I've thought hard about how to go about this part of the mini-series on the Sons of Ben at the Wells Fargo Center.
There really is no good way to go about explaining the problems from both sides of the reaction coin from Tuesday night. I've written about 15 different things on the matter and I can't in good faith put my name behind any of them.
Instead I'll post what I had going for my last draft and a recording of what I had thought out about the whole thing. Take what you wan from there, let it be known that I'm disappointed with people.
Synopsis: Fringe people in this 'debate' created a poor situation for everyone involved. Soccer snobs and those people that resort to the use of "gay" to marginalize and attack fellow fans and sports franchises of this city are stupid, mmk?
Scott Kessler - Wells Fargo Visit By The Sons Of Ben (Click the linked text to hear what I was planning on transcribing into the story. Warning, it's somewhat long and because it was a thought process for a story, there's a little rambling involved)
Below is the story I had written out previously, only to nix it in favor of the aforementioned recorded story.
There were comments on the first part of the series, found by clicking here, that told me I'd be "walking a fine line" no matter how I went about writing someone about the fan reaction to the Sons of Ben. I'm sure that some people will not appreciate how I feel some about of some of the reaction. That's not of my concern.
What I do worry about, and this is why I'm upset about how some Flyers fans reacted to the Sons of Ben at the game Tuesday night, is how Philadelphians and Philly sports fans are treated by their fellow fans.
At the same time I'm disappointed with some of the counter reaction of some soccer related people.
The Facebook post by the Flyers about the Sons of Ben attending the Tuesday night game highlighted what I think is the tragedy of the Sons of Ben's visit to the Wells Fargo Center.
276 "liked" the post and 146 people commented. Of those 146 comments, the majority either focused on how people enjoyed the Sons of Ben coming to game or how that person felt that the allure of the re-adapted-for-hockey chants wore off as the game moved along.
There were, however, people on both sides who pushed the bill too far on the matter.