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**fount_pirat** · 11-12-2005, 08:00 AM

I've often asked myself exactly the same question Brian.

Only, unlike you, I'm not kidding.:-)

Really. All the years I lived in Canada, I never 'got' hockey. I guess you have to be a native born Canadian for that. Ken Burns notwithstanding, there is no 'national sport' down here, not in the 21st century anyway. It's more regional. Here in the south, football is an obsession (in Texas it's a religion), although I do live right near Tulane's Reily field, and the intercollegiate baseball games there seem well attended. In big urban centers up north, basketball is it, especially if you're black, or aspire to hip urbanity. Detroit and Philly are also big hockey towns, as is Boston to some degree. New Orleans loves the Saints, so I guess this is a football town. A phrase you'll hear often in working class neighborhoods is " Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" The answer is, of course, "everybody!" They're the losing-est team in pro football. Nobody gives a shit though. Everybody still goes to the games. It's very "Montreal" here that way.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, in Canada, if you admit to not caring much about hockey, that is somehow "un-Canadian." Down here, if you say you don't dig baseball, people just assume you're into hoops or something.

11-12-2005, 08:00 AM	#3
fount_pirat Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 618 Senior Member	I've often asked myself exactly the same question Brian. Only, unlike you, I'm not kidding.:-) Really. All the years I lived in Canada, I never 'got' hockey. I guess you have to be a native born Canadian for that. Ken Burns notwithstanding, there is no 'national sport' down here, not in the 21st century anyway. It's more regional. Here in the south, football is an obsession (in Texas it's a religion), although I do live right near Tulane's Reily field, and the intercollegiate baseball games there seem well attended. In big urban centers up north, basketball is it, especially if you're black, or aspire to hip urbanity. Detroit and Philly are also big hockey towns, as is Boston to some degree. New Orleans loves the Saints, so I guess this is a football town. A phrase you'll hear often in working class neighborhoods is " Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" The answer is, of course, "everybody!" They're the losing-est team in pro football. Nobody gives a shit though. Everybody still goes to the games. It's very "Montreal" here that way. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, in Canada, if you admit to not caring much about hockey, that is somehow "un-Canadian." Down here, if you say you don't dig baseball, people just assume you're into hoops or something.
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