“Stereotypes are devices for saving a biased person the trouble of learning”
Philadelphia Flyers’ fans are the worst in the NHL.
On that there is no debate, right?
How could one come to any other conclusion as we read about the despicable incidents of the past few days happening in and around the Wachovia Center. Canadiens’ fans have been mocked, children have been spat on, and TV equipment was damaged.
Habs’ fans who made the trip to Philadelphia have been threatened, physically and verbally assaulted, and told by Wachovia security that their safety could not be protected.
Some Canadiens’ players were informed by teammates to be prepared to hear some of the most vile taunts from Flyers’ fans during the warm-up.
Everything so far seems to support the initial statement. Obviously, its an open and shut case.
I really hate to ruin such a perfect hypothesis by expanding my field of view but I feel compelled to take a virtual trip down Interstate 87 South.
Imagine my surprise to come across this headline.
Montreal Canadiens’ fans are the worst in the NHL.
With Americans being fed a steady diet of video clips showing “Habs fans” rioting in downtown Montreal, it seems that most have determined that their northern counterparts arrive at the rink with their Canadiens’ jersey, a ski mask, and a section of steel pipe.
Add to it stories of Bell Centre patrons who just can’t wait to boo the U.S. national anthem, and the evidence is starting to mount in support of the claim by the other side.
So where do we go from here?
On Monday, Montreal talk radio asked listeners for their reaction to Flyers’ fans chanting “Ol-e Ol-e” in sarcastic fashion during Sunday night’s game with Philadelphia well ahead. The radio hosts stirred the pot by asking the question about a retaliatory response.
Good idea. I can hear the boo-birds warming up now.
Local media flogged Pat Hickey’s account of his slashed tires and stolen license plates while parked outside the Wachovia Center. It was some red meat to a rabid base and the response was predictable. Hey, it’s tough to sell newspapers these days.
The story, reprinted in Philadelphia, ended with the author suggesting a new variation to the Flyers playoff slogan: “Relentless in the pursuit of idiocy.”
That’s not exactly a Hands Across North America gesture, Pat.
But seriously, is there any sense in attacking an innocent reporter’s vehicle?
Some in Philadelphia will point to Hickey’s colleague at the Gazette, Mike Boone, as the catalyst for the attack. You may remember Boone wrote the following passage in February expressing his feelings about the Flyers.
“There’s not a franchise in sports I hate more than the Philadelphia Flyers. Not the Toronto Maple Leafs. Not the New York Yankees. Not the Dallas Cowboys or L.A. Lakers.
No, you’d have to have an Olympic Games flashback to 1936 and watch the pride of Hitler’s Germany marching into the Berlin stadium to match the feeling of revulsion I experience every time I see the Flyers play.”
Yes, I can see how using a Nazi metaphor may have raised the hackles of the Flyers faithful.
As there seems to be no way to calm this fire, I’ll just say, ‘Carry on’ and step out of the way.
But hold on just one minute. I promise that I will stop asking questions and take cover while the two sides duke it out, but allow me one or two more, if you please.
As fans and the media continue to point fingers of blame and ratchet up the tension, may I just ask: To what outcome? How are we expecting this story to end?
As you give those questions some thought, I’ll recap.
In Montreal, we know that violent thugs took advantage of a Game 7 fan celebration and deliberately chose it as a time to engage in looting and rioting.
In Philadelphia, I’m told that most residents love Santa Claus despite the actions of a few at Franklin Field over 40 years ago.
At the Bell Centre, a small minority of morons have boo’ed the U.S. anthem. Chants of USA – USA could be heard at the Wachovia Center even though the current Flyers’ roster includes 19 Canadians and four Americans.
So, I think it’s fair to say that there are idiots on both sides of the divide among fans and media alike. But is it safe to assume that they are in the minority?
Before anyone tries the “they started it first” nonsense with recounts of incidents involving Ron Hextall, Chris Chelios, Bobby Clarke or Pierre Bouchard, let me remind you that phrase hasn’t worked since pre-school, if even then.
It is easy to hate when you don’t venture outside of your own cocoon. There are few who will challenge the prevailing opinion even if it isn’t accurate.
Trust me. I’m the last person who would suggest that a rousing chorus of Kumbaya will solve everything and help us all to be friends. Frankly, I don’t even think that’s the goal.
