Making a Texas-Sized Splash

After going relatively silent during the first few weeks of free agency, the Eagles made a big offseason transaction splash last night. Many fans were concerned and frustrated that the team didn’t make extreme efforts to sign Detroit Linebacker Steven Tulloch (who resigned with the Lions to the tune of a 5-year-deal) and weren’t hopeful of the Birds signing Atlanta’s Curtis Lofton. However, those fans’ prayers were answered as the team dealt this year’s 4^th-Round Draft Pick to Houston and swapped 3^rd-Round Picks with the Texans to bring Two-Time Pro-Bowler, DeMeco Ryans, to Philly.

Former Texans Captain Linebacker DeMeco Ryans will bring great Leadership to Philly

Ryans doesn’t only have an awesome first name, but he also dominated in the middle of Houston’s defense for his first 5 seasons in the NFL. After earning the AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2006, Ryans followed that 156 tackle season with 3-straight 100+ tackle seasons from 2007-2009. Then, unfortunately for Number 59, Ryans tore his ACL 6 games into the 2010 season and then recovered in time for 2011 only to discover that the team switched their defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4 system. Not surprisingly, Ryans struggled last season, barely coming close to finishing 100 tackles.

Now, after reading those last two sentences, you may be as dubious as John Elway is about Tim Tebow as an NFL Starting Quarterback about Ryans’ potential success in Philly. If you are doubting Ryans, the first thing you need to realize is this: He’s either replacing Jamar Chaney, Brian Roll, Moises Fokou or Akeem Jordan in the starting linebacker corps for the Eagles this season. That’s like Chris Christie replacing the Senior Class President of Lower Merion High School.

Ryans’ talent is above and beyond any talent that any other Eagles Linebacker possess and he truly embodies incredible leadership qualities. In Houston, Ryans’ nickname was “Cap”, which was short for Captain. If that doesn’t speak highly enough for his teammates’ respect for him as a leader, you must see some of Ryans’ former Houston teammates’ tweets about the Alabama product.

Texan’s Sarting Quarterback, Matt Schaub (@MSchaub8), tweeted: “Really tough to see @DRyans59 go. True leader on & off the field. Gr8 player & person who represented Htown to the upmost”. Ryan’s former fellow Linebacker, Brian Cushing (‏ @briancushing56), tweeted: “I wouldn't be half the player or person I am today without @DRyans59 this one hurts. Philly got a unbelievable player and leader today” as well.

In addition, take a look at Ryans’ numbers. Following his 4-straight 100 tackle seasons. Ryan’s totaled 64 tackles in 6 Regular Season games. That’s over 10 tackles a game. He was on pace for his best season ever before his ACL injury. That injury also takes about two years to fully recover from. Knowing that, Ryans was also in an uncomfortable 3-4 system while not playing at 100% last season. This year, he’s had another offseason to recover and will be back playing in a 4-3 system that he has thrived in. Ryans will also bring outstanding leadership to an Eagles defense that hasn’t had a leader on its defense since Brian Dawkins left.

This trade massively improves one of biggest weaknesses of the Eagles’ roster, and I’m very excited for the impact DeMeco will have this season and for many more seasons to come. However, I’d also like to see the Birds look to improve their Outside Linebackers through the draft as well. Welcome to Philly Mr. Ryans. I’m sure you’ll play hard and the Birds faithful will love you to death. 

2011-2012 Sixers Mid-Season Report

The Sixers should seriously explore trading Andre Iguodala for Monta Ellis

Going into this season, all of the NBA “experts” and talking heads said that young teams would be successful in this hectic, busy and exhausting regular season. Fortunately, that’s exactly how the year began for the Sixers. But, after jumping out to an 18-7 record over the teams first 25 games, they’ve hit a wall as of late. Nonetheless, now that we’re into the All-Star Break for the Sixers, I’d like to evaluate the top 5 storylines of the Sixers’ season thus far.



