by Jimmy Duncan

Created on: June 21, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

"Obnoxious"

"Arrogant"

"Inconsiderate"

"Dangerous"

These are just a few adjectives used to describe the Philadelphia sports fan. I would guess in that you are describing me as well. My friends also. I guess we're all scumbags of some form or shape. We, like most other fans, tailgate in the parking lot before the game. We get a buzz on, and we head for the turnstiles. A few of us don't get through, with the City of Philadelphia and the sports team we support deeming us either too drunk, or any combination of the adjectives above (on top of being drunk).

Those of us that do make it through the gate shoot over to the beer stand as soon as we get in, and we start drinking again. Security shows us where our seats are, and makes a mental note that we won't be there by the midway point of the game.

We take our seats, and in good natured fun we pick at the opposing team, their fans, the officials, the PA announcer, in some cases our own team and fans, and around the holidays even Santa Claus himself isn't safe from our forked tongues. This is the Philadelphia sports fan. We are a little of everything that's bad about a crowd. We love that reputation.

The perception that the rest of the sports world has of us, however, is a bit more harsh. You needn't go any further than Youtube.com to see how much worse we could be. Ysnkees fans throw batteries, British soccer fans stage full scale riots, Oakland Raiders fans wear spikes, SPIKES, to games. I went to a Red Sox game in Boston a few years back and some guy tried to climb OVER HIS SECTION to get to me. I went to an XFL game in New York back in 2001 and had people literally throwing elbows into my ribs because I was wearing a Phillies jacket. We had to run back to our bus after the game because we were chased by New York fans.

Now it's true that Philly has seen it's share of ugly incidents in the stands just like every other team. And yes, there are a few bad apples in every crowd. We're not angels either. But in Philly, 95% of incidents start the same way. Fans of another team will come to cheer their squad on. And when their teams do something right, they cheer (as they should). But it's never "Go Rangers", for example. It's more like "Haha, F you Flyers" or "you guys suck", and they ain't saying that to them. They usually say it right to us. So we fire back. Then they wanna fight and we are the evil syndicate.

I think fans from other towns come in here with their bucket list in their hand.

"Things to do before I die"

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