Comments on: Love Me Like You Do

By: AG

AG — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 00:23:48 +0000

I actually know the Caps fan guy who failed his Isles-loving father! I saw this and laughed out loud. He went to my high school and works for the Nationals!

By: T

Sat, 02 May 2015 03:33:54 +0000

My sister and I have been harassed and threatened in Detroit and in Buffalo. Detroit was the scariest because we were threatened with physical violence but Buffalo was the weirdest because some teenage girl with her mom told me to ‘watch my back’ on the way to my car and the mom said we were classless for cheering for our team (I assume because Buffalo had such a bad season?). Very upsetting both times. I’m afraid to go to Chicago in a Preds jersey

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 03:10:12 +0000

For college hockey fans, if you ever get the chance I highly reccomend traveling to Wisconsin for a game. One of the best places I have ever gone for hockey. Everyone was so friendly, one Wisconsin fan went out of his way to ask us if we were enjoying the trip because he had traveled for hockey games and had been treated awfully by fans of the home team.
Another positive experience: after the Blackhaks defeated the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup in 2013, while walking out of the Garden I saw a 20-something year old guy shake hands with and congratulate a small group of Chicago fans.
Apparently there is still some good in the world!

By: treakle1

treakle1 — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 19:20:34 +0000

Public transportation is when things can get dicey, especially on the way home. Drunk people in close quarters can go dark quickly.
I was sitting with my small at the time 13 year old nephew on the train after a game three years ago. a drunk college student loudly started talking trash while invading my personal space. I responded that I came to the Sabres games to watch good hockey. He backed off the anti-Crosby rant when I began to talk about Malkin because Malkin wasn’t a (bleep). All this, and I was wearing my relatively neutral J. Staal jersey! Anyway, Once this large drunken gentleman passed out, his friend (who was not as drunk) apologized to me. Rather late, but at least there was an apology.

Lesson learned the hard way = do not wear anything that says Crosby on it in Buffalo, NY! Two reasons include Sabres loss in a shootout because of a Crosby OT goal during the first Winter Classic. And more damningly, Crosby scoring the golden goal at the Olympics on Ryan Miller (Sabres goaltender at the time).

By: Katherine

Katherine — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 02:30:26 +0000

My family has season tickets to and are long-time fans of the Pens, but we live right outside of Philly (go figure). When I was about nine or ten, my parents and I went to a Pens @ Flyers game. We got the usual light but borderline rude heckling from the ticket scanners and ushers. The real problem occurred when I, a little blonde ten-year-old girl, carrying an ice cream cone (could I have looked more innocent?), was walking back to our seats and I was spat on by a very big tall adult male Flyers fan. Guessing I shouldn’t have worn my Crosby jersey…

We have grown to not being able to stand the harassment at the Wells Fargo, so we go to Pens @ Devils games instead; the staff members are unbelievably nice, as are some of the fans, and while there’s an intense fan here and there, its nothing compared to the harassment we have experienced from Flyers fans.

By: Fatema

Fatema — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 20:31:49 +0000

Hockey is a sport that as much as it divides us, it also unites us. We must be respectful even if someone is a Pens fans wearing a Crosby jersey in Philly.

By: Kaitlin

Kaitlin — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 17:28:19 +0000

Ugh. I am so so sorry that that happened to you. Stuff likes this makes me ashamed of my home and tempted to hide under the covers for a bit. Not cool at all. It’s a tough call for me as a hobbit sized female whether or not I jump in when things like that are happening, but I’d like to think if I saw something like that I’d step up and defend them. Absolutely despicable.

By: andrea

andrea — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 17:15:59 +0000

My friend and I got heckled by a restroom attendant at the Spectrum while wearing Sharks gear. The Sharks were pretty bad that season, so we told her we were from the bay area and flew across the country to see our awful team. She said we were hard core but the Sharks were still gonna lose.