The Anomaly of Andre Iguodala
For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you are very well aware of my hatred of what Iguodala brings for the Sixers on a play-by-play basis. As a basketball fan in general, I really appreciate and enjoy watching players like Thaddeus Young, Nik Vucevic, Spencer Hawes, Steve Nash, Dirk, and even Jeremy Lin who BRING IT on 98% of every play they are in the game. These types of players fight on every possession (both offensive and defensive) and try to make every one of their decisions and actions have a positive affect on their team. Iguodala doesn’t have that in his DNA. He takes many plays off on defense (Like when he allowed himself to be screened away from Deron Willions with 30 seconds left in the 4th Quarter by Kris Humpheries to let Jodie Meeks cover the All-Start point guard instead) and doesn’t understand good shot selection on offense. Unofficially, Iguodala chucks up 4 fade-a-way jump shots a game from either the elbow extended or beyond. These shots also always come early into the shot-clock or after he stopped the balls rotation throughout the offense. He’s getting paid $13 million to put up 16 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists a night. But, this season, he’s only averaging 12 points, 5 boards and 6 assists while also shooting an abysmal 62% from the foul line. Yet, he’s an All-Star? I simply just don’t get it. If the NBA coaches decided that the Sixers deserved to have one player represent them in the All-Star game, it honestly should have been a guy who fills his role more sufficiently like Lou Williams or Thad. Iguodala’s national acclaim is nothing but an anomaly to me. I just hope it’s only a matter of time, and a few upcoming nationally televised games, that the truth about this overpaid player is revealed to all.

The Weird Frontcourt Situation

The Sixers frontcourt this season has been nothing short of weird. First, Spencer Hawes started off the year as the front-runner for the Most Improved Player award. But, that was his nagging back, strained Achilles tendon and some guy named Jeremy Lin. This opened the door for Nik Vucevic (my boyfriend) to develop into a solid rookie, Elton Brand to turn into a shot-blocker and interior-defending beast (before his right thumb injury) and the birth of Lavoy Allen’s professional basketball career! But now, Hawes has been sidelined for the last 9 games, fans are rumbling for a trade, and Collins refuses to take Allen out of the lineup for a more productive Vucevic or Thad Young. What’s weird about these bigs, is that the team is blessed with 4 solid big guys that would most likely make any NBA roster, but they’re not all totally effective together on the floor. For example, Elton Brand and Lavoy Allen don’t mesh defensively or really offensively. They both like to float between the elbows and the block and shoot spot-up jumpers and Lavoy can’t cover opposing big men who wander outside the lane while Brand controls the paint. And, even when Hawes wasn’t injured, the team’s best offensive lineup included Thad and Vucevic up front, but that led to some clear defensive struggles. The weirdest thing of all is that the Sixer’s bigs have done so many great and unexpected things during the first half of the season, but that production has still, unfortunately, not been enough on many nights to get W’s over the past two weeks.

The Evan Turner Dilemma

Evan Turner hasn’t played like a Number 2 Overall Draft Pick during his first season and a half as a professional. Now, I’m gonna tell you why. Evan Turner is a POINT GUARD. He played as a distributor in college at The Ohio State University. He thrives when he has the ball in his hands and is able to create for himself and his teammates. Some of my favorite moments of this season have came when Turner skied for a defensive rebound, immediately took off down the floor and fired a 35-foot-pass, right on the money, to his teammate for an easy fast break layup. What’s holding Turner back you may ask? Jrue Holiday. Jrue’s playing point on offense, but he can barely distribute and prefers to score than drive and kick. He also severely struggles covering opposing Point Guards on defense. Turner can actually defend point guards. He shut down Deron Willions for a solid 2 minutes late in the 4th Quarter of the team’s 97 to 90 OT loss to the Nets. Turner will only be truly successful in this League as a Point Guard or Point Forward. Mark my words.

The Positives and Negatives of Coach Collins

When I found out the Sixers signed Doug Collins to be their next head coach two summers ago, I was a disappointed. I knew the Sixers were rebuilding. I knew they were overpaying two players and I knew not to expect anything big from the Sixers in a while. That’s why I wanted the team to promote Assistant Coach Aaron McKie and have their players grow with a young guy they could relate too. I was wrong about Collins. He really knows how to teach these young players to play tough, inspired and determined team basketball and defense. Under Collins, they have the sole lead of the Atlantic Division. But Collins does have some extreme coaching flaws. He severely lacks the competence of putting his players in position to succeed in the 4th Quarter. He also has struggles to make in-game decisions and matchup changes in a timely manner. For him to truly deserve to be in the Coach of The Year discussion, he needs to “teach” his team the great value of getting layups and attacking the basket late in games. Collins is a good teacher of the game of basketball and a great motivator. But I think he lacks the mental toughness and collectedness to be a coach that can help his team win games they really shouldn’t be winning.

