THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
This is an Eagles blog, but any Philadelphia sports fan should be offended by the conclusions reached by the folks at Men's Health on this one ...
In its July/August issue, the magazine ranked the sports obsession levels of fans in cities around the country.
Philly was listed as No. 84. Yes, No. 84 and earned a grade of D-.
As we mentioned this to folks around Eagletarian headquarters, each had the same quizzical look on his face and said, "Eighty-fourth? Eighty-fourth?"
Here is a sense of the criteria the magazine used: how many people attended baseball, basketball, and football games (college and pro), and attendance at high school events. NASCAR attendance was factored in as was numbers for TV and radio audiences, the Scarborough Sports Marketing figures on the number of people vying for tickets, sales of team gear and how many people identify themselves as fanatics.
Here are the six cities that earned A's:
1) Arlington, Texas A+
2) Aurora, Colo. A+
3) Colorado Springs, Colo. A+
4) Indianapolis A
5) Columbus, Ohio A-
6) Jacksonville, Fla. A-
Forth Worth and Dallas were next, giving Texas three of the top eight.
At least, Philly can say it is better than New York, which came in 88th and also with a D-.
Or Los Angeles at No. 91, another D-
Or Miami, the bottom of the list, at No. 100, with an F.
The magazine touted that the complete list would be on its Web site here. Although we could see how you might be distracted by the article titled, "What Erin Andrews wants in a man."
Good grief ...
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
