As a faithful Philadelphia sports fan, I get made fun of a lot for how consistently awful our sports teams tend to be. It doesn’t matter if it’s football, baseball, hockey or basketball people somehow always find a way to make fun of Philly sports and their fans. After being surrounded by a family of die-hard Philadelphia phans for my entire life, here are somethings that I am, and I’m sure other Philly sports fans, are tired of hearing.
“The Eagles haven’t won a Superbowl.”
This comment is thrown into any discussion or argument I’ve had with someone even if the Eagles aren’t one of the teams we are discussing. We could be discussing teams in the AFC and all the sudden someone brings up the lack of Superbowl wins the Eagles have. Every time I hear this, it’s normally irrelevant to the conversation and is only said to make Eagles fans angry. In case you were wondering, the Bills, Browns, Bengals, Jaguars, Texans, Titans, Chargers, Vikings, Lions, Panthers, Falcons, Cardinals also have never won a Superbowl. How about we talk about these teams for a change?
“Philly has the worst fans in sports.”
Now I know Philadelphia fans have been known to be aggressive at times, and even violent, but you can get that in any city. I like to think of Philadelphia sports fans as passionate and reliable; after all they belong to the City of Brotherly Love. Even if our teams win percentage is low for a particular season there will still be fans at every game, people will still purchase season tickets each year in hopes this team is the finally ‘dream team’ we’ve been waiting for, and a terrible team just leads to a more exciting draft for the following season. Philly sports fans unite when it’s important; we know when to boo the other team and we know when to celebrate important wins (or losses of other teams). Yes, there have been fans who have cheered at players injuries and fans that pelted Santa Claus with snowballs, but maybe they were just angry that people kept bringing up that the Eagles have no Superbowl wins.
“(Insert Player of another Team’s Name Here) can’t play/is hurt.”
Unless this player is on one of my fantasy teams I have no interest if they aren’t on the roster for the game this weekend. In fact, as horrible as it sounds, I LOVE when I hear that Tony Romo is out and isn’t able to play quarterback; on the other hand though that does mean less interceptions for the defense. And not that I’m rooting for him to get hurt, but I certainly wouldn’t mind if Sidney Crosby was unable to play for a season. That certainly wouldn’t hurt the Flyers. Finally, to all of you Patriots fans out there, as a Philly sports fan it does not bother me one bit if Tom Brady cannot play at the beginning of the season or not. Sure, he is a great quarterback but the Patriots have handfuls upon handfuls of amazing players and you still all complain about losing your quarterback for four games. Trust me, you’ll be OK.
"The Sixers are the worst team in basketball.”
Believe me, I know. The Sixers have been so terrible they have actually made sports history. The most exciting part of the entire year was when they got the number one pick in the draft for the season coming up, #trusttheprocess. At this point, you can’t even upset me by saying this. The Sixers are so bad that they’ve become a huge joke in the media and on the internet. In fact, Did the Sixers Win? is one of my favorite Twitter accounts. However, I am tired of people telling me that the Sixers are bad; if I couldn’t figure that one out on my own I’d be in trouble.
Being a fan of Philadelphia sports has sure proven to be interesting, frustrating, and exciting all at once. I would never want to root for any other teams though. One day the Sixers will be over .500 again and one day the Eagles WILL win a Superbowl. Mark my words. Philly fans, in my non-professional completely biased opinion, are truly the best. Long live Philadelphia fans and caritas fraternitatis man eat in vobis.
