Some Quick Thought On Philadelphia Fans

Full disclosure: I didn’t see the mayhem that occurred last night at the Flyers game when fans began throwing the gift bracelets onto the ice.  I didn’t see it because I was frustrated at the team’s play after the Capitals fourth goal and turned on the Phillies to calm down.  Surely the only time this season anyone has turned on the Phillies to avoid frustration.  But I didn’t have to watch this particular instance to know exactly what happened.  I’ve seen this display before.  Hell, I’ve probably even participated in a similar exposition at one time or another.

What last night proved more than anything else is that Philadelphia sports fans need to grow up.  Part of growing up is not acting like an imbecile when things don’t go in your favor.  Part of growing up is recognizing your shortcomings and learning to change to better yourself.  Part of growing up is learning not to take pride in harmful behavior.  Philadelphia fans are 0 for 3.

The worst part of the fans’ behavior last night was not the action itself; fans throw garbage onto the playing fields all the time.  It is the swirl self-fulfilling prophecy and ignorance and misplaced pride that wraps up into a shitstorm that is the Philadelphia sports fan identity.

You hear callers on sports talk radio and hosts on Comcast talking about the national media’s bias against Philadelphia.  We are never given our due respect.  We are always being lambasted as classless goons.  For Christ’s sake ESPN can’t even talk about fans in the city without bringing up the Santa snowball incident that happened almost fifty years ago!  But the truth is there is no bias against Philadelphia.  It’s made up.  The bias is a defense mechanism in the minds of the fans.  It’s the equivalent of your girlfriend saying you have a drinking problem and you’re reaction is “she’s the one with the problem.”

ESPN is not out to get you, Philly fan.  ESPN isn’t even worth your scorn.  They deserve you to ignore them.  The World Wide Leader is a failed business model being perpetuated by one successful, unique run in the mid-90s and national live game broadcasting rights.  It’s garbage.  Watch Sportscenter or watch whatever dumb debate show they run between Sportscenters and you begin to realize the entire network is basically a television version of clickbate.  The programming is so scripted and void of meaningful analysis that it is for all intents and purposes white noise.  Do you get mad when you turn on the machine that makes calming beach noises to help you sleep?  No?  Then why get mad at ESPN?

But the fans do get mad.  And at this point the anger has manifested as a part of the collective fans’ identity.  “Oh you think we’re too angry?  Watch what happens when we don’t win tonight!”  “Oh you think I drink too much?  Just watch what happens when I go on this bender tonight!” It would be funny if it weren’t sad.  Acting out and displaying bad sportsmanship is a part of Philadelphia.  It’s not good, either.  It’s not passion like fans want to believe.  It fuels the rest of the country’s negative perception of this town. 

“Oh, well if they don’t get our passion, then it’s their fault.  Who cares what they think?”

The fact is you, Philadelphia sports fan, care what they think.  Otherwise you’d stop taking pride in the bullshit. You’d stop throwing up on cops or throwing beers on women in Cowboys jerseys.  You would have stopped throwing things on the ice last night when the refs said there would be a penalty.  Instead you heard a challenge from outsiders to your bad behavior and thought, “This is Philly and we care more than anyone else so our frustration must be validated and until it is we are going to act like fools.”  Well guess what?  All Philadelphia sports fans look like fools today.

The collective reaction to frustration brings me to another point about the fans.  I know Philadelphians prides themselves on being knowledgeable about sports, but more and more I’m coming to believe that this isn’t quite true.  Let’s take the Flyers for example.  This team was not good at the beginning of the season. They were not good in the middle of the season.  But then they became good for a stretch of about a month and a half.  Somehow, against the odds, this team scrapped their way to a playoff spot.  It’s the Philadelphia sports story come to life!  The underdogs accomplished a goal they had no rights to just two months ago!  We should be celebrating this team!  But we’re not.  They aren’t going to win a Cup so the whole season is a waste.  Not winning a championship equals a failed season is the most ignorant opinion in sports.  Yet this dumb thought process is also engrained in the Philly fan persona. 

Philly fans are either overvaluing this team’s talent or ignorant to the rest of the leagues; neither shines favorably on the city’s knowledge.  The Flyers are a team without stars.  Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, and Brayden Schenn are not stars.  They are very good role players.  Shane Gostisbehere is not a star, though he may develop into one.  But for some reason the fans build these players up in their minds, put them on a pedestal, and assign them hurdles that are almost impossible to clear.  The truth about this series against Washington is that the Capitals are the best team in the NHL with the best goal scorer and goalie in the league.  They won fifty-six games this year; Dallas was the only other team to even with fifty.  Washington is nothing less than great.  The Flyers, on the other hand, are almost literally average.  They tied for thirteenth place in a league of thirty teams.  The fact that Washington is handily beating the Flyers up and down the ice, game after game, is a product of the Capitals simply being the better team. 

But that isn’t good enough for Philadelphia.  They expect miracles from their players.  They don’t want to hear excuses like the Flyers don’t have as much talent as Washington.  They think that is being weak.  The Flyers should be able to gut out wins, scrap for goals, and take down the best team in the world simply by wanting it more.  I’m sorry, but that’s just not a thing.  It’s an ignorant believe that only leads to disappointment.  And what happens when Philadelphia fans get disappointed?  They act out.  They throw things on the ice.  They show ESPN and the rest of the country that they are a bunch of goons. 

Sadly this ignorance is not specific to the Flyers.  Donovan McNabb is hated because he didn’t win a championship.  Let’s totally ignore that he was the best quarterback the team has had in the modern era.  He threw up in the big game and therefore he’s a loser.  Mike Schmidt got old and stopped hitting as many home runs.  It’s not that his talent level aged, it’s that he didn’t try hard enough anymore.  Same thing with Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Chase Utley.  They didn’t get old in the minds of Philly fans; they got complacent.  Those are all wrong opinions that come from a lack of knowledge of sports outside of Philadelphia.  The problem with fans holding athletes to unattainable heights is that they won’t ever attain them, and then instead of really enjoying the top-level talent that comes through this city, the fans complain that they weren’t perfect.  Which leads to disappointment and frustration and bad behavior.  It’s like the old cliché goes: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  It’s impossible that the teams play without passion or heart or guts every single year; maybe it’s the fans expectations that are insane.

Today is rough day to be a Philly sports fan.  What I’ve written about is just a part of what I think of Philadelphia fans.  For the most part I think the fans are great and knowledgeable.  There was a play early in last night’s game when Sam Gagner made a play to keep the puck in Washington’s zone as the Flyers went for a change.  Gagner held the puck against the boards and held off two Capital players long enough for the fresh Flyers to establish an attack formation.  And the fans went crazy.  They knew that seemingly small play that won’t go in the box score was very important to the Flyers scoring chance.  It was incredible display of a deeper knowledge of the game and exactly the kind of thing that makes me proud to be a Philly fan.  But then the frustration of lofty expectations unfulfilled that caused the fans to throw things on the ice that made me remember why there is still a lot of growing up still to do for the fan base.  It’s time to make a change.  It’s time to start appreciating the good things our teams do and forgiving them for not being perfect.  I swear we will all be happier fans.  And happy fans don’t do disappointing things that make them look like goons to the national media.  If we can be proud of our teams and forgo the ignorant actions, we will finally earn the respect we deserve and want so badly want from the rest of the country.