Get Stupid With It
Posted 10:11 AM ET | Comments 0
In my lifetime I've seen the St. Louis Blues play hundreds of games. I've seen them at the Checkerdome/Arena/Greatest Place Of All Time. I've seen them at the Kiel Center/Savvis Center/Scottrade Center. I saw them play last season in Buffalo at the HSBC Arena. Nothing compared to what I saw at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Predator fans are definitely one-of-a-kind.
When I think of St. Louis fans, in general, I think of professionalism mixed in with a little bit of bickering trash-talk. We know our stuff, especially Cardinals fans, and we like to let you know it.....but we'll try to make it seem like we're just having fun instead of really demeaning everyone not born in St. Louis and North County in particular! "The only reason you came down here from that piece of crap in Chicago is because you're too poor to buy their tickets and I'm pretty sure you still can't watch the games on TV! But seriously, you guys do suck. Haha. I'm just kidding. But for real, I hate you. Haha." What you've just witnessed is St. Louis bush league at it's worst. Nashville....a different bread altogether.
Watching a game at the Bridgestone Arena is like going to a high school game. They cheer for weird stuff, they have songs going that mean nothing to the game itself, and everyone is obnoxious as all get-out. If a Predator loses an edge and falls you can be sure that half the arena is standing up yelling for a penalty. Tim McGraw sings after every goal. There's a guy named Paul who tells you how much time is left (and they all thank him for it). They say "you suck" a lot. They blame the opposing goalie for everything. But they don't talk a lot of trash. They do their talking with their cheers and immediately turn around and give you an embarrassed smile as if to say "this is just the nonsense we do here....nothing you can do about it." And I must say.....it's a little infectious.
As juvenile as ALL of it is I must say I enjoyed the experience, even in a losing effort. I didn't care for what they were saying and chanting and singing, but I did like that they were all doing it in unison. And they were loud about it. It was something to do that didn't seem too forced somehow. The jumbotron didn't have to tell them to thank Paul for telling them the time. There's no script in how to taunt the opposing goalie. The whole thing feels almost grass roots.
Don't get me wrong, I'll take professionalism and bickering any day of the week. We're good at what we do in St. Louis. Sometimes better than others, but always good. We know when to cheer. We know when to get upset. We know when to sit down. We know when to freak out. I just wish that we would FREAK OUT more when we know we should. No cheering and jeering.....just pure, unadulterated freaking the eff out after a big hit, a timely goal, a huge save. We need more passion and less knowledge. They say ignorance is bliss. Maybe for the next home game we could show how dumb we want to be and rock the house like nobody's business. Let's get stupid, St. Louis. Dig deep!
When I think of St. Louis fans, in general, I think of professionalism mixed in with a little bit of bickering trash-talk. We know our stuff, especially Cardinals fans, and we like to let you know it.....but we'll try to make it seem like we're just having fun instead of really demeaning everyone not born in St. Louis and North County in particular! "The only reason you came down here from that piece of crap in Chicago is because you're too poor to buy their tickets and I'm pretty sure you still can't watch the games on TV! But seriously, you guys do suck. Haha. I'm just kidding. But for real, I hate you. Haha." What you've just witnessed is St. Louis bush league at it's worst. Nashville....a different bread altogether.
Watching a game at the Bridgestone Arena is like going to a high school game. They cheer for weird stuff, they have songs going that mean nothing to the game itself, and everyone is obnoxious as all get-out. If a Predator loses an edge and falls you can be sure that half the arena is standing up yelling for a penalty. Tim McGraw sings after every goal. There's a guy named Paul who tells you how much time is left (and they all thank him for it). They say "you suck" a lot. They blame the opposing goalie for everything. But they don't talk a lot of trash. They do their talking with their cheers and immediately turn around and give you an embarrassed smile as if to say "this is just the nonsense we do here....nothing you can do about it." And I must say.....it's a little infectious.
As juvenile as ALL of it is I must say I enjoyed the experience, even in a losing effort. I didn't care for what they were saying and chanting and singing, but I did like that they were all doing it in unison. And they were loud about it. It was something to do that didn't seem too forced somehow. The jumbotron didn't have to tell them to thank Paul for telling them the time. There's no script in how to taunt the opposing goalie. The whole thing feels almost grass roots.
Don't get me wrong, I'll take professionalism and bickering any day of the week. We're good at what we do in St. Louis. Sometimes better than others, but always good. We know when to cheer. We know when to get upset. We know when to sit down. We know when to freak out. I just wish that we would FREAK OUT more when we know we should. No cheering and jeering.....just pure, unadulterated freaking the eff out after a big hit, a timely goal, a huge save. We need more passion and less knowledge. They say ignorance is bliss. Maybe for the next home game we could show how dumb we want to be and rock the house like nobody's business. Let's get stupid, St. Louis. Dig deep!