Note: Some of the imagery in this post is a little graphic. One video (I’ll let you guess which one) involves actual nudity. If this sort of thing makes you queasy, I suggest you go here. Here we go:
Two things are true: 1. I have been a Philadelphia sports fan my entire life, and 2. I have never publicly rubbed my actual, naked testicles in another man’s unconscious face because he cheers for a different team than I do.
I bring this up because after the NCAA football “championship” game earlier this year, in which Alabama defeated LSU, one fan’s sexual frustration manifested itself in the assault gleefully cheered on in the video above. (Skip to about 3:30 for the really gruesome stuff.) And this guy was cheering for the winning team. To be clear, this dirtbag is from Alabama, not Philadelphia. You can read more about that story on Deadspin.
In another story, in January, two San Francisco 49ers fans were shot with actual guns for cheering on their team during a game against the New Orleans Saints. And this wasn’t even at the stadium. It was at an Applebee’s in Georgia (not in Philadelphia).
Last year, I watched my Richmond Spiders upset Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament in an Applebee’s. There were a couple guys rooting for Vanderbilt at the bar, and never once did I think, “I’m going to have to shoot those guys if Vandy wins.” And similarly, when Richmond won, I did not think, “Well, now I have to go rub my testicles in their faces.” Much to the relief of my wife and two children, I kept all of my firearms and genitals right where they were at the beginning of the game.
And if you’ll permit me just one more example, the lady in this video has to be the worst person in the world—worse than Kim Jong Il, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Lindsay Lohan all rolled into one. She stole a baseball intended for a little girl in the stands and then celebrated. And she’s not from Philly, she’s from Houston. (My esteemed fellow Blogger To Be Named Later Jeff Carl once literally ran away from an approaching foul ball at a minor league Richmond Braves game, just in case, he assured me later, there was a kid nearby who wanted it. Never mind that we were the only people for about three sections in any direction.)
Of course, these are all isolated incidents—and they happen in every city. Yet any time any fan incident happens in Philadelphia, it becomes part of a larger narrative that begins with, “There they go again” and ends with, “And these are the people who booed Santa Claus!” (First, that happened in 1968. That’s like a hundred years ago. Second, we didn’t boo Santa Claus, we booed the cheap Eagles’ owners who promised a Christmas parade and instead pulled a skinny, drunk guy out of the stands and dressed him up in a red suit. Third, why I am I saying “We”? This happened five years before I was born. So SHUT THE HELL UP ABOUT US BOOING SANTA CLAUS.)
You got a problem with me?
I’m not saying Philadelphia sports fans are saints. We cheer loudly, shout at people wearing other teams’ colors in our stadiums, and even get in occasional fights (though the only fight I have ever witnessed in person at a Philly sporting event was between a Red Sox fan and a Yankee fan). I am saying that isolated bad fan behavior happens in every city, and it shouldn’t condemn an entire fan base when it does. It wasn’t every fan who threw that battery at JD Drew, it was just the one guy. Just like it wasn’t every Yankee fan who spat on, threw beers at, and cursed out Cliff Lee’s wife during a playoff baseball game, it was just a few.
I’m tired of seeing stories about fans in other cities beating other fans into comas, rioting because their team won/lost the Stanley Cup, or rubbing their genitals on an unsuspecting, unconscious fan of the opposing team, and thinking, “The media would be going crazy over this if it happened in Philly.”
So, to sum up, if you have a problem with Philadelphia sports fans, I invite you to come down here and say it to my face.
Sometime during my Junior year of high school, my friends and I took the SEPTA down to Veterans Stadium to watch a Phillies game. The pre-game entertainment was some local 12-year-old Little League championship game.
So we’re watching the Little League game and in the 3rd inning, the pitcher walks the batter, and eventually the next batter. Then, finally after a 10-pitch at-bat, he walks the next batter.
Now suddenly 12,000 Philadelphians start LOUDLY BOOING A 12-YEAR-OLD. That, in one sentence, is Philadelphia sports fandom to me.
I suppose you wanted all those kids to get trophies for being terrible. Stop coddling our youth, you hippie.
Three walks in a Championship game? Did you want cheers? Perhaps the wave? Indifference. The kid is obviously not meant to be a ball player and we helped him choose a new career path. You’re welcome terrible pitching child, wherever you are.
Paul, Paul, Paul…. It wasn’t just that they boooed Santa Claus. It’s that they also pelted him with snowballs. Philly stands alone in that regard.
But I won’t bust on the Philly sports fan. It’s the stadium ushers. A couple years ago I wore my Red Wings jersey to the Wings-Flyers game. The Wings tanked the game, the Flyers won handily, and while I was still sitting in my expensive seat, several ushers taunted me. Ushers! The very same ones wearing “How you doin’?” buttons, as part of the Philly sports friendliness campaign. Classy, Paul, very very classy.
While I certainly agree that most teams/cities are guilty of some manner of sports-related violence, I think you’ve got an uphill battle to show Philly as anything less than among the worst. This happened between Gino’s and Pat’s, a sacred place I thought:
Flyers Fan Arrested in Winter Classic Fight
“Philadelphia Police have arrested the man they believe threw the first punch in a “vicious” post-Winter Classic attack outside Geno’s Steaks in South Philadelphia.
“This was a very, very vicious beating,” said police Capt. Laurence Nodiff.”
Wahhhhhh.
Paul, your delusional Phillies ego clearly takes the wahmbulance to games.
You forgot to mention the prolonged cheering from Eagles fans when a rival player had just clearly suffered severe injury. (And, no, you do not get makeup points because that player was Michael Irving.)