Trade Deadline Drama

Of course, with every NBA All-Star Weekend come the imminent mysteries of the looming Trade Deadline. This year, the deadline is March 15, which leaves NBA teams with approximately 3 weeks to assess their rosters and attempt to improve them before the playoffs. For the Sixers, their roster is really only missing a scorer that can get to the line or score baskets almost every time he touches the ball in the 4th Quarter and a big man that you can dump the ball into in the post and commands a double team or can make a move for a clean easy layup. In the Second Quarter of their game against the Lakers on February 6th, the Lakers fed Andrew Bynum inside on every play and their offense was very effective. Similarly Dwight Howard forced the entire Sixers D to collapse around him in Orlando on Feb , which resulted in a 3-point party for the Magic Guards. On a different note, the Sixers are once again amidst rumors of dealing for high-scoring and clutch Warriors guard, Monta Ellis. Right now, since it is very unlikely that Howard would stay in Philly after being traded here, I’d really like to see the Sixers make a deal essentially based on swapping Iguodala for Ellis, while maybe including Jrue in the deal and sliding Turner into the starting lineup. With their Mareese Speights trade earlier in the season, the front office allowed themselves to have a multi-million dollar trade exception that would allow them to take back more money than they give in a trade. With that move, I’m very excited to say that for the first time in a long time, the Sixers should be doing some work at the deadline this season. But, as always, my fingers are always crossed wit a slight dubious feeling deep in my gut.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Sixers!

I can’t truly describe the ridiculous inner-struggle I have been facing recently regarding when to finally post about the early-season NBA Atlantic Division leading 76ers. I didn’t know if it was fitting to write about the team’s “fight-to-the-death” passion and intensity during their loss to the Knicks in Madison Square Garden. I didn’t know if it was fitting to write about the team’s extremely impressive win over the Atlanta Hawks to Friday’s ago. And I didn’t know if it was fitting to write about the team after a pretty solid two and a quarters in Miami until my new mancrush’s, Nicola Vucevic, third quarter injury. But now, after a back-to-back wins of Detroit and Charlotte, the Sixers are impressively 14-6 through their first 20 games and almost first third of this short season.

Now, you can definitely make the argument that the 76ers haven’t beaten anyone all that impressive besides the Idiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks during their first 20 games. But, with a 11.7 points per game differential ( 1^st in the league) the Sixers have shown that they are significantly better than the lesser teams in the League. The argument of “look who they’ve played” also counters the team’s astounding rankings in the Top 5 of the League in almost every defensive category. However, team defense rarely ever weakens throughout the course of a season and usually only gets better. Both they’re defense and winning margin are very good signs for the future as the team starts to play a very rough (to put it likely schedule).

Over the next two weeks, the Sixers play the Magic, Bulls, Heat, Lakers, Spurs and Clippers at home. Now, I’m the first person to make fun of people who go through a teams schedule over a time-span and predict “sure-fire” wins, but it never hurts to at least try to analyze up-coming games. With that being said, is it really THAT unlikely to think that the Sixers could beat the Magic, Lakers, Spurs and Clippers? All four of those teams have some form of major flaw that a young and pretty well-coached team can exploit. The Spurts and Lakers are SOOOOOOOOO slow. In fact, many people are joking calling this 2011-2012 roster as the “Slow-time” Lakers. Next, the Magic struggle when they can’t hit outside shots. Fortunately, the Sixers rank 1st in the League in Opponent’s 3-Point FG percentage. Finally, the Clippers being lead by a pretty poor coach into a road arena that will most likely be packed to see “lob-city” doesn’t really bode well for a team that’s still trying to find its true identity. Ladies and gentleman, if the 76ers win at least four out of their next six home games, it will be very safe to say that this club will be very well on their way to an Atlantic Division title (Their first since 2001) along with home-court-advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

I’m saying you need to be overly confident in the 76ers chances at making some noise in the playoffs this season, but I’m definitely saying you need to start getting excited about where this team is headed. Their only real weak-spots are interior defense and poor shot selection and coaching down the stretch. If they can overcome some of those difficulties, there’s going to be some exciting basketball being played in the Wells Fargo Center come March and April.