I am simply suggesting that people should take a moment to communicate with a fan from the opposing team. Are the two of you going to agree? Probably not. But I suspect you will be less inclined to douse each other with beer or do something worse afterward.
You can talk about how cowardly Dan Carcillo is. Rate Maxim Lapierre’s diving form. Who knows? Soon you will be exchanging poutine and cheese steak recipes.
Or better still. You will probably discover that beyond the stereotypes, we are more similar than it appears. A surprise for some will be that we speak the same language.
You may say, no thanks, I have no interest in an international sociology experiment.
Far from it. This is a way of improving your fan experience. When discussing and debating the game with supporters and new media from all over the league, you can become a more knowledgeable, engaged fan.
Can it work?
Recently, a Flyers’ fan posted this message on Twitter, “Dear Habs fan, Don’t tweet in French, it makes you look even more effeminate, if that’s possible. Sincerely, Flyers fan.”
Within one day of challenging his statement and starting a dialogue, “Flyers fan” called All Habs a great blog. Contrary to what you might expect from his initial message, he is a decent guy and knowledgeable hockey fan.
I know, you are probably rolling your eyes right now.
But think about this. Knowing how it hurts our American friends, would Habs’ fans be more inclined to ostracize the idiots at the Bell Centre who boo anthems? What if Flyers’ fans demanded better security in the Wachovia Center for their Canadiens’ friends (and themselves)?
At the very least, isn’t it a better alternative than what you are hearing from the regular sources? That is, an escalation of the rhetoric that makes us hate each other.
Come on. Let’s take this down a notch.
We should remember that being a fan means being there to support the home team first and foremost, and then doing little more than showing a healthy disdain for the visitors.
Well written and very accurate. I truly wish that the general population would stop bulking the few idiots together with the decent fans.
The last paragraph sums it up perfectly. Support your team, love the game. Distain is healthy – hate is ugly.
Go Habs Go!
I don't know if we will ever get to the point where fans treat each other with civility. It seems to have entered this arena of "oneupsmanship" now, and whoever backs down first will be the loser. I truly fear for any Pensyllvania license plates that may turn up in Montreal tomorrow. While we are quite adept at burning and destroying our own cars, I'd hate to see what happens if a group of drunken revelers decide to repay the favour for what happened to the TV equipment belonging to Montreal media.
I'm just grateful that the idiots who bully, boo, vandalize, threaten and loot are unlikely to be people who make important decisions for the rest of us on a daily basis.
Great post.
Let me begin with a word of thanks and an apology:
First, I need to sincerely thank Rocket for posting this article. The animosity between fans in this series has the potential to reach dangerously inappropriate heights and I appreciate the voice of reason this article presents as an alternative to jumping on the hatred bandwagon, no matter which team you're supporting. As my name implies, I'm a Flyers fan first and foremost – but my love for the Habs ranks a very close second and I don't want to see more bad blood between these two teams and their fans.
I have always made it my goal (knowing the reputation that precedes any sports enthusiast from Philadelphia) to counteract the stereotypes and negativity that many Philly sports fans seem to insist on spreading. I feel fortunate to have a deep appreciation for hockey in general, not just the NHL and not just the Flyers – and with that appreciation, I've been lucky enough to meet and make friends with great fans from many different teams and backgrounds. I try very hard every day to set an example to all of them as a Philly fan who ISN'T rude, crude, mean, vulgar, crass, insensitive or bully-ish. Please believe me when I say that many of the fans from our city DO NOT behave that way. Unfortunately, those folks aren't the one who get the media spotlight – instead, all we hear about is people who throw snowballs at Santa, vomit on police officers and their children, get tazed at baseball games, and vandalize anything without a Philadelphia team logo on it. Which leads me straight to my apology:
I apologize that many Philly fans are proud to be the most obnoxious in the league – in fact, they wear it like a badge of "toughness". Why, you ask? Because when you grow up in southeastern Pennsylvania this is the only example of "how to be a fan" that you're really exposed to – in most all of our professional sports in the city. Many fans here aren't exposed to perspectives and viewpoints from others around the league, which means they don't see the bigger picture…I blame that partially on America's lack of decent and well-rounded hockey coverage. It's also due to the fact the Flyers fans tend to be pretty passionate about their team…now that's a great quality to have in a fan, but the lines of acceptable behavior somehow become very blurred here. The outcome of that "tunnel vision" is that even the youngest fans are raised to believe that it's perfectly acceptable to act with complete disregard to fellow spectators, and are shown that it's ok to do things "en masse" at the Wachovia Center that you would never even consider doing anywhere else in life. Yes, that "mob mentality" isn't an excuse, but it happens…you can't tell me that the looters in Montreal who took advantage of the crowd's excitement after the Habs spectacular Game 7 win would normally behave that way if they weren't with a large group of people who all thought that turning into criminals would be a good idea? I think not.
