Crossing Broad
What happened to us?
For decades, sports fans have been sold “a win is a win.” It doesn’t matter how you grab the dub, just grab it and move on to tomorrow. Growing up watching Philly sports, that certainly applied to all of the teams as winning wasn’t happening that often. So, when it did, we cherished it.
Three championships later, it feels like the expectations have grown to a point where the style points are starting to matter more than the number in the left column. And it’s because us fans have that Philly fan complex consciousness telling us that those style points will eventually start causing the number in the right column to increase.
It makes sense. If you win games ugly, but don’t start looking “better” to the casual eye, the old adage “it’ll come back to bite you” absolutely holds weight. We’ve seen it before. That’s why when expectations are set so high, those style points start holding more and more weight.
But I hate it.
I can’t stand people constantly talking about how terrible the team looks when they win games. This is mostly an Eagles thing, but it can be applied to the other teams as well. I joke around about it because that’s my way of staying sane in today’s sports discourse landscape, but I wish more of us enjoyed the wins more than how they looked.
I don’t really care what fans of other teams think about my team that much, because they do not pay close enough attention to my team. They certainly don’t pay more attention to my team than I do. But they’re always the loudest in today’s social media world. They slowly infiltrate the mind. They start believing in the trend that stats are the only thing that matters. And the last few years, those voices have been getting louder and louder.
So, yeah, it’s frustrating seeing a team that just won the Super Bowl under the microscope so much. But, it’s to be expected. That’s what happens to championship teams. Even the Patriots and Chiefs have been under the microscope during their respective dynasties. It’s not some anti-Eagles bias. No, it’s not 2023. But that’s the only thing some of these fans can think about. I can’t say I don’t blame them, but also have the ability to separate the seasons and rosters – this is not the 2023 team. Could a similar ending of the season happen? Absolutely. Just like a similar ending of the 2024 season could happen. Or 2022. You get the point.
That shouldn’t be in the way of enjoying the wins when we can. Especially when there is plenty of season left.
The post Why Is “A Win is a Win” Not Enough Anymore? appeared first on Crossing Broad.
