To Be A Philly Fan

It is thoroughly depressing to be a Philly sports fan. I know this is about as much of a newsflash as water being wet, but I feel a need to rant/reflect, so bare with me (yes, you too, Ryk).

Do you realize that before Philly sports fans were forced to root for horses and argue the validity of horse-racing as a sport, there was a time when true professional sports teams actually were successful? Yes, long before we started excitedly celebrating the virtues of winning minor-league championships, We had an era of success in Philadelphia.

If one can hearken back to the mid-to-late 1970’s to 1983, Philadelphia was a Mecca of sorts when it came to professional sports dominance. The Philadelphia Flyers won two Stanley cups to welcome this era, and were dangerously close to winning a couple more. The Phillies experienced their most successful era ever (not that there were any other eras that were comparatively close, which says something about the Phils) in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s – even winning their lone World Series in 1980. The Eagles, after years of laughably poor teams, actually made it to the Super Bowl in 1980-81, failing to bring home the holy grail after derailing the hated Cowboys in the NFC championship game earlier (some say that the Eagles were so focused on beating their arch-rivals that by the time the Super Bowl came, the team didn’t have the same desire). Heck, even the Sixers had an amazing run, culminating in the last major professional sports championship in the city in 1983 (that team probably should’ve won at least 3 titles, but I digress).

Sure, since 1983, each of the Philly teams has made it to one championship game: The Flyers did so in 1997 (losing to the Red Wings in 4 games), The Phillies in 1993 (losing in 6 to the Blue Jays – I hate Joe Carter!), the Sixers in 2001 (falling to the superior Lakers in 5), and the Eagles (running out of gas against the Pats in 2004-05). But, with 4 professional sports teams, one would probably think that at least one should win a title every 20+ years, right? Not Philly.

The word “Choke,” had become as commonplace as words like cheese-steak, soft-pretzel, and wudder-ice here. We often root for our teams, knowing deep inside that they will find some creative way to let us down. Whether it is giving up a home run in game six of the World Series, losing a star player to a life-threatening concussion prior to a division championship game, having a normally calm quarterback lose his cool in the Super Bowl, or watching a young-rising super-star get outclassed by a younger, more impressive superstar in the NBA championship game.

We have many to blame – coaches, GM’s, players – all being inept in one way or another. But, we fans tend to blame ourselves. We feel we’ve wasted too much time rooting for a team that will always break our hearts. Some of us feel we’ve let the teams down by either not cheering passionately enough or possibly that we are performing our superstitious behaviors properly enough.

We come to the conclusion as true fans that we must stick with our teams through thick and thin. In Philly, it is mostly thin, which is odd, considering that most of the residents are not. Maybe we do it in the hopes that one team will finally reward us for our loyalty. More likely, we do it, because we don’t know any better. For whatever reason, we are fans, and we will follow these teams to our graves. (We may not like what we follow, and we may air out our grievances – just listen to W.I.P. sometime)