But enough of me making excuses for the horrendous behavior displayed by Philly fans throughout the city's sports history, and more importantly in this series. There has to be a level of accountability and right now there isn't one. In fact, I'm disgusted to see this behavior being ENCOURAGED on both sides of the border! I was appalled to find out that the media in Montreal were asking fans to come up with a "retaliation response" to the "U-S-A" chants heard at the Wachovia Center on Sunday. Really people, did the word "retaliation" need to be used? Do you have any idea what kind of connotations that word implies? Are they trying to ignite a bigger fire here? Yes, the USA chant was supremely stupid – we should all be LAUGHING at those people. Chanting USA when most of your team is Canadian? Oh yeah, that's genius. But for the same reason, so is booing the American national anthem in "retaliation" when the Habs have American players on their team! I mean, what's the point of trying to insult each other if we're just going to insult ourselves at the same time, right?
Yes, this is sports – so yes, there should be friendly jibing, trash-talk and humorous banter being exchanged. But please, let's draw the line at refraining from outright insults with intent to injure – you can hate the opposing team without verbally abusing and hurting their fans (and I'm talking to all fans here…not team specific). Let's not physically assault people, or cause emotional harm to children, or destroy other people's property. Let's instead act like civilized human beings – is that such an outrageous request?
I made a conscious effort on Sunday during and after the game to squash attempts at mudslinging and insults being exchanged on Twitter – most Habs fans I know were supportive and appreciative. All the flack I got for it came from my fellow Flyers fans…"Why are you complaining about us mocking other teams and their fans? This is Philly – it's what we do." Well that's just a FANTASTIC argument, isn't it. My answer was "But why is that 'what we do'? Why can't we be better human beings than that?" Needless to say, I never got a response – I must have been making too much sense or something :P
With Game 2 just hours away, in Philadelphia again, I am extremely apprehensive about what is going to happen before, during and after the game – both at the rink and on social media sites like Twitter. But I then go one step further and get nervous about Games 3 and 4 in Montreal. I can understand why many Habs fans are already disgusted with the behavior of their Flyers counterparts – but in their passion for hating Philadelphia fans, I hope they don't cross the same line they're complaining about. How gracious do you think fans at the Bell Centre will be to anyone wearing orange and black on Thursday and Saturday? Food for thought – let's just all work at being the better person, ok? We should all simply enjoy this intense hockey series – it promises to be a good one!
Wow, that's 5 minutes of my life that I wont get back.
Let me start by saying I am a Flyers fan. What I am not a fan of is stupidity. As the article states, there are quite a few idiot Philly fans. This sadly will never change. But isn't it the same in any city? Yes, I think so.
I was at the game on Sunday and had the pleasure of sitting behind a Habs fan. After joking around with each other (mostly before and during the start of the game) a "friendly" banter struck up and stayed throughout the game. This guy was a model fan. He was knowledgeable about his team, and about the sport in general. He had no bad motives and it was actually a fun environment having someone to joke with and taunt knowing it was all in good fun. We both spoke at length about how dumb it is to do a "USA" chant when the Flyers have more Canadians on the team than the Habs do. We have 2 gold medal Canadian athletes on our team. I actually love Canada and Canadians. Seeing how the players responded to the Canadian national anthem before the game gave me chills. It means more to them than the American anthem. Shouldn't we respect Canada? What's the point of starting a USA chant when Danny Briere is in the middle of a scrum? He's French Canadian!
I salute the Montreal fan who was sitting in front of me the other night for being a true hockey fan, and a respectable man.
