Chris Chelios Cheap Shots Nashville Predators Fans

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.