Hockey Is A Game
Most of my regular readers know I am a sports fan but I try and keep that stuff to a minimum because I know you guys are here for the photos I take and not my take on the Miami Dolphins and Washington Capitals. That being said, I decided I should probably address what happened the other day since I keep getting texts from people I haven’t seen in years because my face ended up all over the internet this week.
This week has been a pretty awful one. I went to DJ Jess’ memorial where I was served papers for a law suit that I have almost nothing to do with (but still have to hire a lawyer) and on the way home the car that I was borrowing from my parents to help them move got totaled by a guy who was running from the cops. I hurt my back in the accident and had to cancel on a shoot with Indigo Augustine and miss shooting the final Trouble & Bass party for the Village Voice. I went there to try and shoot it but I had to leave after 10 minutes because my back hurt so much.
The next morning I was supposed to go see my Washington Caps play the New York Islanders in the playoffs but with my back so messed up I wasn’t sure if I could go. I woke up that morning in a lot of pain but feeling much better than the day before. I decided to suck it up and go. And that’s when the weirdness began.
My friends and I are loud fans who make up our own chants and are fairly obnoxious but we don’t start fights and we don’t pick on random people. We just go there to have fun and cheer our team. Unfortunately our exuberance made us the target of some particularly awful Islanders fans. Most of them were great to us and bantered back and forth with us and gave us a hard time but in a fun way but there was some shit thrown at us and some vandalism and some stuff said to us that went over the line.
I ended up writing an open letter to the New York Islanders which talked about our day and I sent it to a few local DC bloggers and stuff. I was pissed and I wanted to gripe about my day but I didn’t even put it on the main page of this site. I ditched it over in the rarely updated B-Sides blog. I wanted people to read it but I didn’t expect what happened next.
Within an hour of me writing it it had gone viral. My Twitter handle @drivenbyboredom was the number one trending topic in the DC area. People started writing blogs and asking for interviews. I did a few of them and then started passing them off to the rest of my Caps crew because I didn’t get the worst of it, they did. I didn’t want to be the face of this thing. Today alone I turned down four TV interviews. The whole thing got out of hand.
I got a lot of love from Caps fans and some of the Isles enemies like the Rangers and Flyers fans but I also got message after message from Islanders fans apologizing for the dregs of their fan base. I have no problem with Islanders fans in general – they just happen to be the enemy this week – and it was great how many awesome Isles fans I have met this week.
Unfortunately there is a segment of way too serious Islanders trolls who have been sending hate mail and Tweet after Tweet and lying to the media about us. I have heard the craziest rumors about what we were doing and I did some more interviews to address some of that stuff. I don’t mind any of this. I shoot naked people for a living, you cannot even begin to guess how much hate I get. These trolls are fun for me but they are not fun for my crew. So I am gonna stop engaging and stop doing interviews because I don’t want my fellow Caps fans to get shit for me not being able to shut my mouth.
So this is hopefully the last of it, but I just wanted to link all the articles I can find about us for posterity. Enjoy reading about this super weird couple of days and for all the Islanders fans who aren’t drunken mouth breathing trolls I wish you guys a moderate amount of good luck and if you beat us this series I hope you take it to the Pens or the Rags. Cause those teams I actually hate!
To start with here’s my original Open Letter to Islanders Fans.
Here is the interview we did with Caps Radio’s John Walton. We compared it to an old school WWF style promo where we were going over the top with our anti-Isles rhetoric. It was supposed to be funny but in retrospect it has been used to say we were instigating.
Here is the first Washington Post article and here is the second.
Here’s a guy who called me a pornographer. That was a fun one.
And here’s an interview with an Islanders Blog where I tried to explain what happened.
The NY Daily News article has my reaction to the NY Islanders weak statement.
Puck Daddy agreed with my assessment.
Boomer Esiason talked about us.
And the rest:
Newsday – Sports Illustrated – Deadspin – CBS Sports – Outsports – Ted’s Take – NBC New York – NY Post –
Anyway, what a weird week. But hopefully that’s the end of this nonsense and I can get back to posting photos of crazy parties and naked babes and fun stuff like that. Let’s Go Caps!
I was in attendance with my Islander fan husband at the Nassau Coliseum this past Sunday. As a Caps fan wearing my Caps Ovi Jersey and drove from D.C., my experience was not as bad as yours. The Isles fans were exactly the opposite from what the article described and respectful. Granted, I did not tailgate; drink at the beer garden (or drink at all) nor bring along my “Rock the Red” towel when I ventured into hostile territory.
My experience may have been different since I was with my Islander fan husband and had lower level seats. I married into a diehard Islander fan family, so out of respect for him, which he did for me at Caps games, I did not provoke or taunt Islander fans in which he may have to come to my rescue.
My sympathy goes to anyone who endured taunting, inexcusable damage to their vehicle, or verbal and/or physical abuse as a Caps fan at yesterday’s game. I had witnessed the group of women wearing Caps jerseys outside the stadium who were called sluts once they accepted hugs as a “truce” from teasing Islander fans. Before the game, I experienced some teasing and loud-enough under the breath comments in the team store. During the game, I heard a little more “sit down in front”, nasty stares, and louder comments. There was a DC to LI transplanted Caps fan who sat behind me and at the end of the game left with “Good luck to you” as he rushed out of the stadium with his Caps Ovi Jersey. I had to remember that this is hockey and not the ballet.
Was it ok for the home team fans to berate and abuse the visiting team fans? NO
Are some (not all) home team fans jerks in their own house? Sure
Should we all control (i.e be truthful to ourselves about) our own actions and emotions? Abso-freakin-lutely