And remember….

Clap your hands…. Everybody! Stomp your feet…. Get up and Cheer! The Sixers… of Philadelphia… TEAM OF THE YEAR!

The Good Birds in 2011

I can’t truly complain, scream and yell right now about this disappointing Eagles season considering I already recognized the death of the 2011 Birds. So with that, I’d like to take a few paragraphs to recognize the few bright spots over the course of this season.

1. Jason Babin and the rest of the Defensive Line

Th The reason for Babin’s success is pretty clear: He loves hitting the quarterback and in his boy, Jim Washburn’s, system, Babin is able to put his head down and just viciously penetrate the pocket. That strategy led to 18 sacks for Babin and fans saying that he only cared about sacks. However, he forced a game-saving fumble against the Giants and his helmet broke Tony Romo’s finger and arguably cemented the Cowboys’ ultimate monumental end of season collapse and loss to the Giants yesterday. I’d say that’s a pretty well-rounded and successful player. Also, Trent Cole, Cullen Jenkins combined for 16.5 sacks. Washburn and his D-Line were the only consistent bright spot on Defensive this season.

2. 2. Shady McCoy

McCoy had probably the greatest season of any Eagles Running Back in franchise history. Some notable stats: 1,309 yds, 4.8 yards per carry, 17 touchdowns, 48 catches, 315 receiving yards and 3 receiving touchdowns. That’s straight-up ridiculous! After such a great breakout season, Shady now looks like a perennial pro-bowler and contender for the league-rushing crown for the next 5-10 seasons.

3. 3. Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek

In the passing game, there wasn’t too much to be proud of with the injuries and constant struggles from Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson. In fact, Maclin and Celek were probably the only two consistent performers in the aerial attack all season. Maclin boasted 859 yards and 5 touchdowns off of 63 catches and most likely would have eclipsed the milestone 1,000-yard season if he didn’t miss 3 games late in the year. Celek reestablished himself as a top tight end in the league by notching 811 yards, 5 touchdowns on 62 catches for himself. If Vick can stay 90-100% healthy for 12 games next season, both receivers should improve on this season and possibly aim to get into the pro-bowl.

4. 4. Jason Peters

Before this season, my constant joke was, “Jason Peters is as attracted to False Starts and Holding penalties as he is to twinkies”. He’s still fat (and I have NO idea in the world how he played Tight End in College), but he had a terrific season this year. Last year, he made the pro-bowl but his selection was scrutinized because he sort of received the honor for shaky reasons. If you watched any of the Eagles SNF games on NBC, you would’ve heard Chris Collinsworth and his tebowner gawking at Peters’ footwork and blocking ability. Collinsworth, along with multiple ESPN, NFL Network and Rotoworld.com writers believe that Peters might be the best Left Tackle in all of the NFL.

5. 5. Eagles fans not murdering Juan Castillo

I listen to 97.5 The Fanatic with Mike Missanelli almost every weekday in the afternoon while driving. After listening to the astounding number of enraged fans who call up and vent about how awful Juan Castillo is as a Defensive Coordinator and how they “don’t know what they’re gonna do if he isn’t fired soon”, I’d like to congratulate all of the Eagles fans who were absolutely infuriated by Castillo but refrained from committing homicide.

6. 6. Steve Spagnuolo being fired by the Rams.

While we’re on the subject of Defensive Coordinators, the St. Louis Rams fired Spagnuolo as their Head Coach only a few hours ago. For those of you who forget of Spags is, he’s the man who helped sustain Jimmy Johnson’s defense for the better part of a decade and was the Defensive Coordinator of the 2008 New York Giants Super Bowl team. If you haven’t faced reality already: Andy Reid will be back as Eagles Head Coach next season. So, let’s just pray and hope the front office fires Castillo and hires Spagnuolo as Defensive Coordinator.

