Hockey Player Performs Tom Petty's 'Free Fallin' After Win, Is a Rock Legend

Honestly, I didn't know who Ryan Hollweg was before today.

The name sounded familiar, but it wasn't one I associated with American exceptionalism or the intersection of sports and heartland rock and roll.

But all that has been rectified thanks to Puck Daddy's Sean Leahy, who posted video from a recent Czech Extraliga hockey game showing Hollweg woo an entire crowd of Czech fans through sheer force of personality.

A former NHLer currently playing for Czech team HC Plzen, Hollweg celebrated a recent 5-1 victory over Karlovy Vary by taking the ice and thanking supporters with a makeshift rendition of "Free Fallin'"—a song that may or may not be a thing they know about in the Czech Republic.

Song relevance didn't matter, however.

Hollweg was simply too charming to resist. Stumbling through chords and humming the parts he didn't know, the forward ended up belting out the chorus to loud applause. The Czech supporters might not have known what it was all about, but they liked the way he was doing it. 

So congrats to you, Hollweg. You charmed an arena with nothing but a few chords and overpowering good vibes. 

It just goes to show that success is all about confidence—and Tom Petty songs. I think the human brain instinctively understands and appreciates heartland rock.

Dan is on Twitter. He would've yelled "Free Bird," and the Czech people would've instinctively hated him for being that guy.