Brotherly Love in Sports

Let's expand our knowledge on the fan base of The Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies.

[brotherlysports]

Philadelphia

Philadelphia was written by Micheal T. Flannery in The Urban Lawyer Vol. 34, No.2 in Spring 2002. This was written for an audience that would show interest in reading and learning more on the history of the Phillies stadiums. This article was mainly based on New Phillies Park which explains the features, location, finances, and bidding requirements. As for motivations Micheal T. Flannery was writing generally about Philadelphia, not just about the stadiums and where they should be. But, the fit of the stadium and how it could affect its city if it’s placed in the wrong area. Flannery had written that if the stadiums were placed in a parking lot, then it wouldn’t be as close to the city. Another motivation was to talk about the surrounding stadiums in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was another place getting to build new stadiums for their baseball and football team. This meant that the Phillies and Eagles were a bit behind in the stadium game. Micheal Flannery asks a question "How had Philadelphia fallen so far behind its cross-state rival" I believe it's just because they were trying to find the perfect fit for these new stadiums. After reading this article I find myself learning more on how the Phillies and Eagles stadium became bigger and better. This was a perfect fit for my blog because as I touched on the history, players, and games of the Phillies and Eagles, this gives me incite on the stadium and Philadelphia itself. According to Flannery "After months of bickering, Mayor Street finally abandoned his efforts to build downtown(383)" If this didn't happen and the stadium was built downtown, all three stadiums wouldn't be together like they are now. A big part of Philadelphia is driving down 95 and seeing Wells Fargo, Citizens Bank, and The Linc all in one location.

[brotherlysports]

Ai vs. Brotherly Love

As I was experimenting wit chat.gpt I didn't really find anything false, just thought some things were odd. My first question I asked was "who from the Eagles were picked for the 2024 Pro Bowl". Chat.gpt responded with 2 different responses. They were similar but one was longer than the other giving more information, it listed who was playing but response 2 listed some players that were alternate. As I started asking more questions, the 2nd response with more information was gone! My next question I asked was "What are Philly sports fans like" as they gave a long list of examples they started talking about "Historical Moments" like, the celebration on Broad Street after the World Series win in 2008, or the greasing of the poles after the 2018 Super Bowl win. But you notice they say nothing about the more recent wins like The Phillies playoff run and winning the NLCS Championship. They also don't talk about celebrating on the Eagles most recent Super Bowl win. People use Ai very often for many different things, but as you see not all the time does it give all the information you need. Sometimes, Ai can even be wrong, so do your research before you try and use Ai.

[brotherlysports]

Brandon Graham Retires

Brandon Graham started off his football career in 2006 by playing for The University of Michigan. After 4 years, in 2010 he was drafted in the 1st round, 13th pick to the Philadelphia Eagles. As his career went on he has done many big things like being in the pro-bowl in 2020, and then becoming a 2 time Super Bowl champion. He's been with this team through it all as he spent his whole 15 season career in Philadelphia. During Super Bowl LIX, Graham has re-tore his tricep but continued to play this game as he knew it may be his last. On March 18th, Brandon Graham had announced his retirement as it was broadcasted all over the news. PhiladelphiaEagles.com shared some of his retirement speech, "I could not be happier with the way my career played out, the love I've gotten, and the success the Eagles have had as an organization,"..."For real, it has been a dream come true." this is what Brandon Graham said in his interview while he was retiring. As he will be missed on the field he was an absolute legend.

[brotherlysports]

Maybe This Year

When did Philly have more specifically the fans start to get the reputation they have today? This question was asked by one of my fellow classmates, and this question can be answered pretty easily after watching the documentary “Maybe This Year”. This Documentary is a story on the Philadelphia Eagles and how they finally won their first Super Bowl, and showing the perspective from die hard eagles fans. “Maybe This Year” stars eagles fans Shirley Dash, Barry Vagnoni, and Jesse Callsen. It starts off in September of 2017 when the Eagles season begins. First we meet Shirley, she calls into a radio station where she expresses her feelings about the Eagles. As Shirley shows emotions about the previous game she says “I love my Eagles, I love my team, I ride or die for em’. But they gotta wanna do the same thing for us. They got to want to do the same thing for the fans.” In season she refers to herself as “Eagles Shirley” where she’s a passionate fan even when the Eagles don’t win.

