacceptable,” Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport GM Louis Miller said Thursday.
Miller said it appears up to four eggs were tossed by one airline worker from the tarmac between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.
But his identity remains a mystery.
“Whether it’s a ramp worker or a concession employee, we just don’t know yet,” Miller said, adding that airport officials take the incident seriously.
“We’re going to make sure we find out who it is, take the appropriate action and we’re also going to be proceeding with the training of everybody to make sure you just don’t do this sort of stuff,” he said.
The matter will be turned over to the eggman’s employer, Miller said, who will decide how the culprit should be punished.
The incident has attracted national attention across football-mad America. Word of the egging spread quickly online Wednesday night after several Saints players tweeted their reactions.
“Wow, as we’re boarding buses on the Tarmac @ Atlanta airport, we start getting eggs thrown @ us by airport workers!” wrote reserve quarterback Chase Daniel. “Guess they do hate us!”
The driver of the charter bus told Channel 2 Action News the egging caught everyone by surprise.
“I said that couldn’t be an egg you know because I’m out here on the tarmac at the plane,” said Clarence Lester, a Champion Coach driver. “How can this have happened in a secure area?”
Meanwhile, the eggman has succeeded in ramping up what is already one of football’s nastiest, albeit underrated, rivalries.
“There should be a civic award for throwing produce of any sort at the Saints,” said longtime Falcons fan Doug Gross, of Decatur. “In a perfect world, they’d be paid a $5,000 bounty for it. The Saints would understand.”
But not every Falcons fan appreciated the egging.
Phillip Bowen, of Toccoa, said it signaled a troubling trend for Atlanta sports fans.
"To be perfectly honest, I believe the Atlanta fans are classless," Bowen said. "Between the Braves game, where the fans helped out the cleaning crew by consolidating all trash on the field and [the people] egging buses, how can you say otherwise? Personally, I like the idea of fans taunting opposing teams, but this is uncalled for."
Win or lose, the Saints should remain egg-free on their way back to the Big Easy. Miller said Atlanta police will augment the airport security when the team departs from Hartsfield-Jackson.
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