So Chris Chelios was on a Detroit-area radio station this morning and gave the following quote regarding Nashville Predators fans:
"Yeah, they're hillbillyish.. I don't know what to say, hillbilly or country. They are a very emotional crowd, exciting crowd, loud, so it's actually a fun place to play on the road."
Dude, seriously? Hillbillyish? That’s where you went with that? So many places to go on this one. Hmmm...let's see.
1. Chris must still be miffed about that whole "Chelios is a sissy" chant from back during our team's first playoff appearance--the arena chanted that silly insult every time he touched the puck, and it was kind of funny.
2. I think "hillbilly" or "redneck" or "country" is about the easiest joke a person can make about Nashville. That joke is older than Mel Brooks. Give me a break, Chris. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, it offends me as a comedian! Have some originality or maybe just don’t try to be funny.
3. I think Nashville fans should show up at the first home playoff game on Monday all wearing straw hats and wife-beaters, with a strand of hay hanging out of their mouths. And they should all tell Chelios how "purty" he is. Or maybe they all wear three-piece business suits and monocles.
4. I don’t care for one second that he tries to redeem himself with the tail end of that quote by saying Predators fans are exciting and make Nashville a fun place to play. Too late. You can’t insult an entire city and then backtrack within the same 30 seconds.
5. If Chelios is allowed to mock Preds fans based on overused stereotypes about our town...then we can do the same thing: Detroit fans are dirty and poor. Just very, very poor and dirty...and homocidal-ish. And they all live in trailers and have nightly rap battles.
Oh, but they’re exciting fans, though. Fun place to play.
See, Chris, it's not that hard. Wait, wait... let me guess...Calgary fans say "Eh?" all the time, right? And Dallas fans are a bunch of cowboys and they all ride horses to the game and tie them up outside, right?
Sweeping generalizations are easy. Staying classy as a hockey player, even into your forties, is apparently quite tough.
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3 months ago
Ill agree that Chelios' comments were down right stupid, but i would remind any Preds fan that class is not something i could easily say they have. Ive seen the booing of when Mike Modano became the leading North American born player in Nashville and the cheering of cheap shots by Predators players on the Stars players. I would hope such classless comments against the average Pred fan makes them step back and think to "do unto others"
3 months ago
We did not boo Modano when he became the leading scorer. You're mixing up your controversies. We didn't stop the game an honor him when the scored the magic goal. So he and his owner and GM said we were a classless organization. The Stars had asked for the puck after the goal, but didn't ask for anything else...
Modano went on to say that he was somehow personally responsible for Nashville even having a team and that hockey shouldn't even really be in Nashville and other places in the south.
After THAT we boo him every time he touches the puck.
As for Chelios: here's some more fun interaction between him and Preds fans-- http://flickr.com/photos/jeffpope/2261555855/
3 months ago
Chelios is just upset that the Nashville fans boo him. He is in my mind a great player and after tonight he is the oldest player to appear in a playoff game. Great for him, but I will still boo him for the simple fact that he also likes to take cheap shots and won't stand up for himself. And as for Madono, if you watched the game as I did you would have noticed that Tootoo make a perfectly legal block on him and he struck Tootoo in the back with his stick two-handedly when toots turned to skate away. I was 15 feet from him and the look on his face was one of "if I could kill you and get away with it I would." Arrogant how dare he hit me as he is!!! That is why he is booed. He thinks he is above everyone else. I applaud his scoring record but loath his attitude and will boo him every time he hits the ice in Nashville.
3 months ago
Chelios' sissiness has even sparked a new line of apparel for Preds fans:
http://www.cafepress.com/hockeytonk
3 months ago
I don't think Chelios cares one iota if anyone chants 'sissy' or calls him any other name during a game. It's been going on for a quarter century now.
Players like him or Pronger get off on fans getting on their cases. It means that whatever they're doing is working.
Chelios's quote is doing exactly what he wants it to do - distract from what's really happening. If the crowd there is too busy booing an opposing player they aren't cheering their team.
Chelios is many things but dumb isn't one of them.
3 months ago
Doing his job or not, just supporting the ideas we hold about people from Detroit. Classless white trash.
about 1 month ago
Why do you take it as such an insult? It's just a fact. That's a part of the country where hillbillies come from. And hillbilly is just another word for country folk. What is so bad about that? It's not like he said you were all inbred child molesters.
If I were a Predators fan I'd be more concerned about the classless behavior of the fans than with anything Chelios has to say.
http://www.nashvillepredatorsfanshavenoclass.com/
about 1 month ago
Love that you explain his comment by saying "hillbilly" isn't an insult. Very unbiased of you. Also love that you bought a domain name and started a website dedicated to bashing another team's fans--you, sir, just absolutely reek of class and you should totally be the guy telling other people what "classy" means.
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