PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia loves to think about itself as an underdog, always fighting uphill. However, given the wave of high-level sports success the city has enjoyed, could that change?
In the last several years, the Philadelphia area has enjoyed two Eagles Super Bowl appearances with at least one win, a Phillies run to the World Series, the Philadelphia Union advancing to the MLS Finals and multiple college basketball national championships from Villanova.
Could all of this success start to change the way the city looks at itself?
That’s a question we asked Dr. Meredith Kneavel, an associate dean at La Salle University's School of Nursing and Health Sciences with an extensive background in psychology.
“I think it could,” she speculated. “I think it makes people in some ways a little bit anxious because I think they feel like it's going to end … That's a place that we don't know how to be.”
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As to why Philadelphia consistently gets positioned as — and considers itself — an underdog, Kneavel said some of it is probably based on geography.
“I think that sort of being in the shadow of New York, a little bit in the shadow of D.C.,” she said, “I think that's part of it.”
“It's very hard to keep making the argument that they're underdogs,” she added, “but it's a more comfortable place because it's easier to be the underdog than to keep staying at the top and then potentially get knocked down from the top.”
It gets even harder if the Eagles win the Super Bowl again, but most fans are likely willing to try and deal with that.
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