OP-ED: I Don't Care What Team You Support in the Privacy of Your Own Home, But Don't Shove It in Our Faces

Last Sunday, the city of Philadelphia erupted into a frenzy after the Eagles, longtime underdogs of the NFL, won their first ever Super Bowl. Soon after, it was announced that there would be a city-wide celebration of the victory in the form of a parade on Thursday, an event so large that Drexel, Temple, and Penn all deemed it necessary to suspend operations for the day. 

This parade, fellow students, is an absolute abomination.

Look, I don't care what team you cheer for on Sunday nights. I don't care whose name you scream at the television screen, or whether you want the right to support two or more teams at once. You can don green spandex head to toe, for all I care. What you do in the privacy of your own home is your business.

All I ask is: don't shove it in everyone else's face.

But that is exactly what the Eagles Super Bowl Parade is intended to do. It will effectively shut this city down for a day. It has already impeded access to education by causing school closures. It will render useless all public transportation and major roads. And all for a garish demonstration of sports partisanship. 

Don't you Birds fans know that the best way to get what you want—which I presume to be more wins for your favored team—is to ask nicely, politely, and at a normal decibel? By all means, show up to Lincoln Financial Field, tune into their games on television, and buy their branded beer glasses for use in your own kitchen.

But seriously, cool it with the jerseys, the flags, and—for the love of God—the parading. I don't want to see your team affiliation, what you might call your "Eagles Pride," all over my newsfeed and marching loudly down my residential street. If you think your cries of victory will get your cause anywhere, you are sorely, sorely mistaken. Your celebration, I am sorry to say, is nothing but another futile shout into the void of identity politics. 

It is one thing to support the Eagles' cause in private, respectfully. It is quite another to ostentatiously advertise your "pride" at the expense of your fellow citizens' discomfort.