Meet the Most Insane Sports Fans in America
When it comes to sports fans—and fanbases—there’s a fine line separating crazy passion from rude, loudmouthed jerkiness, and Philadelphia Eagles die-hards are renowned for routinely crossing that boundary. Epitomized by the now-infamous 1968 home game against the Minnesota Vikings during which rowdy attendees booed—and hurled snowballs at—a halftime Santa Claus, the city’s legion of Eagles loyalists have a reputation as staunch devotees with big mouths and belligerent attitudes, such that in a 2011 GQ poll, they ranked as the absolute worst sports fans in the nation.
Don’t tell that to Maybe Next Year, though. A feature-length look at the Super Bowl-winning 2017-2018 Philadelphia Eagles season as experienced by a collection of their most ardent supporters, Kyle Thrash’s documentary is less about QBs Carson Wentz and Nick Foles than about the folks who deck themselves out in green and white team apparel, call into radio shows to vent and commiserate, and log onto the internet to let off profane steam about the squad’s ups and downs. It’s a love letter to fanatical fandom, far more interested in celebration than in examining, or critiquing, its chosen subjects’ attachment to their hometown NFL franchise.
Maybe Next Year follows four Eagles faithful throughout the team’s improbable title-winning campaign, which culminated with backup Foles taking over for MVP candidate Wentz and leading the Eagles to victory against Tom Brady’s New England Patriots. Of those individuals, the most fascinating is Bryant Moreland, a heavyset Black man whose claim to fame is a YouTube channel (EATDATPUSSY445) full of videos in which he rants and raves like a lunatic about his beloved Eagles. Bryant’s anger and frustration aren’t just obvious; they reverberate with scary seismic force as he throws things, kicks furniture, and smashes toy action figures of underperforming players. He’s a man possessed by a rage that seems totally disproportionate to the circumstances, and his awareness about his out-of-control fury—which is about his own problems more than the team itself—makes him a fascinating case study in overzealous sports fandom.