Now I'll be honest, hockey isn't my game. Growing up, I just never had any interest in it. You had to drive all the way to an ice rink to play and and needed all that equipment. I only had one friend who ever played in an organized league. I dabbled in street hockey towards the end of high school, but can't say I really enjoyed it. I couldn't take watching it. People say, "THERE'S SO MUCH MORE ACTION THAN FOOTBALL OR BASEBALL!!!" Action is not all of what sports is about. It seems to me in hockey, while they do try to apply strategy and some plays, everything falls apart relatively easy. Possession changes every few seconds. It's just chaos. For some people that's cool, whatever. I prefer something like football or baseball, where you have brief moments of action resulting from a build up of strategy. For the most part, the only reason I got dragged into playing it at all was this guy:
Sidney Crosby. Before he came onto the scene, there were a few goofballs around that were Penguin fans, but being in Pittsburgh, it was all about the Steelers. Even though the Pirates sucked, the people around me seemed to care more about them. When the NHL went on strike for a whole season, nobody I knew really noticed or cared. It's just hockey. Then, Crosby came.
All of a sudden, the Penguins became great and everybody around me started changing. People started talking about last night's hockey game. People started wearing around hockey jerseys for the first time (which are the ugliest jerseys there are. Seriously, you look like a billboard). Even girls were rattling off player name after player name, all of which sounded completely unfamiliar to me. I knew Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr and both of them were pretty much gone. And I'll tell you what, I didn't like it. It just seems shallow to root for a team, much less get into an entire sport, just because the local team turned into winners. I found myself secretly rooting for the Penguins to lose just so they would be eliminated as a topic of conversation amongst everybody. Then, they win the Stanley Cup.
At this point, I've pretty much accepted it. I'm quite content going to Pirate games for a fraction of the price. I ignore people who only want to talk Penguins since I know they'll fall off eventually. No team is good all the time (except maybe the Yankees). Even dynasties like the Steelers have rough periods. Teams have their good years, then they fall off for a while, and then they return towards the top. I believe the Pirates are in that phase now which makes it only more entertaining for me to watch, and I'll admit, I'm a die hard fan. Not because they are winners like the Penguins. I am a Pirate fan because of their stadium, the fact that I can watch every game either in person or on television without some special cable deal, the fact that I believe in what their management is doing to rebuild the organization (as opposed to the Penguins who just won the draft lottery), and I love the history of the organization. But I digress.
With the Olympics coming around, I thought you know, screw this, I'll give up my anti hockey emotions for a while and root for the good old red, white, and blue. I was impressed with their play, I guess. When they lost, I wasn't disappointed. It is Canada's national pass time. And how ironic that it was none other than Crosby to score the winning goal. That's when I started browsing the internet and seeing all the trash talking. It just seems odd that most people know nothing about these players and what kind of people they are, yet they will get into verbal confrontations with people just because that team is comprised of players who are from your country. Your country, which like any country, is just a shape made from man made borders. Am I supposed to be sad that we lost? What does it mean anyways? We as Americans aren't as good as Canadians at hockey? Well, from a technical standpoint, it proves that one team of Canadians were better than one team of Americans at a certain point in time. Even still, what does it mean? Am I supposed to feel inferior now? Canada is 250 miles from me. If that border scooted down and I was now Canadian, am I supposed to feel superior? Since when are borders created by men supposed to influence my self worth?
Sure I like to see my fellow countrymen do well. But that isn't necessarily because they are American. It's because of their exposure within the American media. I get to see what type of person they are through interviews. If they leave a favorable impression, I root for them. Usain Bolt was my favorite athlete of the 2008 Summer games. Not because he won, but he was much more interesting than anybody else out there (including a swimmer using a cheat suit).
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