unpopular opinion and i grew up a big NHL fan (now i 9/10 times I’ll be watching NFL), but I remember a joke bill burr said about soccer and can’t help but think this is true for hockey as well.
It was a response to a user email from a European or something, about why America was so bad at soccer on the world stage:
“the day american black people give a shit about soccer, that is the end of of all of you”
Hilarious joke and probably slightly racist but also probably true. No direspect to hockey players who are tough SOB’s, but the best athletes in the world are not in hockey, they are NFL, NBA, track, MLB, etc etc where black Americans athletes dominate (a trend that grew every decade after the 60’s and the end of segregation). Income gaps are probably a barrier to entry since hockey is a very expensive sport, but also the fact that just like soccer, black Americans athletes don’t really give a shit about hockey (sadly).
Remember when they gave a shit about boxing? Golden era of heavyweights, before slowly losing appeal around mike tyson and the best athletes from that group migrated to greener pastures that they cared more about(golden era of basketball in the 90’s, golden era of nfl probably now, I don’t know much about MLB but their golden era was probably after jackie robinson was able to play).
I’ve always had a mad respect for hockey players. It’s one of those sports that you’re almost born and bred to play. They play in competitive leagues as early as elementary school. They live and breathe it. It’s a hard sport. Not only do you have to be really good with your hands to coordinate with the puck to the stick, you have to keep your head up for some bone crushing hits and the pain that that inevitably causes you—oh yeah, and you have to ice skate. Not just skate, but skate well, skate fast, and skate backwards. It’s an expensive sport for parents to keep up with, especially when you’re young and growing. These guys are playing hockey around the time they can walk. They dedicate their whole life to it, and most of them won’t even make it to major junior, let alone the AHL or the big show. That’s gotta be hard to accept. That’s why you have American and Canadian hockey players playing all over the world. And if you make it to the show, it’s the lowest-paying sport of the big four in North America and one of the most dangerous. You have the knee injuries that you see in every sport. You have the concussion problems like football. You’re constantly being hit. Oh, and you could die from someone’s skate cutting your jugular while you’re laying on the ice. So I’ll never make fun of a hockey player that’s hanging on in their 30s in beer league. They worked for it their whole life and most of the time it ends in a college career before the competitive hockey is over for them.
Hockey players are hard core dedicated athletes who play for the game.
this is hilarious lol
unpopular opinion and i grew up a big NHL fan (now i 9/10 times I’ll be watching NFL), but I remember a joke bill burr said about soccer and can’t help but think this is true for hockey as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov3hZvYTmQU sadly this is the only clip I found of what I heard before (with a lot of non-relevant content).
It was a response to a user email from a European or something, about why America was so bad at soccer on the world stage:
“the day american black people give a shit about soccer, that is the end of of all of you”
Hilarious joke and probably slightly racist but also probably true. No direspect to hockey players who are tough SOB’s, but the best athletes in the world are not in hockey, they are NFL, NBA, track, MLB, etc etc where black Americans athletes dominate (a trend that grew every decade after the 60’s and the end of segregation). Income gaps are probably a barrier to entry since hockey is a very expensive sport, but also the fact that just like soccer, black Americans athletes don’t really give a shit about hockey (sadly).
Remember when they gave a shit about boxing? Golden era of heavyweights, before slowly losing appeal around mike tyson and the best athletes from that group migrated to greener pastures that they cared more about(golden era of basketball in the 90’s, golden era of nfl probably now, I don’t know much about MLB but their golden era was probably after jackie robinson was able to play).
I’ve always had a mad respect for hockey players. It’s one of those sports that you’re almost born and bred to play. They play in competitive leagues as early as elementary school. They live and breathe it. It’s a hard sport. Not only do you have to be really good with your hands to coordinate with the puck to the stick, you have to keep your head up for some bone crushing hits and the pain that that inevitably causes you—oh yeah, and you have to ice skate. Not just skate, but skate well, skate fast, and skate backwards. It’s an expensive sport for parents to keep up with, especially when you’re young and growing. These guys are playing hockey around the time they can walk. They dedicate their whole life to it, and most of them won’t even make it to major junior, let alone the AHL or the big show. That’s gotta be hard to accept. That’s why you have American and Canadian hockey players playing all over the world. And if you make it to the show, it’s the lowest-paying sport of the big four in North America and one of the most dangerous. You have the knee injuries that you see in every sport. You have the concussion problems like football. You’re constantly being hit. Oh, and you could die from someone’s skate cutting your jugular while you’re laying on the ice. So I’ll never make fun of a hockey player that’s hanging on in their 30s in beer league. They worked for it their whole life and most of the time it ends in a college career before the competitive hockey is over for them.