The start of October: It’s one of the greatest times of the year for a sports fan.
The MLB postseason — and all of its compelling drama — has arrived. The NFL is in full swing, with the contenders starting to separate themselves from the pretenders. Basketball is around the corner, and after the Toronto Raptors’ championship run last spring, it’s fair to say the anticipation — in this country — for the return of basketball has never been higher. And, of course, hockey’s back.
It raises the question: For Calgary Flames players with a passion for other teams and sports, now that their own work schedule just got a lot busier, how do they juggle their own fandom?
The good news for the “football guys” in the dressing room is that while the NHL and NFL seasons go head-to-head, often the games do not. Football games, of course, are predominantly on Sundays, while the Flames, who frequently play on Saturday nights, often get Sundays off.
But “often” does not mean “always,” and for a dyed-in-the-wool Boston kid like Noah Hanifin, one particular Sunday last season stands out.
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“On Super Bowl Sunday, we had a 2 o’clock game in Carolina, then we flew right after the game, so we were on the plane when the Super Bowl was going on,” Hanifin recalled, still bristling about it seven months later.
“That was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been to not be able to see a game, but we somehow found a way to magically get WiFi up on the plane (which is not normally the case) and we had the card tables up with the game going on the computers. Guys were leaning over, watching the game. I was front and centre.”
But if you’ve ever tried to watch television on a flight, you know what happened next.
“It kept jamming and going in and out,” said Hanifin.
The first rule of watching football is don’t mess with a Patriots fan when New England is in the Super Bowl.
“It was scary. There were a few times where they’re passing the ball, getting close to the red zone, and it would check out and I’d be freaking out.”
No exaggeration. Legitimately freaking out, apparently.
“The quality that we had was awful, so he was getting pretty upset,” confirmed Sam Bennett. “It was lagging non-stop, and he was yelling at it a bunch of times.”
Sean Monahan recalled that afternoon well. The game was tied 3-3 headed to the fourth quarter before New England pulled away for a 13-3 victory.
“Hanny loses it on everything,” he admitted with a chuckle. “Oh, the WiFi went down plenty of times — I think 30 guys had it going! So once you have that many guys, it doesn’t work too well.”
On those occasions where there is a conflict — say, a Sunday morning practice — Hanifin has a system.
“Record. Twitter off. Phone in airplane mode. Go home, watch the game,” he said. “Don’t tell me the score. Earplugs, I’m running out of the rink to go home and watch it.”
Do his teammates respect the cone of silence?
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“Usually, unless it’s Johnny and he wants to be a … (stops himself). Well, to ruin it for me and tell me the score. But other than that, I usually sneak out and get to watch the game.”
When it comes to the biggest diehard fan on the team, an informal survey reveals a divided dressing room. Some say it’s Hanifin and his Patriots, others point to Johnny Gaudreau and his affinity for the Eagles.
The Patriots and Eagles play each other this season, a showdown that will undoubtedly generate some trash talking. The circumstances are not ideal, though.
The game is on Sunday, Nov. 17, with kickoff at 2 p.m. MT while the Flames will be getting ready to play a road game in Vegas that starts at 5 p.m.
It sounds like that predicament will be tougher on Hanifin than Gaudreau, who said he is a bit more laid back when it comes to catching the Eagles games.
“I try to watch it. If I can’t watch it, I’ll be talking to my buddies, they’ll be texting me, letting me know how the game’s going. One of my buddies is a sports talk guy in Philly so he’s judging every play and texting us all the time. I pretty much get play-by-play with him in our group chat. If I go on the ice, I’ll have like 200 texts after the game.”
For both, their fandom comes from deeply rooted allegiances they grew up with.
“I was around 4 years old when (Tom) Brady came in and they won the Super Bowl, so my whole life, he’s been there and they’ve been good,” said Hanifin.
While he’s only been to a handful of games over the years, Hanifin doesn’t mind; he prefers watching it from home.
“One of my cousins or aunts and uncles, we’d go over and everybody would watch the game together on TV,” he said. “I like watching football more on TV than in person. I feel I can watch the game better.”
The fandom goes just as far back for Gaudreau.
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“Ever since I was a little kid, I always grew up Flyers, Eagles, Sixers, Phillies — all of them. I used to go to the games as much as I could with my Dad and my brother, so it was a lot of fun.”
Gaudreau is often sporting some sort of Philadelphia hat around the rink. The assortment of hats is just a small sliver of his Pennsylvania-themed wardrobe.
“I have a jersey here, four or five sweatshirts, a couple hats, and I’ve got Phillies jerseys. I’ll throw them on when we’re watching games,” said Gaudreau.
From when he and Matty, his little brother, were guests at Eagles camp a few summers ago, he’s even got a “Gaudreau” Eagles jersey, but as hardcore sports fans can relate, he admitted he doesn’t wear that one much.
“It’s kinda weird,” he said, acknowledging the jersey foul that is having one’s own name stitched onto the back of a jersey of a team you cheer for.
The names on the back of the jerseys he does wear are both quarterbacks. There’s “Wentz” on one; he also picked up a “Foles” jersey when he led the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2017.
Asked to rank the Philadelphia sports franchises in order of priority, Gaudreau paused to contemplate.
“Probably the Eagles with their success recently and how well they’ve been doing. It’s hard for them not to be at the top of the list,” he said. “When I was in high school, the Phillies were winning in ’08 when they had (Ryan) Howard and all those guys. They were probably up there at that time, but I loved the Phillies and Eagles. Not a big 76ers fan, but you know, they’re Philadelphia, so still would go to the games sometimes.”