 Next we are introduced to Barry Vagnoni, he built an addition onto his house to make “an Eagles locker room” this was a place where he can have his friends and family over for all game days. This place was huge, it was like they had their own bar right in the backyard. We one the locker room was filled with love and cheering. Unfortunately Barry had suffered from a heart attack, thankfully he was alright thanks to his doctors. His anesthesiologist had said “ Oh no this is that Eagles nut, we can’t let anything happen to him ‘cause they’ve never won a Super Bowl. We’ve got to keep him alive for when they finally win a Super Bowl.” That was such an amazing moment to watch because it shows how others can care for people they don’t even know. Barry had admitted that he cares so much but he can’t keep taking these losses to heart to where it affects him, but that just shows how fans are. During the documentary you get to watch Barry prepare for this moment of the game against the Vikings. 

Jesse is our last fan we are introduced to as he talks about bringing his own child into the world in an Eagles onesie. When Jesse was growing up he was introduced to the game by his father. Jesse said “ as a kid you think, why does he care so much.” and now being the same big fan like his dad he understands. His father ended up battling with brain cancer where he decided no matter what he would be watching these games with his dad. Jesse expresses how much he wants the Eagles to win not just for him but for his father, saying “it would be a blessing and a miracle all at the same time”. 

Each week they interview new fans and give updates on where they are standing. This was the year that we ended our season 13-3. The last 20 minutes was showing the main event, Super Bowl LII. We got to see the excitement but also the pressure and worry in the fans' faces. They played the final drive where Tom Brady threw the ball for the last uncompleted pass, fans immediately knew that the Eagles were finally Super Bowl Champions. They played reactions from Shirley, Barry, and Jesse, absolutely priceless, an unforgettable moment. There was screaming and there were tears but it was all from pure joy, the fans finally got what they wanted. Now I go back to my question of where the fans get the reputation from. Leading after the game fans filled the broad street to celebrate. They may not always be the most pleasant people, but they will do anything for their team. Earlier in the documentary there were clips from a tailgate, fans getting excited, setting off fireworks, being the usual idiots. But these fans are so passionate, I know I may be a fan myself but I even got emotional seeing how these fans were celebrating. I remember the moment myself, the feeling of finally winning, being nervous all day until the game was finally over. If you are not a fan or don’t follow sports this is a must watch of what to see when you will encounter Eagles fans.

[brotherlysports]

British baseball fan organizing Phillies tailgates in London

This news article was posted by the New York Times: The Athletics. In June of 2024 the Phillies had taken on the Mets in a London Series. Fans from all over had traveled to London to cheer on their Phillies, but British Phillies fan, Dave Shaw about running a tailgate during this series. Dave Shaw said "Every time I’ve been to Philly, the fans have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome,” Shaw said. “So since it was announced, I felt like it’s my turn to give back to the fans.” Dave was able to hangout with the coaching staff before the series started. He got to witness Rob Thomson, Phillies head coach, raise a toast to all the fans in a local bar. Dave basically started vlogging on instagram around London and the stadium to "to try to make it as easy as possible for fans coming over." Where he got feedback from followers saying how helpful his vlogging was. He even mentioned in the article how he met fans from Hawaii, Canada, even Australia. He was asked questions like "Why do you think the London Series hasn’t sold out?" Dave response was about how not everyone in the UK are interested in baseball as they would be football and basketball. But, he expressed how many new people were coming there just to see some baseball in the UK. Throughout the rest of the article Dave was being interviewed on His favorite memory as a fan, his worst memory, describing the Phillies season, and so on. Daves commitment to getting fans from overseas was very generous and makes people feel more welcome. This is what proves that not all Philly fans are terrible.

[brotherlysports]

It is opening day for plenty of MLB teams today, as the Phillies took on the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in D.C. The first pitch was thrown at 4:05 by Mackenzie Gore who pitched for the Nationals. For the Phillies bullpen we had Zach Wheeler on the mound. The game was a slow start as it was 0-0 up until the bottom of the 5th inning where the Nationals struck first with a homer to right field. In the top of the 7th inning Bryce Harper hit a 415 feet home run into center, and Kyle Shwarber came to bat hitting one into the center right stands. The Nationals fought back tying the game up 3-3 in the bottom of the 8th, it stayed like that till they went into extra innings. Int he top of the 10th the Phillies were up and their bats were on fire. They managed to score 4 runs on a double by Bohm and a triple by catcher Realmuto. In the bottom of the 10th Matt Strahm was able to shut out the first 3 batters for the Phillies to take the win. It took the Phillies awhile to warm up but it ended in their favor and fans are happy. Phils have a break Friday and will resume Saturday and Sunday in Washington, then travel back to South Philly for the Homer Opener against the Colorado Rockies.

