{"id":548558,"date":"2026-03-27T14:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/548558\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T14:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:03:07","slug":"catching-up-with-chris-falcone-who-fought-enforcer-tie-domi-25-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/548558\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching up with Chris Falcone, who fought enforcer Tie Domi 25 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n

Chris Falcone was eating at Chickie\u2019s and Pete\u2019s in Drexel Hill<\/a> a few weeks ago when a friendly stranger approached him. He\u2019d recently watched a video compilation of the \u201c50 most bizarre moments in sports\u201d and recognized the 61-year-old contractor.<\/p>\n

The stranger decided to buy Falcone lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a crab cake and a hamburger,\u201d Falcone said with a chuckle. \u201cHe says I\u2019m the man.\u201d <\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an atypical occurrence for the Havertown<\/a> native. Falcone has been routinely stopped in public since the fateful day he dove over \u2014 or better to say, through \u2014 the glass at what was then called the First Union Center.<\/p>\n

It was March 29, 2001. The Flyers were playing the Toronto Maple Leafs, and enforcer Tie Domi was sitting in the penalty box, where he was being heckled by surrounding fans.<\/p>\n

Domi, who could not be reached for comment for this story, told reporters after the game that the spectators \u201cthrew stuff\u201d at him, and that he warned he\u2019d squirt water if they continued.<\/p>\n

They did, and the player made good on his promise. Falcone insists that one squirt wouldn\u2019t have sent him flying. It was the squirts that followed that he took issue with.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was squirting the old guy [in the front]. You know?\u201d he said. \u201cOnce, OK, great. But he squirted it three times. And the third time I decided to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falcone lunged toward the glass, which gave way and sent him tumbling into the penalty box. An unfortunate sequence of events followed. Domi pulled Falcone\u2019s jacket over his eyes, so he couldn\u2019t see. A referee burst in, pulling the fan toward the door, which hit Falcone in the forehead, giving him a bloody gash.<\/p>\n

A few more game officials rushed over to separate the notorious NHL bruiser and the concrete worker. Instead of walking off the ice, Falcone climbed over the glass he\u2019d just busted through, before being escorted to a security office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got four older brothers,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I can take a beating.\u201d <\/p>\n

The moment was instantly immortalized in Philadelphia sports lore. Falcone said his phone didn\u2019t stop ringing for \u201ca week and a half.\u201d People left dozens of voicemails at his concrete business, approximately \u201c90 percent of them positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falcone heard from cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings. His parents, who were vacationing in Europe, also gave him a call.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t waste time with niceties.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad just said, \u2018Jesus.\u2019 Doesn\u2019t say, \u2018Hello,\u2019\u201d Falcone said. \u201c\u2018What the hell did you do?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you can hear my mom in the back. \u2018Is he all right? Christopher, are you all right?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Falcone has been stopped for autographs. He\u2019s been repeatedly told \u201cgreat job\u201d by people he\u2019s never met.<\/p>\n

And 25 years later, the story still comes up, at least \u201cevery two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say stuff to me all the time,\u201d Falcone said. <\/p>\n

\u2018I just wish I didn\u2019t have the jacket\u2019<\/p>\n

The moment was not a blur for the concrete worker. Falcone said he was completely sober at the time. He described his emotional state as \u201cgood\u201d when he took his legendary leap.<\/p>\n

After a brief talking-to from the security guards at the First Union Center, who cautioned that the fan was in \u201cbig trouble,\u201d he said he left with no charges.<\/p>\n

(Nowadays, he would have been in violation of the NHL Fan Code of Conduct, and could have received a number of punishments, including a lifetime ban from league events. Also, the glass around the penalty box is higher and thicker than it was in the early 2000s.)<\/p>\n

Domi received a $1,000 fine from the NHL. <\/p>\n

Neither man backed down in the ensuing days. <\/p>\n

Domi claimed he was defending linesman Kevin Collins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just standing up for Kevin,\u201d he told local media. \u201cThe guy leaned over and went through the glass and began swinging, and I was not going to let anyone take a swing at me. I don\u2019t care who it was. He was in my territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falcone had a different version of events: That he didn\u2019t jump into the box, but rather, was after Domi\u2019s water bottle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was drenched,\u201d he told The Inquirer in 2001. \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t so wet, I wouldn\u2019t have done anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou go to the game, you pay good money, and you get a creep like that squirting at you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost exactly two years later, on March 28, 2003, Falcone filed a lawsuit<\/a> against Domi, the NHL, the Maple Leafs, and Comcast Spectator.<\/p>\n

The suit came just before the two-year statute of limitations ran out. In it, the concrete worker alleged that the incident had cost him business, and that Comcast was negligent for installing a glass partition that didn\u2019t hold up.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was dismissed a few months later, but Falcone appealed, seemingly unwilling to let it go.<\/p>\n

Then, in early 2004, he got a phone call from an unknown number.<\/p>\n

It was Domi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Is this really you?\u2019\u201d Falcone recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018Give me your number, and I\u2019ll call you back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Falcone had confirmed the NHL player\u2019s identity, Domi proposed an idea. The Maple Leafs were scheduled to play the Flyers in Philadelphia on March 18. Why not meet in person and hash everything out?<\/p>\n

Falcone agreed. After the game, he waited for Domi in a hallway in the bowels of the Wachovia Center, accompanied by two friends, and \u201capproximately 20 security guards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extra surveillance wasn\u2019t necessary. The two foes embraced each other like old friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just laughed, hugged, shook hands,\u201d Falcone said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a nice guy, he really is,\u201d Domi told The Toronto Star. \u201cHe has four kids, and he works hard. As soon as we met we started laughing at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Falcone decided to drop the lawsuit. As a gift, Domi gave the family four tickets to Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Flyers in Toronto.<\/p>\n

(Ironically, the enforcer spent some time in the penalty box for high-sticking that night, but relatively speaking, this was a more leisurely stay.)<\/p>\n

The concrete worker harbors no ill will. He said that the issue has been \u201cresolved\u201d and maintains that Domi is a \u201cnice guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Falcone does have one regret.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have worn a jacket,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Chris Falcone was eating at Chickie\u2019s and Pete\u2019s in Drexel Hill a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[244416,385,99],"class_list":["post-548558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-chris-falcone-tie-domi-flyers-leafs-penalty-box-fight-2001","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}