The psychology behind bandwagon Eagles fans
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When you move to a city like Philadelphia, you learn that you have to embrace that this city is diehard about everything, especially the Eagles.
Some of the people CBS Philadelphia spoke with are embracing it as well, but others? Well, we'd call them bandwagon fans.
You could say Mohammed Shaifur is a bandwagon fan.
"I think so, yeah. It's a pretty big deal here in Philly," he said when we asked about this weekend's Sunday special.
Philadelphia is gearing up for its biggest day in five years: the Eagles are back at it ready to play in the Super Bowl.
But even in a city of 1.6 million people that's awash in green and pride, you find those who are just partly on the bandwagon.
We spoke with another bandwagon fan, George Fee about his investment in the game.
His response?
"Um, I mean I haven't been paying too much attention," Fee said.
But these bandwagon fans are still here for the energy.
"Every day I open the group chat and they'll just spam 'Go Birds' all the time and that's all I wake up to," Shaifur said. "At this point, I chip in, sure, go Birds"
Dr. Eric Zillmer, a sports psychologist from Drexel University, has the explanation.
"When you study happiness the most important part of being happy is having relationships with other people," Zillmer said. "So sports can be the catalyst."
Zilmer says there's more than enough room on the Eagles' bandwagon.
"Even the average fan who is not even a football or an Eagles fan, they get caught up in it because it positive and you want to be part of it," Zilmer said.
As a bandwagon fan, Ari Freed can speak to this claim.
"The energy on campus, the energy in the city has completely changed everyone's super excited," Freed said.
As we go into Super Bowl weekend, Keiana Williams, a sports writer for the Iggles, says even bandwagon fans need to be ready to defend their team and their city
"It doesn't matter if someone is more casual or more diehard, we all need to stick together because there's a lot of haters of the Eagles outside of Philly and we need to fight against them together," Williams said.