[brotherlysports]

The boys are back in town!

Now that we are two days away from Phillies Opening Day against the Washington Nationals. They finally arrived back on broad street from spring training in Clearwater, Florida. The Phillies start their training on February 22nd and made their home for the next month at Baycare Ballpark. Throughout spring training they split their rosters up to play against other major league teems from the east coast. Here is first baseman MV3 Bryce Harper arriving home!

[brotherlysports]

Maybe Next Year: Long-Suffering Sports Fans and the Teams That Never Deliver By: Greg Pearson

As I read this book I enjoyed looking through all the chapters about unsuccessful sports teams around the states. But, of course the Philadelphia Eagles are one of those teams. As this is about each specific team, Pearson had acquired many quotes from die hard fans all over Philadelphia. There were two main fans that spoke all through the book, Bo Marroletti and Taylor McCormick. These fans worked in Philadelphia, Bo Marroletti was a local bartender he said “Philly is a football town. Turn on a Phillies game. At some point during that game, you will hear an Eagles chant(pg.103)”. Taylor McCormick had worked at Chickies and Petes, a sports bar which was only a short drive away from the Eagles stadium. Taylor said “We probably wear our heart on our sleeve more than any other fans(pg.102)”. This book wasn’t published till 2016 so it has a lot more of the older players. Players that my dad even owns classic jerseys on like Quarterback Randall Cunningham and Tight End Brent Celek. This book gave me entail on how the Eagles had played throughout multiple seasons from 1942 all the way to 2015. While that was a lot of years of losing, there were some good parts. On December 19th of 1948 The Eagles met up against the Chicago Cardinals where both teams had to help groundskeepers shovel snow off the fields. That game was painful as there were only a total of 5 passes and 42 yards in the beginning. Finally Philadelphia was able to run the ball and nearly take down the cardinals 7-0. That may have been a great play to watch while in a snowstorm, the Eagles had a losing streak from 1962-1977.  I really enjoyed the way Greg Pearson put so much detail into this book. As I read I feel like I can imagine the play happening in my head even if it happened 50 years ago. The only thing I would say is if you don’t have an understanding for football then you won’t get much from it. But, readers will get the understanding of how these philly fans are. The book even starts off with “When it comes to cities with big personalities, Philadelphia is at the top of the list.” As this book is not just based off the Eagles, the one chapter I got from it still gave me enough information about the team and the fans.

[brotherlysports]

NLCS Phillies vs Diamondbacks

In October of 2023 the Phillies took on the Diamondbacks during the playoffs. As Philly fans noticed the Diamondbacks ticket prices were lowering and becoming very cheap even for a playoff game. So, the fans took advantage of those low ticket prices and bought them, but not for the reason of getting on a plane and flying to Arizona. Phillies fans bought out the rest of the tickets so that Diamondback fans could not got, and now half the stadium was empty. But they were also planning on donating these tickets to charity. Sports Illustrated  talked about how one fan bought 14 of those tickets, then not long after that becoming twitter famous, and having a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Dan, the man with the 14 tickets wanted to give other Phillies fans the chance to go to the playoffs with no charge for the tickets.

[brotherlysports]

The Philly Sports Guy

This is the Phill Sports Guy, also know as Jamie Pagliei. He is one of the biggest fans I've every seen but he still thinks of himself as just a regular guy. PSG attends as many games as he can but not just for the heck of it. He's been working with a charity as well called Mascot for a Cure. NBC Philadelphia  states "he's been a full-time, face-painting phenomenon, attending as many games as he can, for as many Philadelphia teams as he can, as a way to spread positivity and support the city's sports teams." Outside of going to sports games all the time, he likes to go to schools to promotes positivity and end violence and bully. Jamie will also travel to be at these games, as the Eagles were just in the Super Bowl, Jamie was there too cheering on his team. When is was Red October , you could catch the Philly Sports Guy at Citi Field watching the Phillies take on the Mets. In all, this fan shows how he's not here to trash other teams and their fans. He wants to just enjoy a game with fellow Philly fans, as positivity is very important to him. So next time you go to a Philly sports game, keep an eye out for The Philly Sports Guy!

