Dr. Liselle Milazzo, an assistant professor at Penn State Abington who specializes in fandom and fan communities, was featured by Philadelphia Magazine in an article titled “Why Are Eagles Fans So Crazy? A Penn State Doctor Explains“.

According to the story, Dr. Milazzo spent this past NFL season observing Eagles fans at area sports bars and expects to launch a formal study on her findings.

An excerpt from her interview:

What are commonalities among all these different fan communities, from Swifties to Eagles fans?

There are three primary commonalities.

First, there’s a desire for internal involvement. People make small to major changes in lifestyle. So, for Eagles fans, this might mean restructuring your Sundays come football season so that you have time to watch the games. Maybe you are suddenly inviting friends over who you wouldn’t normally invite to your home, but you will during the season because they are Eagles fans. And more major, maybe changing your financials so you can afford tickets to games.

Then there’s a desire for external involvement. You want to acquire things related to the Eagles. That could be jerseys. It could be membership in some Eagles fan community. There’s a link between what we physically own and touch and our love of the Eagles. I was just looking at an article in the New York Times about a gentleman in Philly who has something like 300 different Eagles jerseys and an attic dedicated to memorabilia. This is actually quite common in fan communities. Fans will have objects of interest on display. People care a lot for these objects, they curate them. These objects can remind them that they are part of that community.

And finally, there’s a desire for social interaction. A lot of people get a lot of pleasure sharing the same fan interest. You might have these social interactions around the water cooler or in a Facebook group or a group chat. Or maybe face-to-face meetings, going to bars with other Eagles fans.

One other interesting thing about all of these fan communities is that people don’t always have the same level of interest throughout their lives. Some people will vary in degree. You have diehard Eagles fans who have, for years and years, been paying attention. Then you might have fans who watched a few games this season but are now really enthusiastic and excited because of how well the team has done. Maybe they are suddenly listening to sports talk on 94.1 when they never would have done that before.

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Photos: Penn State Abington and Getty Images via Philadelphia Magazine