The Philly Fan's Stigma

The sun shines a little brighter when it is tinted with a shade of midnight green, even as the dawn reveals another dreary January day. The alarm goes off at the same dreadfully early hour, but it is ok, because the newspaper bears good news today: The Eagles are on to the fifth NFC Championship Game in 10 years, and they will be decided favorites to win and represent the aforementioned conference in the Super Bowl.

Audrey was heartbroken to learn a football game would interrupt our Sunday tradition of strolling through a dewy meadow, but to ensure the game would not be punctuated by her frequent protests, I offered to take her to the bar to watch it on my dime. She drank, I cheered, the Eagles won and we both went home happy.

Audrey is like most girls, in that she has no interest and even less understanding of the complicated game that is football, so I interjected my cheers and jeers with explanations of strategy, rules and my overall angst. She failed to grasp the last part.

“I just don’t understand why you are so upset,” she said as David Akers split the uprights to make it a 10-8 game in favor of the Philly faithful as the first half came to a close. “Your team is winning. You Philly people are so pessimistic.”

I tried to explain to her all the painful playoff losses of the past. I tried to explain the general feeling that somehow, the Eagles will find a way to screw it up. I tried to explain how the Eagles have been maddeningly inconsistent throughout the year, struggling in such seemingly benign situations, like 3^rd and 1.

“But they are your team, shouldn’t you be positive to help them win?” she queried. Ah, the ol’ Jimmy Rollins complaint, that the feeling of impending doom that every scarred Eastern Pennsylvania-native wears as a badge of honor and carries over to the playing field by affecting our “beloved” athletes. I then tried to explain the stress I feel during the games, how it actually isn’t that much fun to watch, because I spend the whole game worrying about how they might fail, and thinking about how painful it will be if they do.

“I don’t understand why you guys get so wrapped up in this stuff. IT’S JUST A GAME.” How dare you, Audrey. How dare you. Barkeep, another beer in this mug to silence hers.

WHEN Brad Lidge collapsed to his knees in late October, I had no idea how to react, because, I had never seen one of my preferred teams ever do this (it had been 25 years, I’m only 21). It was like a sensory overload, with Harry Kalas screaming, the players hugging and my phone ringing. But the reaction from all my friends was, “Well, now you can’t always assume your team is going to lose, because they finally won.” That was to be my reaction: you finally won, so shut up and stop complaining every time they lose.

I will cop to the pessimism, because as Philly fans, it really is bad, and a strong argument can be made that it affects our players (see 2008 Eagles roll through playoffs on road). We wait with bated breath for the roof to collapse. Our quotes of misery are infamous.

“I bleed Eagles green, I just wish I didn’t have to bleed so much.”

Or my father’s timeless classic, “It could be the Super Bowl, with 30 seconds left, up by 20, against the Bengals, who have no timeouts and are without the ball, and I still wouldn’t be comfortable.”

But why is this? Why are we so pessimistic? Other cities are just as tormented, Buffalo and Cleveland come to mind. But Eagles fans get the bad rap; it was us who called for Andy Reid’s head two months ago and some who applauded the elevation of Kevin Kolb to quarterback and believed McNabb looked good in a winter coat and skull cap. We aren’t “true fans” because we bashed the same team we now cheer. We’re “fair-weathered.”

Sorry, but that’s bullshit, and it makes my blood boil every time I hear it. Firstly, let me explain to the outsiders why Andy Reid and Donovan were “run out of town” earlier this year. BECAUSE THIS TEAM IS ONE WIN AWAY FROM THE SUPER BOWL, BUT 2 MONTHS AGO THEY COULDN’T EVEN BEAT THE STINKING BENGALS! It was obvious from wins over Pittsburgh and Atlanta that this team was talented, but they kept getting stuck in the mud. Were we supposed to simply applaud them for their effort, and ignore the fact they were underachieving? Is it not a fan’s right to demand that changes be made if we do not receive a return on our investment, or we see a team struggle that has great potential?

Again, I will admit we are over the top; five NFC championships in a decade is something a lot of NFL cities would kill for, but that stat alone highlights our frustration. Our teams have been good, but not good enough. Allow me to use a quote from the losing locker room in East Rutherford yesterday to illustrate my point:

"After this," center Shaun O'Hara said, "you almost wonder if it isn't better to not make the playoffs than to play the way we did out there today," highlighting the fact that there is one winner and 31 losers.

Don’t get me wrong, NFC Championship games are a hell of a lot better than meaningless week 17 games to determine whether your record will be 9-7 or 8-8, but all that is remembered is the last game, and only one team ever wins their last game, and the Eagles haven’t been that team since 1960, despite how many times they’ve been painfully close. Philadelphia fans want the best from our teams, and when we don’t get it, we voice our displeasure, loudly. It is admittedly annoying, obnoxious and vulgar, but we believe our teams to be the best during every game, and if they don’t win, that means someone messed up and deserves the blame.

We are not fair-weather, we are fair-optimism. Being pessimistic helps take the sting out of big time losses, because we can always say, “I knew they stunk. I didn’t like them that much, anyway. Stupid Eagles.” But we always come back for more, hoping this is the year they reward our questionable patience. Philadelphia feels like they own the teams, that the teams owe them effort and wins, and if those assumptions aren’t meant, the team receives scorn. Some fans are satisfied with the glow from a past win, but we don’t feel that way in Philadelphia. A past win is just that, and if that is enough, then why bother to keep playing? The Phillies win scratched the itch, but it didn’t get the Eagles off the hook. Philly always wants its teams to win, we just don’t always think they will, and our utter lack of eloquence makes us the ugly, fat, drunk girl of the party.