Does The Simon Gagne Trade Justify Deserting The Flyers?

With the events leading up to the Simon Gagne trade and the actual trade itself, talks have begun about deserting Flyers fandom. Homer is an incompetent moron, yes, but his incompetence is causing people to want to leave Flyers Fandom, desert the team, boycott the team until Homer is fired, etc. As you may remember, such talks revolved around the Eagles when they did not re-sign Dawkins last off-season, when the Eagles signed Michael Vick last pre-season, and as mentioned, Homer has driven some people to that edge with this off-season.

And once again I find myself needing to re-iterate I do not think completely deserting a team over off-season moves is ever justified. That’s not to suggest that some people won’t get away from the sport and the team over time, that happens, but to go from completely supporting the team to no longer supporting the team over 1 move and/or a string of moves in a single off-season is ridiculous for me. When the Eagles signed Vick, James Craven decided to “boycott” the Eagles over it, did not watch a single Eagles game last year, and will not watch one until Vick is off the team. To me, something like that is completely ridiculous. Not every move a team we support makes is going to be a good move, but when the bad ones or the controversial ones come along, that does not mean one should forget about them completely.

Another thing about boycotting and/or deserting the Flyers is that it takes you away from the other players on the team that you love. Now whether or not the Flyers are a better team now than they were in June can be a point of great contention, but this still is a talented team with Pronger, Timonen, Richards, Giroux, Leino, JVR, Lappy, Betts, Briere, Carbomb, etc. Just because Homer backed himself into a corner and traded Gagne to get himself out of it, does not mean you should give a big “fuck you” to the entire organization, which would extend to the above players who at some point or another last year we grew to really love watching.

That being said, I think there is room for 2nd team fandom. I know that not every sports fan believes in this, but personally I always find room for 2nd teams, especially when Philly teams are out of it. That is not to say it can or has to take anything away from one’s Flyers fandom, but supporting an additional team, especially one like Tampa Bay (though the cities have had pretty interesting relationships in sports this past decade) where there aren’t any harsh feelings, isn’t out of bounds. The Hurricanes were my 2nd team in the Eastern Conference for the past decade or so (Brindy FTW!), and now that team is Tampa Bay. It does not take away from my Flyers support, it does not take away from reveling in the Flyers achievements past and present and future, it does not take away the pain of being so close in 2004, but it gives me another team to be happy for when they succeed. And I truly believe this Tampa team will be a force to be reckoned with this coming season.