Not all Philly fans are idiots. I take pride in being a fair and knowledgeable fan who would never take to stupidity and violence to support my team. I'm sure our players don't want that. It's not going to help them in any way.
Let's go Flyers! I'm looking forward to a great game tonight knowing Montreal will be in top form after that first game.
The problem here is that we only hear about the unruly and cruel fans. If somebody goes to see their home team play in another city, they wouldn't say anything if they showed up, watched the game, cheered when appropriate and sulked when appropriate. It's when they get pelted with a beer, or hammered with fists, or pummeled with insults that somebody would go and tell everyone he or she knows about how poor the experience was.
We're hearing the worst about each other right now, and that's only fueling the beliefs that fans in Philadelphia and Montreal are cretins.
I think we can acknowledge that most fans in any city are civil, kind people, especially to out of towners. But it doesn't take much to ruin a city's reputation. Philadelphia has long been known as a town where some fans will treat others poorly. Even if only one out of five fans are jerks (a vast minority), when you scale that across a hockey arena, that still amounts to thousands of people. Multiply that by 41 home games (for hockey alone, nevermind baseball, football and basketball) and you get a lot of people saying and doing some pretty nasty stuff.
In Montreal, there are now dozens of pictures of looters floating around the net. Dozens of pictures with several people in most, sometimes the same person pops up. All told, we're talking about a few dozen people. According to the police, there were about 500 troublemakers last week after game 7 vs the Penguins.
500. Out of a reported 50,000 people in the streets after the game. That .01% of idiots has once again tarnished Montreal's reputation. How does that compute? How does that make sense? It doesn't.
We love to harp on easy targets, and we love to fuel controversy. I wish fans in each city would know where to draw the line, but they don't. Physically assaulting another fan from out of town should be seriously punished. Whether it's pouring beer on someone, or giving them a braining, each city should take strict measures to defang these morons who choose to believe that they're "defending their team's honor" or whatever they think they're doing.
Sadly, I don't think we'll ever get to that point. People don't surrender their badges of honor quietly or willingly.
Hey, Flyers fan here.
I agree with the article. I think both fanbases stick out for their stupid fans, and that unfortunately gets brought up every time the fanbases are brought up. The pack of morons who boo the US National Anthem to the point where because of them, the whole building needed to be told of the US players like 2-year olds, or the two idiots who ran onto the field at the Phillies game only to be tazered.
I've got about 30 friends in Montreal, and I love talking about the Habs and Flyers, and especially the rivalry when they play, or when we play in the playoffs. It's a good friendly rivalry, and I hate to see idiots represent us all here in Philadelphia.
And for the record, PK Subban is awesome and I wish he was a Flyer.
Montreal in the asshole of Canada run by the mob. The mayor can't even walk the streets at night. They dont want to be a part of Canada and have attempted to seperate several times. Their fans are on the same level as monkeys, as they destroy their city and burn police cars during riots after winning games. Lapierre acts like a 9 year old and wouldn't drop the gloves with any flyer. He's not a tough guy, a goal scorer, or a play maker, and the only reason that he's in the NHL is because he's french canadian and the Habs need to have a few on the team so the fans don't cry. He still has all of his teeth because he is a little girl and doesn't fight. Hopefully Richards will end his sad excuse for a season with a open ice hit. The only reason why Montreal won cups is because there was 6 teams in the NHL and Montreal had the rights to all players born near Montreal. Since they got rid of that retarded rule they have won 2. I'm from Toronto and played with PK on the Etobicoke Bulldogs. He was a terrible player but an excellent skater as a kid. Glad hes improved
I drove to Quebec once with my car with Massachusetts plates. I took off my bruins decals and everything but the plates because I didnt want trouble, but because I had Mass plates, I had people cutting me off, throwing stuff at my car and denting it, and even someone threaten to kill me. I never got out of my car and went back to the border crossing.
For this reason, I will always think of Habs fans as thugs and next time I have the misfortune to have to travel to Quebec, Im renting a car with out of state plates.
If you Habs fans want people to not compare you to the likes of Philly fans, stop acting like it, get mad at other fans when they do something disrespectful, stop acting so elitist, and for gods sake stop threatening the refs and throwing crap on the ice when a call goes against you, good or not. If you want to be treated as respectable fans, start acting like it.
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