Here’s a recent piece from the Philadelphia Daily News.  When psychologists have to predict what it would feel like for a team to win something, you know it’s been a rough stretch:

The Passion, the Pain

Philly fans have endured years of frustration

By DANA PENNETT O’NEIL

WITH LINCOLN Financial Field hovering in the distance, John Miller sat amid his friends. His goatee and Ace bandage both dyed Eagles green, his van with the silk-screened images of his buddies at various points in their 27-year tailgating history parked nearby, Miller tried to explain what being a Philadelphia sports fan is all about.

“I’m not pissed off,” said Miller, with green beads draped across his Eagles jersey. “I’m frustrated.”

Raise a glass and toast Mr. Miller, Philadelphia. In six words he boiled down the sentiment of a city.

As the calendar nears 2007 and the parade-less stretch closes in on 24 years (and counting), frustration has come to symbolize the Philadelphia sports fan. Like lemmings or swallows at San Capistrano, fans here come back every year renewed with hope, convinced this will be the year that some team will hoist a championship trophy while cruising down Broad Street – only to pack up their burgers, beers, pompoms and face paint in disgust a few months later.

Being a disappointed Philadelphia sports fan is no longer just a pastime. It is a birthright, an oral tradition passed from one generation to the next. You boo, kids learn at the knee of their parents and grandparents, not because you hate but because you must.

“There’s a passion to what a Philadelphia sports fan brings like no other city,” said Dr. Joel Fish, a sports psychologist and the director of Philadelphia’s Center for Sports Psychology. “We celebrate like no other city, but we also let you know when we’re disappointed. That’s rooted into the identity of the fan here.”

The joke around the city is that you can tell how the Eagles did on Sunday by the mood at the office on Monday.

Fish doesn’t necessarily buy into the theory that every sports fan is dramatically affected by his or her team’s won-lost record. He puts fans into three categories — the casual sports fan, the hard-core sports fan and the obsessed sports fan. The casual fan goes to a game with a buddy; the hard-core fan is a season ticketholder; and the obsessed fan will miss his child’s wedding if there’s a game on the same day.

Fish’s nonscientific survey based on a lifetime living in the city classifies roughly 30 percent of Philadelphia folks in the first group, 60 in the second and a strong 10 percent in the latter.

Philly fans, stuck in the shadows of New York City both civically and athletically, would like something to crow about.

“I’m sick of being the ugly stepchild,” said T-Bone, a diehard Eagles fan from Cinnaminson, N.J.

There’s no doubt, though, that people here are championship starved. Don’t tell them about the hopeless Cubbies and their Billy Goat curse. The Cubs might not won a World Series since 1908, but the Bulls, the Bears and the White Sox have all won more recently than Philly teams. And don’t bring up the finally redeemed Red Sox contingent that, while suffering its baseball drought, got to drink from the cup of plenty thanks to the Celtics and the Patriots.

If you want to know pain, come to Philly, where the last time a professional trophy was hoisted high into the air was 1983, but in between fans have been teased mercilessly with near misses.

“There’s no comparison,” said Joe from Manheim (not sports-obsessed Joe). “This is 10 times worse.”

The burning question, though, is what happens when someone actually wins here? Losing has become such a fabric of this city’s identity, what will fans do if they actually get to celebrate?

Fish said whatever team wins next will be perhaps more beloved than the 1983 Sixers, the 1980 Phillies and the 1973-74 and 1974-75 Flyers.

That team will not only represent winning, but a cosmic release of frustration.

“I was there when the Flyers and the Phillies won,” Fish said. “My friends don’t believe me, but there were 2 million people there. This time, there will be 4 million. This will be a release of 23 years of pent-up passion and frustration. It will be a celebration unlike any other city. Ask any athlete who’s won here and they’ll tell you, Philly is a tough place to play, but it’s a great place to win.”