Philly sports fans can be tough if you’re part of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers or Flyers organizations but if you’re involved with college sports and your name isn’t Joe Paterno, you can relax because you get a free ride.
I’ve seen people lose their minds because one of the pro teams or Penn State’s football team lost but if one of our basketball teams is favored but gets upset in the NCAA tournament, we let them slide.
If somebody says something about it, you’ll find hundreds of volunteers to quickly come to their rescue.
When I was at USC, we got called out if we didn’t perform up to a championship level. We didn’t complain because it’s one of the main reasons we went to the school.
Here in Philly, Joe Paterno and his Penn State Nittany Lions are the only school that has their performances examined.
The disparity is over the top. You can’t even look at the local sports teams wrongly but you can accuse anybody on the pro level of being the devil himself.
At times you wonder if you’re in the same town.
If you have any doubt about me telling the truth, then check out Sam Donnellon’s article on Philly.com about a main characteristic of the area’s sports community which Villanova coach Jay Wright loves.
“One of the reasons Wright cites for loving his job is that he gets to coach big-time basketball without the big-time pressure faced by schools that play away from big cities.”
“Let’s just say the mistake made in Durham [N.C.] is examined over time more than it is here,” said King, the Duke transfer. “Here, it’s over with and it’s on to the next thing.”
I don’t think we need to go crazy if they don’t win it all but I don’t think it’s too much to expect the Wildcats to fulfill their promise by winning the tournament this year.
Oh I’m sorry for saying that, it’s probably going to upset somebody here in the nation’s toughest sports city.
