Last Tuesday, I had the extreme pleasure of watching my Philadelphia Flyers, in a Philadelphia sports bar, end their season the "right way," by losing 7-1 to the Buffalo Sabres. As I sat watching the game, with my hands clenched and my face red, I had time (in between cursing the Flyers during the seven Buffalo goals), to get in some good "people" watching. I know you have heard of "people" watching. It's the sport of watching people, who watch sports. A sports fan, especially a Philadelphia sports fan, is an interesting person to watch, because there are many different categories that the person can fit into.

The "True Fan"- The true fan knows exactly what is going on in the game. This person knows the difference between the blue line and the red line and watches the Super Bowl for the game, not the commercials.

The  "Overboard Fan"- This is the fan who will gladly paint his/her face the color of the home team and walks around screaming "E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!" at 76ers games. This fan is also the person who buys the foam fingers and baseball helmet ice cream bowls, because they might one day be considered a "collector's edition."

The "Bandwagon Fan"- The bandwagon fan is the person who cheers for whichever sport  happens to be playing that night. This fan knows enough about each sport to hold a good conversation, but he/she doesn't care enough about each sport to pay attention to what's going on. This fan is looking for that cool factor that one gets with being a sports fan.

The "Dumb Fan"- This is the fan who screams out "shoot!" when his/her team is on the penalty kill. This is also the fan who believes they know everything and will argue until they are blue in the face against the "True Fan.' The Dumb Fan is usually the first one to get into a fight at a bar.

The "Optimistic Fan"- Most Philadelphia fans fall into this category. We are programmed at birth to believe in the motto, "there is always next year." I know that even though the Flyers forgot to show up for game six, my orange and black loving rear will be sitting in front of the TV. in October, claiming that this is finally our year.

The "Pessimistic Fan"- This fan believes that nothing positive will ever happen to his/her team.  This is the fan who, even if their team wins 5-2, criticizes the team for not shutting out the opposition.