By: jlrpuck

jlrpuck — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 15:14:47 +0000

I’ve been an away fan at four arenas–Tampa, San Jose, Toronto, and Pittsburgh. I’ve worn Caps gear every time, and never had a bad experience (granted the Toronto trip was back when the Caps were still terrible, so i think we got more pitying looks than anything else. Understandable, in those dark days). In every arena, the hometown fans around us were nice–sociable, with a good bit of teasing, but nothing over the top or rude. In fact, the Tampa fans were some of the most fun (and most passionate) I’ve had the pleasure of sitting with. Good arena, Tampa (Tesla coils in the ceiling FTW!).

I think your observation about shouting at a group anonymously is spot-on. Every time I’ve witnessed dickish fan behavior–including, shamefully, at Verizon Center–it’s involved a group.

By: Deb

Deb — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 05:19:18 +0000

That’s awful, Kristi. It must have been awful. I don’t understand the ruthless nature of Philly fans, and I am one. Every time I go to a game and see a fan walking alone in the visiting team’s jersey, I want to walk with them to make sure they stay safe. I will never understand why people feel the need to belittle, bully, or abuse other people because of a game.
I’m sorry your experience was a bad one.

By: Kristi

Kristi — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 04:27:12 +0000

A friend and I drove to Philadelphia to see the Pens last year for my birthday. We wore our gear the entire trip and experienced some playful razzing (e.g. “Charge extra for the Pens fans!”). So, we thought our experience at the arena wouldn’t be so bad. Instead, we were verbally insulted and harassed, had beer sprayed at us, my friend was shoved into a bathroom stall, and I was jerked backwards by the collar of my jersey while walking down the steps. When we complained to an arena staff member, we were asked “who did it – the guy in the Pronger jersey?” Though it doesn’t matter the gender, I feel the need to add that my friend and I are both female, and our attackers were all male. This adds some extra fear when people continue to harass during the drive away from the arena. That day, the Pens lost 4-0. The rest of the city was friendly and playful. I loved my visit. However, I will never attend another game at Wells Fargo. No one should have to experience that treatment, and if I encounter people in Pittsburgh behaving as deplorably, I hope to have the courage to defend them. It is JUST a game. Nothing more.

By: Wish in One Hand

Wish in One Hand — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 04:05:40 +0000

I think it was 2 seasons ago, I was at a Rangers/Caps playoff game at MSG (alone). I had just purchased a new jersey to mark the occasion. And I should note that I’m a Ranger fan. A group of guys came and set next to me. A couple of them had their faces painted (as did I) and I thought, “this will be great fun!” It was not.

They had clearly been drinking for hours and for almost the entire first period, one of the group was yelling homophobic crap about Ovi, particularly about how much Ovi enjoyed putting a certain part of male anatomy in his mouth (trying to keep this somewhat clean). There were small kids RIGHT behind him. Now, full disclosure: I’m a loud fan and I curse like a sailor, but I do try to keep it somewhat in check if there are kids around.

When he started in again at the beginning of the second period, I reached my limit and yelled at him, loud enough for the entire section to hear, that it seemed to me that HE was the one who was obsessed with Ovi and fellatio (again, paraphrasing here), but I was REALLY sick of hearing about it, so maybe he could shut his damn mouth? The rest of our section laughed, but in response, he oh so eloquently called me a “fat b—h” and told me to “F off.” If I hadn’t been wearing a brand new jersey, I would’ve gotten in his face, because I’m 100% sure he was the kind of guy who would’ve hit me, and I really wanted him to get thrown out, but I was afraid I’d bleed on my jersey, and I wasn’t willing to take that risk (especially with it being a white away jersey and all). He did shut up, though, so I guess that’s a win?

After the second period when he got up to get yet another beer, his friend apologized and said that his friend was normally a nice guy, he’d just had too much to drink. I looked him in the eye and said, “No, your friend is not a nice guy. He’s an a——e.”