[brotherlysports]

Taryn Hatcher  is a NBC Sports Reporter for Philadelphia and has been in this career for the past 6 years. She went to Rutgers University where she studied Journalism and Mass Media Studies from 2011-2014. She started interning for the Philadelphia Flyers in the fall of 2013. In July she wanted to get her foot through the door, Taryn went to Honolulu Hawaii just to live there and become a reporter for Hawaii News Now. NBC Sports Philadelphia  said she always had a childhood dream to report for the Flyers, Sixers, Eagles, and Phillies.  As Philly is a pretty big market she decided to come back. Being a woman reporter in sports she is someone I had looked up to. Now that she has been in Philly for awhile she was reported for the all teams but is now reporting on the Phillies. Philadelphia Today praises her for all that she has done for this city, and gives us some insight on how she grew up.  She likes to have fun with her job like in August 2022 she dressed up and worked as a phillies ball girl. Taryn also she got to sit with flyers goal tender, Carter Hart’s mother, where they did an interview  at the start of the game. 

NBC Sports Philly did a Q&A about all the things that incorporated philly. Taryn Talked about her favorite philly sports memories, she shared how she used to always go to Flyers games with her family when Wells Fargo Center used to be called the Spectrum. When Taryn was in college she used to work at a pretty famous spot in Philly, Chickies & Pete’s. Even though Taryn grew up in South Jersey, she was still pretty familiar with Philadelphia and proves that. In my opinion she was a perfect fit in Philadelphia, her sports reporting shows her hard work and knowledge on the beautiful city. In Jersey Man Magazine Taryn did a story called “Talkin’ with Taryn” where she answered questions and talked about her experience. They did hit the topic about Philly fans and Taryn stated “It’s a passionate family. When they don’t do what we want, we get a little disappointed. But the love is so undeniable that you feel like it’s okay to be critical sometimes.” This was so well said, even though she has always been a fan from a reporter's view it can still be different. 

[brotherlysports]

Primary source:

On February 14th, 2025 some may be celebrating Valentine's Day while Philadelphia was celebrating the win of the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Championship! I woke up at 7 am that day to get myself ready to take on the streets of Philly. One of the places to be was right near the Art Museum where the parade would be stopping so that the players could say their speeches. My friends and I had pushed through a bunch of people to get the perfect spot. It was a lot of standing, but with good people and good music, you didn't even think about it. I saw a little boy who was sitting on his fathers shoulders with a blow horn, everyone LOVED him.

As the parade finally began everyone started to get excited. Beer cans were being thrown for the players to catch, people were capturing photos, and none stop cheering of E-A-G-L-E-S! I got plenty of pictures and videos but my favorite one was of our offensive tackle Jordan Mailata! I included the picture on the left to show example of just how many people I was surrounded by, because there was more than one million people celebrating in Philadelphia that day. The picture on the right was a group of friends that sat on top of a U-haul truck for a great view.

Once the parade was over my group had started walking over to the city for a ride home. Let me say I have NEVER seen so much green. People really showed up for this day, people were still cheering even hours after the parade was over. The city didn't calm down till around 6pm where they were also trying to open the city back up. What is unique about these fans is that they will travel no matter what it takes. Before I even went out to Philly we stopped at my friend's Uncle's house. Her Uncle had a buddy who traveled from New York that day with just a backpack cooler and his belongings. Now New York may not be as far but getting on a train and making it to the city before 10am on parade day was pretty impressive. It is very rare for championships to come around, for us it took another 7 years. But this was the best thing I ever experienced from the City of Philadelphia, and I would 100% do it again.

[brotherlysports]

Greetings from Clearwater, Florida!

The temperature is 73 degrees which is some beautiful weather for baseball. The Philadelphia Phillies just kicked off their preseason Saturday February 22nd as they played the Detroit Tigers. Fans traveled down to the Sunshine state to watch their favorite baseball team play. Till the end of march Baycare Park is the Phillies new home. Stayed tuned for some more updates, and Play Ball!

[whatdoiknow14]

An Induction to the World of Conspiracy

Hello everyone, for my first post I would like just to start with some basics. What makes a conspiracy theory a conspiracy theory? How do they begin? How do they spread and why are people so fast to believe them?

What makes a conspiracy a conspiracy theory?

