Hear Me Out: Philly Sports Fans Are Getting More Positive

Fans’ standing ovation campaign for a struggling Trea Turner helped him out of a slump — and signaled a new era of positivity. / Photograph via Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

To paraphrase an ancient proverb — or sleeveless t-shirt — inside every Philadelphia sports fan are two wolves. The one that thrives, the gym-bro meme goes, is the one we feed.

Here’s a tale of Wolf One, oft retold recently: Last year, his first season in Philadelphia, $300 million shortstop Trea Turner was struggling terribly and being reliably razzed for it by the so-called Phillies faithful. Even his mom booed him via text message, he told reporters.

But his fortunes, and the team’s — and perhaps the city’s — were turned around by a grassroots movement to stop booing and give the man a standing ovation instead. The fans did, and then they did it again and again. Within a month, Turner’s batting average had gone up 26 points, and his stats continued to improve throughout the season. It’s no coincidence that the Phils made a deep playoff run that year. And it was all thanks to a new technology called kindness, still in beta in these parts.

In Philly, we usually feed Wolf Two. Picture it: The year was 2021, and thanks to the pandemic, the NHL started a shortened, sped-up season that January in empty arenas. The schedule was grueling, the games were eerily quiet, and the Flyers lineup was always being shuffled due to injuries and positive COVID tests. Somehow, the team rose to the occasion in those weird months, going 11-4-3 with an above-average power play.

Then, in early March, the league started letting a limited number of fans back in to watch the games, and the Flyers sank like a stone. There were never more than 3,000 or so paying customers in the Wells Fargo Center, and they all booed. They booed when the power play didn’t score. They booed when the other team scored. They booed at the end of every loss while the players slumped off the ice back to a lonely limbo of nose swabs, quarantines, and Zoom calls with loved ones.

The Flyers ended that miserable season with a 25-23-8 record and the 18th best power play in the league. They did not make the playoffs. The fans booed that too.

It must’ve been hell, playing hockey in those empty arenas. The only thing worse was playing for Philadelphians.

Now look: It’s no use trying to sell this city on the power of positive thinking. We’re dyed-in-the-wool Wolf Two people. We gave Santa Claus a wedgie and egged the Pope, or something like that. Thanking millionaires for showing up and giving it the old college try just isn’t our style.

But a 24-7 Wolf Two attitude will get us nowhere.

Right now, after a couple of seasons of near-excellence, the Philadelphia Union are struggling, and the once-loyal fans are pissed. Instead of singing along to “Four Leaf Clover” at the 20-minute mark, the Sons of Ben are chanting “Sell the team.” Fair point; maybe the franchise needs deeper pockets to compete in Messi’s MLS.

But the Union, one could argue, were raised by Wolf One. There was no franchise until the fans united and rallied and willed it into existence with the power of positive, constructive energy.

Plus, you know, Wolf Two is probably a lot to handle for a roster with so many hard-working veterans and injuries, so few superstars, and one actual child.

The lesson here may be summed up by a motto that’s arisen on the internet in response to general online quibbling and one-upmanship: “Remember the human.” Basically, it means you can argue, but don’t be disrespectful. Alejandro Bedoya has led this team on and off the field during some tough years and our few moments of recent glory. It had better never sound like you’re booing him.

Okay. One last sports cliché for the road: “No one likes us, we don’t care” — that thing Jason Kelce sang at the Super Bowl parade and that Union fans were singing for years before that? Well, that only works if we like us.

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Published as “We’ve Embraced Positivity” in the September 2024 issue of Philadelphia magazine.