The idea that I would have an ego about my sports teams is hilarious. With exactly one major championship since my 7th birthday, Philly fans live with, if anything, a constant pessimism.
So far I’ve seen anecdotes of varying severity from roughly 1990 (Jeff in junior high), 1999 (Michael Irvin), and a couple years ago (Phil at the Flyers game). I think this is sort of proving my point. Nothing that’s happened in any other city two decades ago is part of the larger narrative about that city. Yet in Philly it seems to stick. (Think of Chicago: Disco Demolition Night and fans attacking opposing team’s coaches?)
The idiots involved in the recent incident Al cites after the Winter Classic were widely condemned on Philly blogs and among Philly fans. I think if Philly fans rallied around these knuckleheads and claimed them as their own, THAT would be reason for Philly to have the reputation it has.
That’s a fair point; if I recall correctly, the fansite that the video of the beating was posted to condemned, then helped identify the attackers and may have even aided in the police investigation. So fair play there.
I think the very fact that you are having to defend the Phillies in a blog post shows that there is a reason behind the reputation. Sorry, Paul.
I had a heated discussion just yesterday with a New Yorker friend (yes, I have one, actually) about who was ruder, Bostonians or New Yorkers. I may be looking through pink-colored glasses, but, if people from Boston are rude, I’ve never noticed. My friend said, maybe to me, it’s just all part of that New England charm. He may have a point.
Anyway, Phillies phans are vehemently passionate and loyal. I’m going with that.
It’s two different types of rude. New Yorkers are rude because they think they are better than everybody by virtue of living in the most important city in the world. New Englanders are rude because they are miserable b***ards by virtue of living in some bad weather, with overpopulation and ridiculous traffic design. I think we are all pretty bad; it comes out when you travel to, say, Texas. It took me a week to realize that the people working in retail and restaurants in Austin weren’t be ironically friendly to mock me. They were actually friendly. It was f***ing weird.
So any stereotype you try to refute is automatically correct? That’s dangerous territory!
PS: See Phanatic’s comment below.
Pop Psychology 101
Human nature is such that a person’s reaction to adversity carries a greater weight in our judgements than behavior when all is well. You only want to focus on Philadelphia fan behavior during their team’s recent run of success. Past poor behavior trumps current calm because visceral events stick in our memories longer and more clearly than those that invoke little emotion. The city’s bad reputation will not fade until Philadelphia fans can stay civil throughout the next period of sports futility.
In other words, I speak for all DC sports fans when I say STFU, b*tch.
Um–how about the college kid who made himself puke on the pre-teen daughter of an off-duty cop? That was last year. Face it–most Philly fans are red-haired and therefore predispositioned to be d&%kheads. It’s science.
“how about the college kid who made himself puke on the pre-teen daughter of an off-duty cop?”
That guy was from Jersey. He was from Cherry Hill, not Philly.
So he was a Philly sports fan then? Are only those from inside the city limits allowed to be Phanatics?
No matter whether you consider “Philly sports fans” to be “sports fans from Philadelphia” or “fans of Philly sports teams,” you can’t blame Philly for the known fact that New Jerseyians are total degenerates.
Egads, I agree with a Phillies fan.
Who said bipartisanship was dead?
“think the very fact that you are having to defend the Phillies in a blog post shows that there is a reason behind the reputation.”
Bwuh? How’s that work? “The very fact that you are having to defend Mexicans against charges of being lazy shows that there is a reason behind the reputation.” “The very fact that you are having to defend women against being bad drivers shows that there is a reason behind the reputation.”
You know what’s worse than Philly fans? Commenters.
You know what’s worse than commenters. Commenters who complain about commenters.
You can’t deny that booing in Philly has become — to some extent — the “thing to do” at sporting events, just because of this reputation. Much like when booing A-Rod at Yankee Stadium was the thing to do for awhile, in the words of Jon Langlois.
I have the volume up on broadcasts like everyone else.
I just remembered that guy at Wrigley who dumped beer on Shane Victorino’s head during a game in Chicago. The national media would hardly be able to contain their wrath toward Philly fans if that had happened in Philadelphia.
Love the “Boston people aren’t rude” comment above. So when Bruins fans threw condoms at Flyers fans a few years ago, that was just friendly banter? Give me a break.
Paul- I get that this upsets you, but the national media always needs a scapegoat for everything. The lazy “they threw snowballs at Santa” thing has stuck, and so now Philly is the go-to terrible sports town. It will never change. And every smallest thing will be brought up to show how bad we are.
I agree, it’s upsetting. Yeah, a guy intentionally puking on a little girl is gross, but that guy also got his ass KICKED by the fans around him, and is it really worse than MURDERS HAPPENING OUTSIDE PARKS? (Seems to happen at least once a year in California).
Here’s the thing though- the national media will never give it up. It is too easy for them. And the pitchfork mentality that far too many lazy Americans have will never go away. So they will always eat it up.
Just accept it. We’re the “worst fans in sports.” But you know what? We know we are the BEST fans in sports. You won’t find a more passionate, knowledgeable fan base than ours. So chalk it up to jealousy (go ahead and refute that, other-city-fans, and I’ll just dismiss it like you dismiss all the jackassity that occurs in other cities), be proud of our town, our teams, our fans, and cheer (or boo, whichever applies) your freaking heart out every game. Let the national media think- and spin- what they want. We know the truth.
Go Phillies and Go Eagles. I will also root for the Padres and Chargers. Root for what ever team you want and treat others with respect. Well, as long as they are not a No-Good Stinkin’ Yankee fan.