And these were FELLOW RANGER FANS. In general, I love my fellow Blueshirt faithful and I’ve had many, many wonderful experiences, but this was just really sad.

By: way2busymom (@way2busymom)

way2busymom (@way2busymom) — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 00:25:23 +0000

I’m a Blackhawks fan who has been married 25+ years to a Blues fan. We’ve been to countless games in each other’s teams arenas & I’ve experienced plenty of good natured ribbing & trash talking & grousing about each other’s team, but never had any ugly altercations with other fans.

The real fan violence comes from arguments over which team’s Christmas ornament gets the place of honor at the top of the tree each year.

By: Kaitlin

Kaitlin — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 00:03:04 +0000

Yeah, obnoxiously drunk fans are the worst. As a Flyers fan, I try and avoid those groups/individuals when I’m at games in Philly.

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 23:57:51 +0000

Pretty sure Pens and Rangers gear are the two I would least recommend someone wear in Philly. I’m very often ashamed of my fellow Flyers fans. Things got downright ugly in the Wells Fargo Center during the first round vs the Sabres in 2011. That being said, my ringtone for a brief time was “Chelsea Dagger” and let me tell you, Scott Hartnell was not amused when my phone rang LOUDLY in the middle of an open team practice the year after Chicago took the Cup in game 6.

The first game I ever went to was Caps/Jackets in DC. I proudly, if not a bit nervously, donned my brand spanking new Rick Nash jersey. The response was mostly as expected; a few bros yelled “Jackets suck” at me and I got flipped off once on F Street post-game. I’ve seen worse than that from hockey moms at a Flyers practice. While waiting in line for a drink, a couple of Caps fans took great pleasure in notifying me that Nash was out with an injury that night (my disappointment knew no bounds), then proceeded to ask me if I even knew why they were called the “Blue Jackets”. Seriously? That’s what I need to know in order to prove that I’m a REAL fan? So I schooled him on the Civil War and Ohio’s involvement with the Union Army and he and his friend promptly shut up. During the game, the Jackets scored and the guy next to me demanded I stand and cheer for my team. “Who gives a crap what they think…your team just scored a goal! I’ve got your back.” See- chivalry isn’t dead!

When are you coming to a game in Philly, Pants? I’ve got a Giroux shirsey ready and waiting for you!

By: Kaitlin

Kaitlin — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 23:37:06 +0000

You can always come to a Flyers game with me! I’ve never actually been to a Flyers-Pens game because ticket prices increase 2-4x when the Pens are in town. There are of course jerks, as there are in any city, but I’m always nice to visitors and I know I’m not the only one. Oh I may make some remark along the lines of “seriously?” or “I’m so sorry about your poor taste in hockey teams” but I’ll say it with a wink and a smile.

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 23:34:02 +0000

I take a lot of crap being a Blackhawks fan living in St. Louis. My coworkers and I have a lot of fun with this, which is great, but going to games is sometimes another story. There was a game last season in which a Blues fan kept turning around and screaming in my face for no reason other than I was a Blackhawks fan. During the playoffs last season essentially the whole row in front of me made fun of my BFF and me (it didn’t help I was getting sick from a cold and had a low tolerance for ignorance), but I kept my mouth shut. Way back when I was in college my sister, BFF and I went to a Blackhawks-Blues preseason game and we were harassed during the warm up and the first half the the first period (and mind you at this time we were broke college students, so we didn’t have jersey’s on) We noticed all the yelling at us had essentially stopped, and it was about that point I turned around to find Tony Amonte, Jeff Hackett and Jean-Yves Leroux had sat down in the row behind us. That turned out to be one of the best games I had been to because Tony Amonte was poking fun at me for the bandage I had on my arm. The previous day I had slipped on gravel while walking around campus and tore my arm & leg up and he kept joking I did it because I was drunk (I actually fell leaving the library). I’m not saying every game in St Louis is bad because there are a lot of good fans out there, but it’s always the bad experiences that stay in your memory.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 22:40:03 +0000

