Derek Bodner’s Blog

Philly sports fans have been getting a bad rap for years. You can’t view a nationally televised sporting event featuring a Philadelphia team without someone bringing up that we booed Santa Clause 40 years ago, or that a handful of fans threw batteries at JD Drew.

Apparently, it’s worse to boo Santa Claus than it is to run over and kill a fan with your car, as a Yankee fan recently did to a group of Red Sox fans. Booing Santa Clause is also worse than riots after championships, such as one of many Stanley Cup Riots, or fans overturning cars after Super Bowls in Denver. I don’t hear talking heads continually pound White Sox fans for their beating up the Royals first base coach. For some reason, this can be considered isolated incidents, but if it happens in Philadelphia, it’s just proof of our fanbase as a whole being classless.

It’s become chic to attack Philadelphia fans. And it’s gotten old. I guess I must have missed the memo from ESPN that I should be held accountable for someone booing Santa Claus 40 years ago, which is obviously worse than physical violence.