I’m by no means a sports blogger (for that I turn to the ever-classy Tremendous Upside Potential) but I think today is a special occasion.
So that’s it. The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, the ticker tape is being swept up, Daley was roundly boo’d, and Patrick Kane is on Day One of a three month bender.
Look out, ladies. Patrick Kane is coming for you. (Sun-Times Media)
If you’ve listened to any Chicago sports radio or sat in a bar in the last few weeks, you’ll have noticed the grown men bitching and moaning (as grown men who are passionate about sports tend to do) about the Blackhawks Bandwagon.
Disclaimer on my Fan Status: I never cared about hockey when I was a kid. I started having a mild interest after the Hawks’ Winter Classic game at Wrigley Field, and it’s solidified since then. Way before you liked them, let me assure you.
Yeah, there has been a huge surge in Blackhawks-related Facebook posts in the last two weeks of the playoffs. And no doubt there is a huge jump in Blackhawk memorabilia sales (I don’t own any Blackhawk attire). Is this bandwagoning? Hell yes it is. But to what extent?
Here’s a handy graph of Google searches for “Blackhawks”
And what kind of journalist would I be if I didn’t examine the shit out of Twitter?
The Internet hunger for the Blackhawks really kicked off towards the end of April, right as the first round was wrapping up. My verdict is, the official Blackhawks Bandwagon Status (BBS) cutoff date is the start of the playoffs. If you liked them before the playoffs, you are one of us. After, one of them.
I’m generalizing, of course. Some will argue you aren’t a true Blackhawks fan unless you stuck by them when ESPN rated them the worst franchise in sports circa 2004.
So here’s my real point: Toss all this ‘bandwagon’ bullshit out the window. Anyone that started liking the ‘Hawks after June 9 is… not even a bandwagon fan. Lets be honest. The Blackhawks were a non-entity in this city before 2007. Bitching and arguing about bandwagon fans in relation to the Hawks is like arguing you were a true Diamondbacks fan in their ‘drawing board stage’ in 1997. It just makes you look like a huge boner.
In three years, the Blackhawks have gone from Chicago Fire nobody status to a city phenomenon. It wasn’t just winning the Stanley Cup that did it (the Fire can attest to that). It was the new management (duh), adding real team personalities, a huge publicity blitz and, oh yeah, getting your games on TV.
It’s too early to be talking about next year (and I sure as hell am not the person to be talking about that). Ticker tape is probably still falling in the city. My gut instinct tells me next year’s Blackhawks will be just as good. The start of a dynasty? Who cares.
Chicago is now a hockey town, a Blackhawks town, and it sure as hell wasn’t before. We can’t throw the ‘bandwagon’ label around until this team/dynasty falls apart and gets rebuilt in a decade. Then you can say “Yeah, I was a fan of the Hawks before Kaner’s knees blew out in the 2013 season!”
I bet “Chelsea Dagger” will still be stuck in your head, though.
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