I live in Pittsburgh, PA, and I love it. In so many ways, it's home. Anything I want to do/eat/see/hear/buy is easily less than twenty minutes from my door, and that's not always drive time either. The thing is... it can't ever be HOME home. I am from the half of this fair state that the sun chooses to shine on first, and boy freaking howdy do I enjoy letting people know that. Like, to the point that people think I'm your typical Eastern PA rude sonofabitch, even though... Anyhow, I have a few ways of pointing this out, but none come up quite as much as my constant undying love for anything Philly sports. Let me try to explain here...
I have no idea what it feels like to be a fan of a team from another city. The logical side of my brain wants me to believe that it's the same everywhere you go. Then, we have the side of my brain that was raised an hour outside of Philadelphia. I can tell you, and I'm right, that it's different from anything I've personally seen. We don't have a team like the Steelers that we don't worry about because there's no question they'll be good. We don't have a Detroit Red Wings that nearly our entire population have seen hoisting a trophy more than once. There are flipsides as well. We don't have an LA Clippers who are so bad that we have given up on them. We don't have a Phoenix Coyotes who are such a bad draw that we might end up losing them altogether. No, until last year, almost exactly, all we had to go on were hopes and somedays.
The thrill of seeing our Fightin' Phils win that World Series last year was so great that the entire city practically shut down. Seriously, for one day, a victory parade brought more people to Philly than the Olympics would. I could never contend that we are better fans or better people or anything like that. It's just that we're stuck in this odd limbo that I'm not sure any other North American pro-sports city knows the likes of. For years, almost every year, our big four teams have been good, even great. They've taken us to the playoffs consistently, and even occasionally to the big game. The '97 Flyers, the '01 Sixers, the '04 Eagles. All huge games, and all huge letdowns.
We're not as rabid or loyal as Pittsburgh. We're not as storied or worthy as Detroit. We're not as numerous as LA or as proud as NY. Hell, we're not even as scrappy as New Jersey. We're just Philly fans, and nothing is ever going to take that out of us.
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