The city of Philadelphia has two major sports championships in the last 35+ years. I, as many Philly sports fans have probably often wondered why that is. It's a good question, and has no neat or specific answer. I think there are a variety of factors. Today, I'll be focusing on one, and it has to do with our mentality as a sports town. And when I say "our" I don't just mean the fans, but the teams as well.
Philadelphia has a major inferiority complex. We are a top 5 market, but don't have nearly the amount of titles in recent years as many other sports towns. We are New York's little brother. The little brother always wants to prove to the world that he can compete with and outdo the older brother.
Philadelphians romanticize over our own far too much. So often, our fans and teams hold a candle to mediocre players, coaches, and executives, because they do niche things that resonate with the blue collar nature of the city, we like a pet nickname they've adopted, or because they ingratiate themselves to the city with an excess of compliments about the fan base. We idolize coaches like Buddy Ryan and Brett Brown. We glorify players like Robert Covington and Dario Saric. We dismiss blame for executives like Howie Roseman. We overrate our own constantly, and care more about winning championships with "Philly guys" rather than just winning.
I'm sure every city suffers through this to some degree. Fans and organizations fall in love with sports figures, and have trouble parting with them. However, we seem to do it to a much greater extent in Philly. Name me one other city who would turn down a chance to land LeBron James merely because "He'd be a mercenary and I don't want to win with a mercenary, I want to win organically." Name me one other fan base who would scoff at the idea of adding James Harden, a top 5 NBA player, and one of the greatest scorers to ever lace them up, by trading away a top 25 player in Ben Simmons. Name me another town who groans when discussing Andy Reid, who is one of the NFL's all-time winning coaches, but light's up like a Christmas tree when discussing Buddy Ryan who's never won a playoff game. Only in Philadelphia will you find this bunker mentality. Born from years of inferiority, and a growing obsession with proving to the world that we can do it "our way" rather than just getting it done.
This isn't exclusive with the fans, we see it with our teams as well. The Eagles continuing to bring back Alshon Jeffery and Jason Peters, who are on a severe decline in production, merely because they were part of a Super Bowl team 3 years ago. Jeffrey Lurie continually staying loyal to Howie Roseman even though he's put together two of the worst offseasons back-to-back any general manager in this city has ever had. The Phillies under Ruben Amaro Jr. refused to trade away the declining Howard, Utley, Rollins, and Victorino core until their trade value declined considerably, hurting the franchise for years; some of which is still being felt to this day. The Flyers for decades, until recently, wouldn't sign or add any player who was small or fast, because they didn't fall under the physical profile they identify as "Flyers."
Fans in this city still pine for Robert Covington, a quality role player who's never won anything, but were happy to see Jimmy Butler leave town because he wasn't "cut out for Philly" and it wasn't until he dominated the Bubble Basketball Playoffs to where fan lamenting finally entered the picture.
Look across the four major sports. Look at the teams that either consistently win titles or consistently find themselves in the final four almost every single year, or at the very least always find their way back to the top of the mountain and win a title once every decade. Teams like the Lakers, Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Heat, Warriors. These organizations couldn't give a shit less about their beloved "fan favorites." They go out and acquire stars. The Lakers gutted their roster for LeBron and Anthony Davis. The Dodgers traded away prospects for Mookie Betts. The Yankees trade away home grown players for stars almost every year. The Warriors let go of Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut, two role players, who I'm sure were very popular within their organizations, because it gave them a chance to land Kevin Durant. These organization's don't give a shit about romanticizing mediocrity. They want to win.
Justin Turner is both a fan and organizational favorite with the Dodgers. Think if the Dodgers had a chance to land Nolan Arenado, they'd even think twice about trading him to Colorado? Not for a second. He'd be on the next flight. "Nice knowing ya, thanks for the memories, but we're bringing in someone better than you." Meanwhile, in Philly we're procrastinating about giving up on a player who maybe, possibly, some day might be three-quarters as good as James Harden, because he's a "Process Guy" and one of Sam Hinkie's final gifts to the city. We hesitate to want to part ways with Doug Pederson, who has been average at best for 3 seasons, because of a lightning in a bottle season back in 2017.
We, as fans, and organizations, need to ditch this small-minded mentality. Give me all the mercenaries you've got, if it gets us parades here in Philly.You win titles by pursuing greatness on all levels. Greatness in the front office, greatness in your coaching staff, and greatness on the playing field. Teams who win championships are heartbreakers. They will "jump into bed" with a new star player every week if it leads to winning, they don't give two shits about ending relationships. Once we abandon the inferiority complex and focus on just winning, maybe we'll become a city of champions ourselves one day.