To answer that first let's look at the definition. According to The Oxford Dictionary, conspiracy is the action of conspiring, a combination of persons for an evil or unlawful purpose. Most conspiracies follow a similar formula: historical context, claim, evidence, and analysis. Historical context refers to a certain time's social, political, economic, and cultural environment to help better understand the conditions in which a theory developed. The claim of a conspiracy theory is the overall idea that the conspiracy is trying to get you to believe. The claim is backed by evidence. This is where it gets a little dicey. In his book A Culture of Conspiracy,  Micheal Barkun uses the word unfalsifiable. Evidence for a conspiracy is often unfalsifiable. This means that the “evidence” that theorists use and believe is not exactly credible and attempts to debunk is just all part of the conspiracy’s cover-up. In many instances, the evidence used to support theories includes secret knowledge or falls into confirmation bias and circular reasoning which makes it hard to prove or debunk that evidence at all. Lastly analysis, how does the presented “evidence” support a theory’s claim. Conspiracies are just like any argument you need a claim, evidence, and analysis.

How did they begin?

Often a conspiracy theory will start to develop in the bad times. The stress, anxiety, and anger that society is feeling often leads them to find their own truth and find someone to blame. An example of this is to help you understand is The International Jew conspiracy. During the early parts of the 1900 when the world wars were taking place The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903. This would become a pillar for Nazi Germany to lean on as evidence during their regime. After World War I, Europe was down, especially Germany. If you ever paid attention in history class this should all sound familiar to you. Anyway, Germany was mad and angry, they were looking for someone to blame. So, they blamed the German Left, which was composed of socialists, communists, and Jews. They blamed the German left for the surrender and the conditions of The Treaty of Versailles. This along with the already growing antisemitism in Germany eventually led to the events of the Holocaust. This is just a short summary, and we’ll talk more about The International Jew conspiracy in a later post, but I hope you got an understanding of an example of the type of environment that best allows for conspiracies to grow.

How do they spread and why are people so fast to believe them?

As mentioned earlier, Micheal Barkun- the author of A Culture of Conspiracy- associates conspiracy theories and folklore.  He writes that Conspiracy is much like urban legends in the sense that they are told as if they are true and the story is plausible, unlike fairy tales which are seen more as myths. In the past Conspiracy traveled by word of mouth just as folklore often was but now with the advancements of media, conspiracies are much easier and faster to spread than ever before, that’s why you see more and more people believing in them.  But well, what do I know?

[brotherlysports]

Being involved with sports, people think of conspiracies all the time. This past Super bowl, i've seen plenty of people say things about the Super bowl logo and how that can tell the outcome of the game. Years in the past we had Super Bowl LVII's colors be green and red, later when the stage was set the Eagles took on the Chiefs for the first time. Then this years logo colors were it was red and green. Some also may say that which ever color is the majority is the team that loses, which in this case red was the majority and KC took the lose against the eagles with the score being 40-22!

[brotherlysports]

From Broad to Bourbon Street

After Super Bowl LIX, Philadelphia sports fans stormed the streets of New Orleans for a celebration after the Eagles won their second Super Bowl. For the first time ever Bourbon Street had to have their poles greased knowing what the result would be like if the eagles won the super bowl.

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Meet me on broad Street

A philly sports fan? Well they’re just crazy!  Unfortunately many people think we are nasty humans that just love to torture opposing teams fans, but other people may see a fan base that will go the extra mile for their team. Now I may be biased, but Philly sports fans are die hard! Sometimes it may be painful to be a fan when our teams lose, but when we win it’s a WIN! In 2017,  Eagles fans stood out in the cold on New Year's Eve to watch a game against the Dallas Cowboys.  This game did not go in Philadelphia’s favor, but this was the game that took us to the NFC playoffs, and later the Superbowl! After a big game, fans take themselves to the streets of Philadelphia where they later end up on Broad Street, this is a place where celebration begins.

This year on February 9th, the Eagles participated in their 4th Super Bowl down the bayou in New Orleans. Playing the Kansas City Chiefs, who were competing for their 3rd superbowl in a row, the Eagles were prepared to dominate. With the score of 40-22 the Philadelphia Eagles were now WORLD CHAMPIONS! You can only imagine what the city looked like, NBC 10 reporter Johnny Archer said “The most passionate fans in the country by far.” News stations all over were able to capture the flock of green, it was a very special moment for the city. Another thing Philly fans are infamous for is climbing the street poles.The Mayor of Philadelphia, Cherelle Parker told fans “Do not climb light poles, or anything else!” Fans of course had their comments towards that, but they proceeded to do it anyway. This time fans went the extra mile to even steal the light poles  and pass them through crowds! As we take a further dive into this blog we will begin to talk about other Philly teams, their wins, and players' reactions about Philly sports fans.

[brotherlysports]

What Broad Street looks like from a fan perspective after the Eagles won the NFC championship!

(Image by Jillian Fitzpatrick).