Blame Game

I have already been mourning the death of the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles season since the team’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals, but what has happened this morning has really pushed me over the edge. According to many personalities in the National Media and the multiple footbal writers for the Philadelphia Inquirer, yesterday’s victory over the Dolphins was a triumphant and demolishing accomplishment that has the team believing again and still hopeful of sneaking into the playoff hunt. Multiple people wrote how Juan Castillo saved his job, for now, and the cries of “Fire Andy” will disappear until at least next week.

This is what got me totally infuriated.

Seriously??? The awful performance from both of those aforementioned coaches in previous weeks is the reason why the team’s victory on Sunday was such a huge momentous occasion! These coaches are the sole reason why this “Dream Team” season has swiftly flowed down the drain of Jeffrey Lurie’s toilet.

The truth is, everything negative that has happened to this team since the Packers bounced them out of the playoffs last season are either direct or indirect results of Andy Reid’s actions. He overlooked the direct affects that Juan Castillo’s promotion would have on the entire team and can be clearly explained in a simple cause-and-effect view of the Eagles’ series of unfortunate events:

Series of Unfortunate Events: The death of the 2011 Eagles Season

• January— Eagles hire renowned Defensive Line Coach Jim Washburn. This move was pretty great. Washburn was experienced and knew how to coach players to success. But, the Eagles most likely only signed him to attract the then-free-agent Jason Babin who played under Washburn in Tennessee last year.

• February— Since the Eagles decided they would most likely assume the defensive strategy of Washburn, called the “Wide-9”, Andy Reid and the Eagles front office realized they needed a Defensive Coordinator that could easily yield the floor to Washburn at times and be the figure-head of the Defensive staff that Washburn wasn’t capable of being. So, the front office promoted Juan Castillo from the position of Offensive Line Coach to Defensive Coordinator. The move was questionable but Castillo originally won over some doubters by arguing he had studied opposing defenses his entire career and truly knew what happens on the other side of the ball. (HAHAHAHAHA. What a joke!)

• July—Without thinking, the Eagles decided to bolster the positions that had big-name free agents available to bring the attention of the City away from the Phillies star-studded roster. Even though pick-ups of Babin, Cullin Jenkins and Nnamdi Asomugha were, and still are, great acquisitions, Castillo lacked the confidence and knowledge to stress to the front office that the team needed to improve its linebacking corps. Thus, the team’s linebackers were clearly going to be an unimproved weak spot from last season.

• Regular Season—The ignoring of the linebacking corps has resulted in multiple travesties:

1. Weak linebacking (obviously)

2. Terrible tackling on the outside and downfield

3. The overcompensation and ultimate poor play from other positions.

Asomugha isn’t playing his normal cover game because he has to constantly be ready to help out on runs and passes up the middle, the defensive line has to send players into coverage at times instead of rushing the passer, the safeties are can’t really help on deep passes because they’re too concerned with helping the linebackers and thus Asante Samuel can’t take more risks knowing if he gets beat nobody is behind him to help! This insanity on defense has given up way to many points and has then put the offense in a bad position trying to catch up which then leads to this:

• Michael Vick’s woes—When losing, Michael Vick over-thinks and makes more mistakes. This issue has directly resulted in him getting hurt, the decline of DeSean Jackson’s stats and production and ultimately multiple losses! When losing, Vick thinks that staying in the pocket and will help him improve his decision-making and will force him to play safe football, take care of the ball and get as many points as possible to help lead the team back into the game. But, he stayed in the pocket too long until the pocket collapsed on him like a drunk girl on Halloween. He also plays conservative and therefore is scared to risk the deep balls to Jackson fearing that he can’t waste any downs and knowing his defense will give up more points the second he and his offensive trot slugglishly off the field.

