The Psyche of the Eagles Fan

love and hate get it wrong :: she cut me right back down to size :: sleep the day let it fade :: who was there to take your place :: no one knows never will :: mostly me mostly you :: what do you say do you do :: when it all comes down :: i don't want to come back down from this :: cloud :: taken me all this time to find out what i :: need :: and i'm doing fine now :: there is no blame only shame :: when you beg you just complain :: more i come more i try :: all police are paranoid :: so am i - so's the future :: so are you - be a creature :: what do you say do you do when it all :: comes down

Bush - Comedown

I'm a little late writing this (should've been here Tuesday) but I've been busy. After a devastating loss to send the Eagles to 0-2, I was in a bad place. So was every other Eagles fan you know. Eagles fans are a peculiar sort that are easily identifiable. They are a select contingent no sane person would want to be part of (likely due to the fact that being an Eagles fan is in itself a case for being placed in a mental institution).
Eagles fans are cynical. We expect Murphy's Law to strike our football team at any instant. And the problem is that every loss leads us to a pit of utmost despair. It will literally ruin our day and make us depressed. When the birds lose, give any Eagles fan you know a hug. They will need it. On the other side, every win is pure, unadulterated elation. It is the happiest moment of our lives, making everything we've invested in the team worthwhile.
Eagles fans are an emotional sort. We wear our feelings on our sleeves... and yell them with our mouths. We will bitch and moan after a loss, and won't shut up about what the Eagles did well after a win. Drunken E-A-G-L-E-S will be heard echoing throughout Philadelphia bars after every victory. Rude? Perhaps. Boorish? Probably. Annoying? Can't really argue that. But so goes the Eagles fan.
Eagles fans care about their players; we will give back to them what they give to us. We are also unforgiving. Insult us, show us you have no heart - and we will be on you like white on rice. Eagles fans are bitter. We are repressed. All we want is to cheer as our team parades down Broad Street, but we are rarely given anything to cheer about. Eagles fans are blue collar, just like this city. We want our team the same way. They better play hard and hit hard. Play hurt and you've earned yourself a loyal fan base for the rest of your life.
The thing about the Eagles fan is they're truly a complicated being. At once passionate, loyal, supportive, jubilant... in the next instant ready to jump off a bridge if our receivers don't stop dropping the fucking ball. Our week is determined by how the birds perform. It is a sad state of affairs, and we are a sad people. We look for a glimmer of hope every year. Talk ourselves into thinking that salvation has finally arrived and that we finally reach the promised land. But with every loss that shining hope gets dimmer and dimmer til there is nothing left. It takes months for the hope to re-brighten, only for the entire process to start all over again. This is the life we live. A constant circle of hope leading to pessimism leading to more hope. Eagles fans are evidently masochistic. We know what we are doing to ourselves, yet we continue. One day the Eagles will be the death of me, undoubtedly. My psyche is fucked. The loss on Monday night to the Redskins just took too much out of me. I could've sworn this was going to be our year. Now I have nothing. I am a sad, empty shell of a being. At least, that is, until we win this weekend. My glimmer of hope hasn't completely faded yet.