Streets of Philadelphia

Ever since I was a kid, I never understood why the national sports media picked on Philadelphia. Boston and New York fans yelled racist and homophobic slurs at even their own players. Chicago fans complained all the time. Miami fans saw two World Series championships for the Marlins in a decade and still don't show up. Etc., etc. That stuff is hardly mentioned. But Philly booed a drunken Santa Claus at an Eagles game. Yep. 40 years ago. Stuart Scott and Michael Wilbon reference it to this day.

This narrative, like many in the media, played out over and over again. The City of Brotherly Love is hard on rich athletes. They booed McNabb when he was drafted. Eric Lindros and Scott Rolen couldn't take the heat. Hugely separate events were forced into feeding this monster, no matter if the media were cramming square pegs in round holes or not. It had to continue, because, well, it did for years before.

But only a few hours ago a gentleman was beaten to death in the Phillies' parking lot. Details, obviously, are few at the moment, but the fantastic Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that he was celebrating his bachelor's party at McFadden's (a bar connected to the outside of the stadium that you do not need tickets to enter) and he was beaten to death without any weapons. Arrests are supposed to come soon.

And with that, everything starts again. The media will speculate, perhaps arguing over how far team fandom should go. The city will get another black eye. The bar will be faced with questions about why it didn't do more to stop it. The Phillies might be blamed for allowing anything like this to even start in their own back yard right after an afternoon game. But really, all it comes down to is few could imagine the grief of losing a future spouse at his bachelor's party for God knows what reason.

This is an embarrassment, it really is.

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Breaking news, we'll see what happens