This entire serious of unfortunate events for the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles are results from the actions by Andy Reid and the incompetence of Juan Castillo. The chain of negative events that occurred this season is the reason why Reid and Castillo HAVE to be fired following this season. There’s an common philosophy that when an NFL franchise competes annually but can’t get over the hump and win a championship, the team needs to either get rid of its Head Coach or Quarterback. The birds already pushed Donavon McNabb into an end-of-career abyss and now its time to part ways with the guy who has come up short year after year after year after year after year. Yes, that’s the number of times Reid has failed to guide his team to a Super Bowl title after appearing in the NFC Championship Game. It’s time to stop blaming people and realize what needs to be done. There needs to be a culture change at the NovaCare Complex and in the home team locker room in the Linc. Thanks for your decade of hard work Andy, but it’s time for you to go and make sure you bring Castillo with you.

Don't Forget Joe Paterno's True Legacy

Clink the link below to get my opinion for Huffington Post High School on the entire Joe Paterno/Penn State scandal

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jake-fischer/dont-neglect-paternos-tru_b_1093538.html

It's Always Sunnier On A Bandwagon

Below is my blog post for Huffington Post High School about fair-weather fans. If you're as annoyed as I am by bandwagoners than you'll really enjoy this piece. Click here to check it out on the Huffington Post's site.

Within every competitive atmosphere exists a group of people who remain uninterested in that environment until a very interesting moment or event occurs. In the sporting world, the typically disinterested person who suddenly develops a “burning passion” for a team or player is more commonly known as a “fair-weather fan” or “bandwagoner”. Fair-weather fans exist in all aspects of professional sports and are always lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce on an opportunity to jump on a bandwagon. Over the past decade, the number of these so-called fans has been increasing all across America and there seems to be no limit as to what these people sporadically take interest in. For example, it has always been common for the teenage boy living in a suburb of a big city to one day become the biggest fan of that city’s football team once the post season begins. Today, however, fair-weather fans now even consist of American men springing onto the Women’s National Soccer team bandwagon during this past summer’s women’s World Cup. And, as the action of the October Major League Baseball playoffs intensifies, bandwagoners are at it again.

It’s very easy to weed out the true die-hard fans from a despicable crowd of fair-weather fans. However, it’s much more difficult to determine what kind of fair-weather fan a bandwagoner actually is. There are many different levels and categories of a bandwagoner; each consists of varying degrees of pathetic fake worship. Now, in order to shed light on the entire cast of fair-weather fans, I present to you (from most to least tolerable) the Levels of Fair-Weather Fans:

Level 1- “I was focused on another sport during the regular season”

The most tolerable fair-weather fan belongs to the group of people who claim that they were too invested in rooting for a different sports team to be focused on a second sports team within in the same city. Now, you may be thinking this is just an excuse, but most of these fans actually were dedicated to another sports team of the same city. For example, Joe the Schmoe was a dedicated basketball fan and didn’t have enough time to focus on the city’s football team all winter-long until the NFL playoffs began. Joe has known the football team’s record throughout the season, but can’t recall actual games or any meaningful player stats because he has just glanced through box scores in the morning paper. Joe’s friends probably invited him to watch a few football games over at someone’s house a few Sundays as well. However, Joe was too busy with going to the basketball team’s game or watching it at his house. Until one day, when the football team advances deep into the postseason, Joe asks his friends if he can purchase a ticket near them at the football team’s Conference Championship game. His friends, knowing that he is a true fan of their city’s sports teams at heart, respect his sudden passion for the football team, even if it did come a little too late.

Level 2- “I was really busy during the regular season”

Following the two-sport pickled fan, there are fans that are too pathetic to even come up with an excuse for not following the team during the regular season. Within sports fandom, just like school, work and amongst friends, the excuse “I was too busy” is just as cliché and false as the “my dog at it” defense. Unless the person was seriously devoting their time to earning a promotion at work, bringing their grades up or spending more time with their friends and family, there is no reason to be “too busy” to follow a sports team. Unfortunately, the people that might actually have a legitimate reason probably only make up 5% of the population of the fair-weather fans in this category. The “too busy” fair-weather fan also commonly complains that watching road games on TV is too boring to waste their precious free time. If this excuse is made, definitely expect the person to follow up that statement with some form of argument derived from “the team’s TV commentators are also annoying and uneducated about the game.” Well, the commentators are definitely a hell of a lot more invested in the team than they are.

