Cecelia FranciscoWhy do Philadelphia teams always choke? Before you start throwing batteries at me, as some Philly fans are known to do, hear me out. Yes I enjoy seeing the Eagles with a seven-game winning streak or the Flyers in the playoffs and things like that.
What I’ve noticed, however, grates on my last nerve. For the most part any of the Philadelphia teams that get to the playoffs of whichever sport it is, always choke. Either they just can’t handle the pressure, or they get too cocky and start gloating too much.
Who can blame them for choking though, with such tough fans here in good ol’ Philly? I wonder how many death threats the players get when their team gets knocked out of one round of the playoffs.
I can only imagine that there’s a lot. After all, have you ever really listened to the fans’ reactions? And I don’t mean the ones they show on the 11 o’clock news either. I mean the ‘true’ fans. If their specific favorite team lost, they would express extreme disappointment by exclaiming this things as “well they suck anyway!’
Now, really, come on people, what happened to being a fan? Some of the ‘true’ fans will chalk this up to bandwagon jumpers, which there are many of, of course. Those are the fans that simply cheer for the team when it does well and hate them when they do awful.
I realize that this article will make people mad, but I refuse to jump on the bandwagon because ooh watch out they’re doing well this week. Yes I have hometown pride, I love Philly, but that doesn’t mean I love its teams
But why cheer for a team when you don’t really mean it? That’s ridiculous. I apologize if this offends anyone in anyway, but I just feel that people get way too worked up over some silly little games.
My roommate, for example, will turn on a Flyers game and as soon as it goes on will yell every five seconds, “What are you doing! Shoot the puck!” It doesn’t matter if they’re at the wrong end of the rink, or if they’re doing the right thing, it’s just what she’s used to yelling.
She is not the only person I’ve noticed act similarly. I think mostly it’s because the person doesn’t feel right if they’re watching a game and not yelling and cheering along. I suppose it becomes habitual after awhile.
As a fan that doesn’t scream at a game unless there’s a bad injury and I’m cringing at the thought of say a players arm bending backward or something, of course.
I want to reaffirm that I’m not hating on anyone who likes to cheer and boo Philly teams. I enjoy watching you in the bar cut away scenes on the news. It gives me something amusing to watch for a few minutes. Sometimes the way you all scream at once in those scenes, it reminds me of Sloth from “The Goonies,” and I hope and pray every time that someone stands up and shouts “Heeeyyyy you guuuuuys!”
And another thing, to point out a specific team, I despise the Eagles chant. If you’re at an Eagles game, OK, fine, chant it along with all the other fans-have a ball, let it all out. But if you’re at say, I don’t know, a Flyers’ game, take a second in your drunken stupor to realize that it’s not an Eagles game and no one else (except for your drunk buddy next to you) cares that you can spell the word ‘Eagles.’
Then again, it’s always funny to watch people in drunken stupors try and spell. Regardless, here’s to you, screaming fans bandwagon jumpers or ‘true’ fans, for providing entertainment for the rest of us.
Posted to Web by: Cecelia Francisco
