Study: Eagles fans 3d most emotionally stable in NFL

A new study describes Eagles fans with an adjective rarely used for them:

Stable.

Not as in loyal or dependable. As in emotionally stable. Not having lots of ups and downs.

"We used Twitter data to describe fan base reactions to team wins and losses during the sixteen-game 2012 NFL regular season," according to Emory University researchers Mike Lewis and Manish Tripathi, who measured fan happiness, sadness and stability.

Happiest after a win: New Orleans Saints fans.

Saddest after a loss: Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

Fewest mood swings: Dallas Cowboys fans.

You might think Eagles fans would be among the league's saddest last season, given the lousy 4-12 record.

Then again, maybe that was counteracted by happiness after some losses -- as in "Woo hoo! We'll finally get rid of head coach Andy Reid!"

That's one idea to explain how Eagles fans wound up as the third most stable, after Cowboys and Indianopolis Colts fans.

Emory, more or less, had a similar conclusion:

"A better moniker for these fans in 2012 might be 'resigned.'  It seems that as Philly began to lose more games, fans started to look forward to the next season, and a new head coach. A majority of the fan tweets after a game were about changes for the next season, and not about the most recent loss."

Why Dallas was No. 1 wasn't clear. The writeup simply says, "Dallas Cowboys' fans seemed to never get too negative after losses, nor were they tremendously positive after wins."

Maybe it was a case of don't get too excited because you know Tony Romo will break your hearts in the end.

Saints fans were probably happiest due to low expectations, which Steelers fans were depressed because of perennially high expectations, the researchers suggest.

Least stable were Oakland Raiders fans, who "best resembled Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde during the 2012 season." They were "the only team in the top 5 of the 'Happy' and 'Sad' fan rankings."

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.