Level 3-Fans who defend not wearing team apparel until the playoffs

Most High Schools across America are overflowing with students who are Level 3 fair-weather fans. In most towns, the residents tend to root for and become affiliated with the closest city’s sports teams. For example, a kid growing up in any part of Illinois is born and bred a Chicago sports fan. However, it is extremely uncommon to see an Illinois high school student walking down the halls rocking a Derrick Rose jersey in September or wearing an Aramis Rameriz jersey during the winter. Only true die-hard fans will sport an out-of-season jersey or team apparel during the off-season. The excuses for not-wearing out-of-season team apparel range from “I was wearing the in-season team’s apparel” to “I outgrew my old fan-gear” to “It was too cold to wear a jersey”. Yet, the Level 3 fair-weather fan is optimized by the guy sitting in front of you at a playoff game who still has the tag on his recently purchased jersey. True fans wear their team’s colors year round, and it’s really difficult to accept fake fans who buy team apparel after that team wins the championship or suddenly becomes good.

Level 4- The girlfriends of Die-hard fans

It’s not sexist to say that the majority of women are not true, die-hard, “Cut me open and see I bleed my team’s colors” sports fans. Even though there are female fans that have grown up most of their life supporting a sports team, too many women become passionate sports fans out of the blue. What’s the reasoning behind this phenomenon? Women who take up an interest in sports fandom to either impress their boyfriend or husband or to spend more time with that spouse. This latter reasoning does make sense. If a woman’s boyfriend goes to football games every Sunday and she wants to spend more time with him, then she should take full advantage of every opportunity to go to a game with him. But, when the girlfriend suddenly becomes a die-hard fan in order to impress her boyfriend, his friends or his dad, then a serious case of Level 4 fair-weather fandom should be diagnosed by a local doctor. Within a competitive atmosphere that often consists of arguments and heated sports discussions, men don’t want to be bothered with a girlfriend trying to impress them with her limited knowledge. However, if the woman does actually have a point, then her boyfriend’s peers will embrace her. So ladies, don’t get caught up in impressing your boyfriend with your sports knowledge. Understand the fine-line between attending a game, and ruining the sporting experience for your boyfriend’s buddies.

Level 5- Other team’s fan who claims to have always liked your team

Nothing is more irritating than a fan of another team who claims that your team is his “second-favorite”. In the world of true sports fandom, you can only support one team within each sport. And, your devotion to that team can only be influenced by the city you were born in or grew up in and by which team your parents root for. That’s it. So, when a person suddenly starts rooting for a team that doesn’t belong to the aforementioned categories, you need to bail. Don’t trust them, because they’re probably going to negatively influence your sports-rooting experiences. The worst example of Level 5 fair-weather fandom exists in New Jersey and Connecticut. Both states are commonly states that New Yorkers choose to raise their children in and ultimately bring along their infectious New York fandom into the state as well. For example, when a guy moves from Manhattan to a South Jersey Suburb to raise is children, he raises his children as New York fans living in a town that is heavily populated with Philadelphia fans. So, when the New York team is eliminated from playoff contention or the playoffs, the New Yorker’s son suddenly claims he’s been a Philly fan all along and that they’ve always been his second favorite team. The die-hards know better.

Unlike the Level 5 fair-weather fan, I’m actually a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan. I’ve cringed when my dad has thought aloud about giving up his 76ers season tickets and I’ve sat through Phillies games in third grade when the Marlins were coming into Citizens Bank Park and dominating. I’ve cried during losing streaks and cheered during winning streaks, but I’ve never hidden behind an excuse and sunk to the level of a fair-weather fan. Detroit Lions fans have always shown up to games during the team’s 19-game losing streak back in 2009. Today, the team is on fire and the fans are still there. But the fact that the Buffalo Bills have increased ticket sales this season doesn’t speak for good marketing and good business by the organization. It points directly at the fans that have suddenly become Bills supporters now that things are starting to look up. So to all those people out there who are jumping on bandwagons all across America: go home. You need to experience the bad times before you can truly appreciate the good.