Lori Falce: Politics, tribalism and cheering for the Philadelphia Eagles

This is one of those times when it’s really hard to practice what I preach.

Politically, I am all about middle ground and doing what’s in the common good.

When it comes to sports, I am the radical fringe that doesn’t just want to win. I want to wage war and crush my enemies beneath a scoreboard heavy with victory. My family takes football very seriously.

This is perfect for me in a year the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the Super Bowl. If there is a modern-day equivalent of the Roman gladiators and their arenas, it is the NFL and its battle royale.

Now, the Steelers can’t go to the big show every year. I know that. But ideally, I prefer the years where I don’t have decades-old blood feuds with the teams that are there. I’m looking at you, Dallas. And you too, New England. And don’t think I forgot about Super Bowl XLV, Green Bay. Oh, no. I haven’t.

I’ve got no problem picking a side and cheering on the nature of the game itself with contests between Denver and Carolina in 2016 or New Orleans and Indianapolis in 2010. There’s something pure and freeing about a game that doesn’t involve a vendetta.

But then we come to years like this one. The Philadelphia Eagles versus Kansas City Chiefs.

My social media is filled with people just blithely assuming that Pittsburgh fans like me will be supporting the other Pennsylvania team. Sorry, this isn’t like me picking on my sister but defending her against other bullies because, hey, we’re family.

No, this is like the old story about a Democratic congressman asked about dealing with the enemies across the aisle. “The House Republicans are not the enemy. They are the opposition. The enemy is the Senate,” the Congressional archives recount.

My mother is a native Philadelphian. I have family members who still live there and those who moved but still put their hopes and dreams in Philly teams. But I was raised in Steelers country and can never see the City of Brotherly Love’s players as anything other than Darth Vader to my black and gold Jedi knights.

This is the tribal mentality that divides us so profoundly that, at the State of the Union address, elected officials heckle like they are at a comedy club instead of the seat of our government. This is why we don’t pass laws that both sides agree on because of fear of what giving an inch will mean tomorrow.

It’s an instinct of enmity we have to push beyond because building a future needs a lot more hands than tearing each other down. We need to acknowledge the common ground we share — like the Steelers and Eagles did in 1943 when they fielded a team built of players from both teams during World War II.

I should embrace the Eagles and cheer for the Keystone State while eating a cheesesteak and chasing it with a “wooder” ice.

I should. But I just don’t know that I can. “Go birds?” Ugh, it just feels so wrong.