This is the blog I've been putting off writing for a while because I know it's going to alienate some of my friends and readers on here, but it's something that I feel very strongly about, so I have to get it off of my chest.
That having been said, if you were rooting for the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals, you might want to go to another blog and not read mine right now.
I've seen the back and forth between Red Wings fans and who they were supporting in the Finals. It looked pretty even down the middle, 50% Chicago and 50% Philadelphia. I've seen everyone try to justify their choices with this reason and that reason.
Personally, I don't see any justification for rooting for the Blackhawks while claiming to be a Red Wings fan.
I'm sorry. I just don't.
Chicago is the probably the cockiest group of players, fans and management that I've ever seen in the NHL.
How do you think you're a good team when you've sucked for so long that the league basically had to hand you good players to make you at least competitive and then subsequently hand you the Cup? How can you see that as a legitimate reason to be so cocky?
Chicago has been one of the biggest rivals/thorns in the side of the Red Wings since there were only 6 teams playing.
The intense hatred we all used to have over the Avalanche just fizzled out and faded away over the years. Colorado seems to have returned the favor. We don't hate each other anymore, and there's no real reason to. Chicago, on the other hand, has consistently chanted "Detroit sucks" at games that the Wings weren't even playing in throughout the past however many seasons. Which was a pretty lofty claim from a fanbase who's team was finishing last in the division and the conference. So now that they've won that big, shiny, silver trophy, I'm sure it's about prime time to change their tune and just embrace their success, right?
NOPE.
There's just something that stirs the doubt in my mind if you can jump ship from the classiest, best run organization in the league to the cockiest, clusterfuckiest organization.
So, yes. If you rooted for the Chicago Blackhawks in the Finals, I believe that you are less of a Red Wings fan.
Game Day Updates: Red Wings vs Bruins
2 hours ago
Amen, brother.
ReplyDeleteI can't argue with your logic, I've always been less of a Red Wings fan than plenty of other Red Wings fans who have reminded me (although not in ways aimed directly at me) that my rank among fans is beneath theirs. I didn't grow up rooting for them, I jumped on the bandwagon in the mid-90s.
ReplyDeleteThe choice here wasn't between being a loyal Red Wings fan and making an excuse not to be though. I rooted for the Red Wings way of hockey, the way that I want to see the game played and, by association, the fanbase that may be stupid, cocky, and new, but is harmlessly so.
Philadelphia fans cheered when Army Cadets were injured at Veterans Stadium when a portion of the bleachers collapsed during an Army/Navy game. I will never forgive that fanbase for that.
I'm not happy Chicago won the cup and every time I take shit from a Hawks fan, I'm going to kindly remind them how they took six relatively close games to dispatch a team that they should have rolled and that their team, even at their best, was an embarrassment to hockey played the right way.
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ReplyDeleteRemoved my comment to edit it, LOL sorry...
ReplyDeleteMy uncle is from Pittsburgh. I just can't root for Philly. That doesn't make me less of a Red Wings fan at all. I understand where you're coming from but honestly, if the Red Wings aren't in the Final why does it matter who we all root for.
I mentioned to a few other people a couple of things that I probably should have added to this post, but I was in a very angry mood when I initially wrote this, and I didn't really care about covering all the angles, and that was probably a mistake on my part.
ReplyDeleteI can understand the people who have legitimate reasons to root for Chicago or against Philadelphia or vice versa.
The people who are lesser fans are the ones who don't really have any reason to jump to the Blackhawks, but did anyways. The people who didn't have any personal attachments to one team or the other. The people who just made a snap decision to root for the Blackhawks without really weighing their options.
THOSE are the sad, lesser fans.
Fair enough. I understand it's a touchy subject all around.
ReplyDeleteBesides, despite my history of being a still-unproven bandwagon fan (always nice to be able to be a bandwagon fan for 19 straight years, isn't it?), there are tons of fans that I consider "lesser fans" than I am.
I still think it's hilarious that we're so deep in Chicago fans' heads that they still don't know how to cheer their own team as well as they know how to cheer against ours. It's really hard to take them seriously.