Into the Penalty Box of Love
Posted on April 16, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 28 Comments
I’m not exactly what you would call a huge hockey fan, but even I found this amusing:
Hockey fan or not, when I saw the combination of jerseys there, I thought to myself, “wow, that will just never, ever work out.”
Having gone to a Bruins/Habs game eariler this year in Boston and seeing the behavior there, yeah…that has “FUTURE EPIC FAIL” written all over it.
One of the best sports TV spots ever.
Reminds me of this ESPN college football commercial from a few years ago.
Jeezus. And I thought college football was bad…
This is totally off-topic, but you should google the phrase “Flaming Bacon Lance of Death.”
Really.
Alex
I live this life every day. My wife is a Broncos fan, I am a Chiefs fan. Sure it isn’t college football, but we cant ever watch the game together.
Alex (#4): I’m really surprised Scalzi hasn’t posted “No, really, I’ve seen it already”….
I am a Red Sox fan and I once dated a Yankees fan. It was…..difficult.
I met a couple a few years ago. He’s a Cubs fan, she’s a White Sox fan.
I think the most difficult part of these mixed marriages is how do you raise the children?
And please don’t say, “We’ll let them decide when they’re old enough.” We all know that never works out.
I think the bear let him off easy. A full scale mauling would not have been out of line.
@ Ryan 2:
I don’t even follow the Big 10, yet I was, um… we’ll say impressed by that commercial. Nice find.
@ John Shea: I disagree. If a mauling had occurred, she would have shown what *Canadien* fans are made of and beaten up the bear.
LMAO!
Go Habs go!
@Benoit – personally, I hope the Habs themselves beat up the bear tonight.
@Alternative Eric S: You’re right, because the grandparents will vie for who gets in first with the impossibly cute team-wear for the new baby(ies). Seriously, if you haven’t seen a tiny baby girl in a Cubs cheerleader outfit, or seen how cute a White Sox old-time style jersey is on a two-year-old, you don’t even begin to understand the depths to which grandparents will stoop to indoctrinate their little sweethearts.
Not to mention taking the grandkids to games and buying them tons of stuff, of course.
Canadian broadcasts love pointing out BF/GF opposing shirts, especially at the Toronto / Habs games. I’m sure what seemed like a cute idea dressing as such at the time caused more than one fight after these games.
I think the unrealistic thing about the commercial is that the boy would have never not succumbed to the pressure from the bear. I’d put money up that if you rode one of these guys hard enough for even a short amount of time, they would pick the team over the girl any day.
go bruins :)
Goes to show what David Letterman and Conan O’Brien have known for years: a guy in a bear suit? Never not funny.
My wife was born a Red Wings fan. I’m a Blues fan. When leaving a game between said two teams another fan made some passing comment about how we must have mad sex.
She’s also a Royals fan, whereas I was born a Cardinals fan…
My wife’s nephew is a Red Sox fan, his second son is a serious Yankee fan. The boy will be spending a long weekend with us this summer, a family tradition when you are eight.
When JP was 8 he drove my wife nuts, now when he kvetches about the unfair indoctrination, she just yells: ‘Payback’.
[My spell check knows about kvetches ?!]
I look forward to the Habs getting slaughtered over the next week… I lived in TO for a year so it’s kinda compulsory to hate them :). Of course, I also hate the shitty leafs, too…
So, yeah. Go Bruins. Will be good to see a team that’s been useless for years do well for once.
One of my first childhood acts of rebellion was choosing to like the Habs – My dad being a diehard Toronto fan, of course.
Hockey rivalries are a quintessential part of Canadian culture. And with the Montreal/Toronto rivalry, I have to toss in a reference to Roch Carrier’s classic story “The Hockey Sweater”:
I’m a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. I got kind of jealous reading that wikipedia article on Good, Clean Hate.
Yes, we Pens fans hate the Philadelphia Flyers. . . but we have no traditional hate practices other than screaming, “FLYERS SUCK!” I feel this cheapens the quality of our rivalry. I mean, sure, they do suck. But what else can you say? Now Detroit Red Wings-Colorado Avalanche, that was a rivalry. I still recall the massive brawl that took place after Claude Lemieux cheapshot-ed and injured one of the Wings. You had Chris Osgood and Patrick Roy going goalie to goalie, Peter Forsberg’s face was all messed up.
And then, of course, there was this tragic event.
Man, I thought I was risking certain argument when I married my husband. At the time, he was registered Republican and I was raised a MA Democrat. But his fan loyalties lie in WA unless the pro league in question lacks a team there, so the sports issues only get a little hairy when the Sox play the Mariners. I trust our marriage’s integrity against the low odds of a Seahawks/Patriots Super Bowl.
To be painfully honest, I will be friends with Yankees, Habs, and Ducks fans, but I will not now nor will I ever date one. It’s the closest I get to bigotry, except I know damn well the ribbing and fake fighting that I can do with a friend is not anywhere near as workable if I’m romantically involved with the person.
As for why the Ducks, I’m also a Sharks fan. This NHL playoff cycle is going to suck ass until I can be sure I won’t be facing my worst nightmare Stanley Cup Finals.
What is it with sports fans hating anyone who dares to do anything to support the wrong team? It’s stupid, that’s what it is.
It’s probably this excessive team rivalry, in many cases learned from birth, that teaches kids that it’s OK to hate blacks, or hispanics, or gays, or anyone else who is different.
Grow up.
Rational, you’re thinking about this one way too hard. Unless you believe mascots actually roam about, enforcing arbitrary rules concerning being a sports team fan, and that anyone would take such mascot-enforced rules seriously.
Ryan@21: Oui! Excellent short. Here’s a much better version, though, right from the source.
#7 & #19: There is no such thing as a “Yankees fan.” That’s like saying the schoolyard bully has “fans.” There are only Yankees supporters. Why they support the record-holding 13-time World Series losers is a mystery, but there it is.
ROFLMAO! I’m a big hockey fan and that was hilarious! Thanks for sharing! =D