I’m not a fan. I haven’t really been a fan for the past 7 or so years. I might be in the minority, but as soon as I started covering hockey, it became very difficult for me to resonate with a team as a fan, and not as a professional. I’m not talking teams in my league or the team that I covered, I mean in general.
I used to be a decent Vancouver Canuck fan. When the media coverage and fan reaction in Canuck-verse wore thin on me I jumped ship and now support the Minnesota Wild. Not actively, not with any real enthusiasm, but if I had to ‘have’ a team, they are it. What’s to blame for this change in heart? The job. I’ve been covering hockey for seven years now as a broadcaster, a few more in related media fields, and I just find it really difficult to be a ‘fan’ anymore. Going to games, ones that I’m not working, I’m still analysing the contest, doing play-by-play in my head and I don’t get caught up in the atmosphere of it anymore.
Paul Wheeler of Stanley Cup of Chowder has penned another beauty where he delves more into this topic of how hockey has changed for him, and how he’s changed because of hockey. All this since he started actively writing about it over the last few years. If Paul’s name is familiar, he penned some responses to my Stick Mic vs Headset article a while back.
The best writing on this site is often that which strikes a chord in the reader, for better or ill, or creates discussion. Jonathan’s piece did that with me.
It made me. too, reflect on how a sport that I initially only started watching as the worst kind of homer fan changed irrevocably for me once I decided that I wanted to do more than just sit in the stands every game – I wanted to be a part of sharing that game with other people.
That change has been creeping, it’s been dramatic…and although it’s worked through some tough lessons, it’s (I hope) made me better at what I do.
Click here to read the full article.
