That in itself is a pretty pessimistic thing to say, that we in Philadelphia have always been disappointed and will forever be disappointed, but it appears so true. You don’t even have to look beyond the one major thing that every Philadelphian seems to care about: our sports. It has been 24 years since a team from Philadelphia won a championship. Just in my lifetime, all four teams have made it to their championship, and all four teams were defeated in miserable fashion. Do I sound a little disappointed? There’s much more to tell.

A few weeks ago the Eagles played the New Orleans Saints in the NFL division playoffs and lost after squandering opportunities late in the game, something they’ve gotten pretty good at. The offense refused to capitalize on a New Orleans fumble, moving the ball down the field a sum total of zero yards on their last possession. Then, on what everyone watching the game knew would be the Eagles’ last chance, the coaches decide to punt the ball away. “I thought we would get the ball back,” Andy Reid calmly told us after the game. With under two minutes left, Andy? Sure.

Many Philadelphians have spent these last few weeks cursing every aspect of that game: poor calling by the referees, poor playing by the team, poor decisions by the coaches. But I’ve gone the other route: pretending it never happened. My roommate and I immediately went about forgetting the game. The Eagles flag hangs upside down in mourning from our door, but we tried to search for something else. Hockey season is in full swing; is there hope there? Not when the injury-ridden Flyers sit secure in their slot as the worst team in the NHL Well, baseball season is right around the corner, right?

The Philadelphia Phillies, the team with the most losses in the history of professional athletics, is perhaps the epitome of disappointment. And yet, I can’t remember a year that I and every one I know didn’t say “This is our year!” I suppose by January the heartache of September has passed and we’ve mostly forgotten how the Phillies choked at the end of the season (again). See, Philadelphians aren’t always pessimistic. We try hard to look forward positively, or at least pretend we aren’t as disappointed as we really are. So, my roommate and I are moving on, looking ahead. Spring training in two weeks, opening day is only two months away, and the Phillies are looking good this year (as always). Our door now reads: “10 days until pitchers and catchers.”

Through it all though, the reaction after a loss in Philadelphia is never one in anger. Rather than becoming enraged over the continuous defeats, we simply fall deeper into our disappointment. Even when (it pains me to type these words) the Eagles lost the Super Bowl two years ago, did the city burn and succumb to rioters? No, Philadelphians, despite their well known raucous behavior while winning, are strangely subdued after a loss. When Philadelphians riot, it is almost always in celebration. I’ve only heard the stories about the glory days of World Series and Stanley Cup victories and riotous parties that seized intersections across the city. So, when the Eagles choked in the championship (as all our other teams had before them), we didn’t become angry and call for blood. Instead, we just somberly closed our doors and lowered the green flags to half staff.

In the midst of all this disappointment, though, many Philadelphians become desperate, grabbing for champions wherever they can find them. Floyd Landis wins the Tour de France, and suddenly Lancaster County isn’t so far away. A few years ago Smarty Jones, a horse bred in Bucks County just north of the city, came close to winning the Triple Crown. Huge screens were set up on the Parkway so crowds could watch the final race. Smarty Jones lost and I saw grown men cry because Philadelphia had been denied a champion once again. In fact, in our desperation for a victory – any victory – Philadelphia has actually invented her most beloved champion. Every Philadelphian knows the epic tale of Rocky Balboa, the greatest underdog story the world has ever seen. Every youngster from the Delaware to the Schuylkill dreams of following Rocky up the steps of the Art Museum, arms raised in triumph. Is it bad to wallow in this fictional success? Maybe, but when the only other option we see is disappointment, of course Philadelphia flocks to Rocky’s side.

Why is it that Philadelphians force themselves to celebrate imaginary heroes, instead of playing with the cards they’re dealt and staying optimistic? It has to be more than simple disappointment. A few championship losses aren’t enough to really shatter a city’s spirit. It almost seems as if Philadelphia suffers from a terrible inferiority complex. We’re wedged right into the middle of the Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington. Look at a smaller map of the US. You see New York and DC, but not Philadelphia; even Minneapolis and Memphis get a mention, but more often than not Philadelphia is left off. Of course, logically you know that given the space limitations, Philadelphia gets passed over for the nation’s capital and largest city, but logic is hard to come by for pessimists. Maybe it’s this lifetime as a second string city that drives so many Philadelphians to pessimism.

Run through some television shows in your head, and think about where they take place. New York, LA, San Fran, Chicago... Any in Philadelphia? Well, we had Boy Meets World, and there’s Cold Case on now, but is a show about unsolved murders going to make you feel any better about Philadelphia? When Philadelphia is even mentioned on a show, I’m shocked. On Jericho, a series of cities around the country get nuked, including Philadelphia. Finally, some recognition of our importance! If they nuked us, we must be a great city, right? I thought so for a little while, but I quickly saw that only second-tier American cities had been attacked, since our big brother New York was spared. So much for curing my pessimism.

Well maybe these insecurities about our hometown are only in the realm of sports and pop culture. At least we have forward thinking leaders ready to lead Philadelphia back to the forefront of the days of Penn and Franklin, right? No, the entire city government even operates under this same cloud of pessimism. Philadelphia recently made a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, and of course, we were turned down by the USOC. It was fairly good bid, but Philly has some problems that need to be fixed. We’re short on hotel rooms and SEPTA is, to put it lightly, a nightmare. So did we take the USOC’s recommendations and embark on a program of urban renewal to bring the city up to snuff? Did we even make plans to implement some of the much needed improvements to the city regardless of whether we could ever get the Olympics? Of course not. The city sits on its hands and hopes Harrisburg sends some more money to fix SEPTA.

And it goes far beyond just the bid. Plans to develop Penn’s Landing are circulated every few years, but nothing is ever actually done. Crime runs rampant and the city’s education system is in shambles, but so many people are already convinced that we won’t get a mayor this November who’s willing to fix it. The city just approved the construction of two slot casinos along the Delaware River; do Philadelphians talk about the revenues and renown this might bring to the city? No, we complain about how bad traffic will be on Delaware Avenue. We’re even building a new skyscraper in Center City, the Comcast Center, which will be the city’s tallest at 975 feet. Are we happy? Almost, but why can’t it just be 1000 feet tall. Does a city need a 1000 foot tower to truly be great? Probably not, but my friends have already speculated sneaking to the top to add a 25 foot pole, just so we can break that 1000 foot threshold. If that’s not an inferiority complex, I don’t know what is.

Why are Philadelphians like this? Even when we identify a problem, why can’t we bring ourselves together to seek a solution? Why must we always look at the downside and act like we will never be considered a great American city. Honestly, I can’t tell for sure. It’s just in our nature, I suppose, but I’m much too much a part of it to see a way out. Most likely, we will never be an optimistic city, but at least we can feign satisfaction and pretend some of the bad things (and bad teams) never happened. We just need to keep moving on. 10 days until pitchers and catchers.