Sielski: Philadelphia Crosses The Line More Than Most Places

After the incident of Flyers fans throwing glow in the dark bracelets on the ice during Game Three of Capitals vs Flyers series in Philadelphia, Philadelphia Inquirer Sports Columnist Mike Sielski says that this issue with Philly sports fans cannot be dismissed because the passion has two sides to the coin:

"What I think is you can't have it both ways, you can't on the one hand laud the passion and intensity and knowledge of Philadelphia sports fans and every athlete I've ever talked to agrees that Philadelphia is a different place to play, that the fans care more, they're louder, they're more intense, all those things.

You can't have that and then very well say 'Well this kind of stuff happens everywhere so there for it doesn't matter when it happens in Philadelphia'. Yeah it does happen a lot of different places but it doesn't happen with the same frequency and it's not generally accepted as part of the sports culture in a way that this kind of behavior seems to be in Philadelphia....If you're going to be passionate and if you're going to boo cause you paid the money and you're entitled to boo and yell and scream and some people have argued to me today that you are entitled to throw the stuff on the ice because 'Hey I paid all this money for a ticket and Flyers played terribly and quit on me'.

Well that's fine you feel that way, you feel that way. But when someone like me comes along and says this behavior is petulant and childish and boorish and it tarnishes everyone and everything about Philadelphia sports by bringing the reputation entire fan base and the entire city down, well then you can't complain. You cannot have it both ways.

And if the price of say, I don't know Charlotte, is that they have a less passionate fan base when it comes to lets say the Carolina Panthers or Carolina Hurricanes but they don't have as many incidents like this, OK! Then there's the trade off. But if you are going to be this passionate then you gotta live with the criticism that comes when you cross the line and it seems to me that Philadelphia crosses the line more than most places, if not all places."

Checkout what else Sielski had to say about the environment around the Flyers' Game Three loss and the reaction he has received from his criticism of fan behavior