Earlier today, I offered a Twitter take in response to the topic of today’s midday show on 97.5 the Fanatic:

Allow me to elaborate:

I think most Philadelphia sports fans would like to see the teams representing the “four major sports” do well. You’d be hard-pressed to find an Eagles fan pulling for the Phillies to lose, and vice versa. However, I’d argue that most people really only give a true shit about 2-3 of the teams while not really spending time or energy on the others.

Example:

We’d probably all agree that a good chunk of Sixers fans don’t watch the Flyers very often while a good chunk of Flyers fans probably don’t watch the Sixers very often. There’s sort of a natural divide there since the teams play at the same time, in the same building, and compete for the relatively small chunk of the Philadelphia media pie that’s already been devoured by the Eagles. The Sixers fan base is a little younger and a little more diverse. To that point, maybe some of those fans don’t care about the Phillies, because they find baseball to be slow and boring. You’ll find various demographically-obvious extrapolations here.

Most sticker collections on Philly cars look like… what? How often do you see all four logos on a bumper? You likely see an Eagles and Phillies sticker, then maybe the Sixers OR Flyers, plus a Villanova or Temple logo, or wherever you went to school. Most flags hanging off the balconies of Avalon and Sea Isle houses are arranged similarly.

Anthony has always used the term “four for four” as a euphemism that means “you support your hometown teams,” and I think we all know this. He doesn’t mean you literally support the four teams and nothing else; his main gripe is people who go outside of the city to complete their fandom, like my jabroni former colleague Josh at Eyewitness News, who grew up in Delaware but supports the New York Giants and wears a Barry Sanders jersey to work.

Understanding where Anthony is coming from, I’d argue that “four for four” is a bit outdated in 2020. You’ve got Union fans and college football and basketball fans and people in this city who watch Eddie Alvarez and Paul Felder fight. Those people know that Ant is using umbrella terminology but still feel somewhat disenfranchised because there are a portion of Eagles and Phillies fans, for example, who still think soccer is “communist” and then use the “four for four” mantra to shit on other sports they deem unworthy. That’s off base to me, a one-way street of linear thinking, because you’ll find that 95% of Union/Wings/MMA/Penn State fans also watch one or more of the “major” teams.

Maybe we’re just splitting hairs here, or trying to find the thin line that differentiates between wanting a team to do well, versus truly showing tangible support for that franchise.

Anyway, Anthony wanted to talk about it, so we had a short conversation this afternoon, which you can listen to here:


Here’s the question I would leave you with:

What is a more modern way to say “four for four?” How would you update the term to apply to what Anthony is really focused on, which is a good-faith show of support for all Philadelphia-area sports teams?