With All Due Respect To Dianna Russini, Part Of Being A Philly Sports Fan Is Being An Irrational Maniac Whenever Our Teams Lose
Let me preface this by saying that Dianna Russini is great. I'm a big fan to begin with, and obviously became an even bigger fan when she decided to marry a dude from Philly. It takes a certain type of woman to marry a Philly guy if you're not from Philadelphia, and they're all as rock solid as they come. So this is coming from a place of respect and admiration for Dianna Russini. But....
This is what you signed up for, unfortunately. Being mad at your husband for moping around all day after an Eagles loss would be like marrying someone from Portland and getting upset that they take drugs all day and don't shower. It's just a way of life here. Don't get me wrong, there are times when I wish that wasn't the case here in Philly. I wish he had the ability to be a little more rational about our sports fandom. But it's just been bred into us for generations at this point.
But that's what bonds us all together. Misery loves company. Some of our fondest memories of being Philly sports fans are getting our hearts ripped out of our chest, lit on fire, and having the ashes pissed on. Losing to Tampa in the 2002 NFC Championship Game to close out the Vet. Patrick Kane scoring the OT game winner in game 6 of the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. Ryan Howard tearing his ACL in game 5 of the 2011 NLDS. These are all god awful loses that have shaped and molded us as people.
If I meet someone and they can't tell me exactly where they were for all of those moments, I know that they are either 1) a 10-year-old kid that I need to stop talking to, or 2) someone who just doesn't get what it means to be a Philly sports fan.
However, her point does make a ton of sense once you start to realize that the players on the field don't give even remotely the same amount of shit as the fans do after a loss. You've got Dianna Russini's husband saying 2 words the whole next day, meanwhile Slay was already laughing it up with Drake London immediately after the game.
On second thought, maybe we really shouldn't care as much as we do.