This year I added two more away arenas to my list, bringing my total to four. I’ve had varied experiences at each arena (Nashville, Atlanta, Boston, Columbus). The only negative on the list was Nashville and it wasn’t even really that bad.
The incident occurred after the game had ended, this being game 6 of the Hawks/Preds playoff series in 2010 in which my Hawks eliminated Nashville. Now it’s perfectly understandable that the Preds fans were upset, but this one girl was drunk and trying to get in my face. Being that I was wearing my jersey, several other Hawks fans that I encountered as my friend and I were leaving high-fived each other and were quite jubilant to be moving on to the next round. It was after one such occurrence that the girl in front of me swung around and screamed at me that she was on the phone and couldn’t hear. It was beyond loud in the place from the large quantity of people (Hawks and Preds fans alike) exiting the arena, but she blamed it all on me and got in my face.
I don’t even remember people sitting near me in Atlanta, and I definitely saw more red than anything else.
Boston was great, I loved the city and would gladly go back again. I ended up talking a bit with the people behind me who also happened to be visiting (they were from Canada) and my brief encounters with local Bruins fans were also very pleasant.
Columbus was a little different because I went with my brother and his girlfriend as well as her father who is a huge Blue Jackets fan (who knew?). He was antagonizing my brother and I throughout the game, but we were giving it right back and it was all in good fun. After the game I talked with some other Jackets fans, who helped me out in getting an autograph from a traded player (former Hawk). Great overall game experience in Columbus, would definitely recommend it.
Even with the minor incident in Nashville, I would return to any of the cities for another game and hope to add more in the future.

By: BKNY1999

BKNY1999 — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 21:14:19 +0000

I have experienced only one game away from my home arena (MSG) and it was at Consol in Pittsburgh. Four years ago I was home for the holidays and took my mom to see the Rangers take on the Pens. My mom was wearing her Pens scarf and I was wearing my Rangers jersey and Lundqvist scarf. At first all I got was dirty looks. But once we got to our seats, three rows off the glass behind the goal, things got not so friendly. No one addressed me directly (guess my mom’s Pens scarf and cane helped them keep things in check a little bit), but they made sure to talk very loudly about the Ranger players and not in any positive way. One guy even said that Lundqvist must be a “f*cking homo” due to the way he dresses off the ice. After that comment there was a very vulgar discussion as to whether they thought Avery and Lundqvist were a couple off ice (trust me, you don’t want any more details than that). As I was with my mother I didn’t respond to anyone, I just bit my tongue. As the game went on and more beers were consumed it just got worse. Thankfully the Rangers came alive in the 3rd period and scored 4 unanswered goals and won the game. (I may have screamed so loud on one of those goals that Torts and half the guys on the bench looked over at me, but in my defense, I had been holding back for most of the game.) After the game I helped my mom up the stands and then went to get the car. Walking back to the car on my own in my Rangers gear was not a fun trip. I had several guys get in my face and yell that my team sucked. There were other non drunk fans around but no one stepped in to help me. I don’t think I will be attending another game in Pittsburgh. Sorry Pants, wasn’t a positive experience for me, other than a win for my team.

By: Veronica Rutherford

Veronica Rutherford — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 20:43:34 +0000

Philly hasn’t been too bad for a Caps fan. The first time I went to what was then called the FU center in a Caps jersey, everyone was nice, helped us when we were lost on the way to the arena, pointed us to our section, it was weird. But the Caps were terrible then, so I assume even Flyers fans feel pity.

More recent trips result in some chirping, but nothing I didn’t laugh about until a guy threw popcorn at me some of which ended up in my beer. I whirled around furiously yelling NOT THE BEER! He apologized sincerely and bought me another one. He even picked the popcorn out of my hair.

The abuse Flyers fans heap on their own team is astoundingly NSFW though, even with kids around.