Hanifin’s Boston allegiances do extend to the Red Sox, too, but not nearly to the same degree.
“I do watch the Red Sox, not really the Celtics that much, but not nearly as much as the Pats.”
The generational thing is the same for Matthew Tkachuk, also a Pats fan, who piped up when the topic was raised.
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“I’m a Patriots guy. My Dad’s from Boston, so I grew up in a household where we just watched the Patriots every Sunday,” Tkachuk said.
But you better be good if you want Tkachuk’s support.
“Did not like the St. Louis Rams because they were so bad when they were in St. Louis, so I never liked them, but when they moved to L.A., they got good, so now I kinda like them a little bit.”
Bennett, a self-confessed late adopter of the NFL, is now right into it, claiming the Green Bay Packers as his team. You get the sense some money may have changed hands last Thursday with you-know-who when the Eagles beat the Packers by a touchdown.
Bennett also noted that, like the rest of the country, he got huge into the Raptors last spring.
“All summer, I wore a vintage Tracy McGrady jersey,” Bennett boasted. A Hall of Famer, McGrady was a first-round pick of the Raptors in 1997 who played in the late ’90s in Toronto.
“I jumped on the bandwagon pretty hard this summer. It turned me into a fan,” he said. “I was downtown, I went to a couple games. I was down by the parade. I loved the whole experience, it was a lot of fun.”
When it comes to the Raptors, it was a similar sentiment from all the Ontario-born players.
“We jumped on pretty hard. Great atmosphere in downtown Toronto, great vibe,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano, who saw Game 5 against Golden State live when the Warriors came back to win in the fourth quarter. “Growing up, I liked (Michael) Jordan and the Bulls era, but for sure, Raptors are my team in basketball now.”.
Monahan also took in a couple playoff games in person.
“I’ve been watching the Raptors the last 8-10 years now. As they got better, it was more exciting for Canada and the city of Toronto, but I live right there so when I go home and they’re still playing, it’s pretty fun to go watch games,” he said.
While on the topic of Toronto, the Blue Jays also have many followers, including Giordano.
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“Since the World Series days, I was 10 or 11 — Joe Carter and Robbie Alomar are like heroes to me,” Giordano said. “When we head out East, we check out 10-12 Jays games every summer, for sure.”
But the biggest baseball fan in that room? It has to be Michael Stone.
“Huge baseball fan. I’m looking forward to the matchups this season,” he said. “American League is going to be awesome. If it ends up Yankees-Astros, that’s going to be a heck of a series. The Dodgers are good again. I’m still going to be pulling for Atlanta because they’ve got a really good young team.”
Stone’s own allegiances are with the Braves; he’s cheered for them going back to their glory years under manager Bobby Cox.
“Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, the big three — (Tom) Glavine, (John) Smoltz, (Greg) Maddux. John Rocker coming in from the bullpen!”
For Monahan, lacrosse is the sport that he follows closely when away from the rink.
“Toronto Rock, for me, was huge. I loved lacrosse. I almost played lacrosse instead of hockey,” said Monahan, who had a close friend on the Rock last year.
While the NLL can be a difficult league to follow from afar, given the lack of television coverage, it’s pretty easy to catch the games when you’re connected like he is.
“I’ve got all the logins to watch the games,” he said. “These are some of my best friends. When I can watch a game, I watch it, because I definitely enjoy the game and watching them play.”
For the Flames’ European contingent, soccer is the primary off-ice distraction — English Premier League, UEFA Champions League and, when it’s on, the European Championship, and of course, the World Cup. But balancing a love of soccer with professional responsibilities can be tricky.
Mikael Backlund’s allegiances are with Manchester United in England, mostly because once starring on that team was Swedish great Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a longtime international force for Sweden internationally and his favourite player.
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“Most Swedes are cheering on Man U. All the guys love Ibra,” Backlund said.
But even in late summer, hockey can still get in the way.
“I was supposed to watch Man U–Man City with my Dad in 2016 in August, but then I got picked for the World Cup, so I had to cancel the trip and the tickets. It turned out great. I was pumped to play World Cup, obviously. But it would have been cool, because Zlatan was playing Man U at that time.”
One advantage of European soccer is that, with the time change, those games never clash with a game night and often are over before practice too. That said, Backlund’s not into it enough to set the alarm for the early games.
“If it’s on TV, I’ll put it on and watch it. But I don’t get up at 6 a.m. to watch a game. But if it’s a big game, I’ll make sure I can watch it. I like to watch Champions League as well because they’re usually 1 o’clock here.”
That falls right in the pocket after morning skate or practice and before needing to head to the rink if it’s a game day.
Elias Lindholm also likes Manchester United, although he said he’s more a general fan of the game as someone who played soccer for many years.
“I went this year to Man U-Chelsea, and the year before, I went to Champions League semifinal, Real Madrid-Bayern Munich. I’ve been to see Barcelona. Probably next year I’ll go to Germany and see something,” Lindholm said. “I enjoy getting to see different players, different teams, different stadiums. It’s fun to get out of Sweden a little bit.”
Michael Frolik and some of his pals all went to see the Czech team’s pool games in Euro 2012.
“We took a little party bus — six or seven guys and we drive to Poland from Czech. It was a fun ride and we got there and watched the game then we went back. It was a really fun time,” said Frolik, who added that they were all outfitted in Czech jerseys.
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Frolik has been keeping an eye on his country’s team as it goes through the qualifying stages right now for next summer’s European Championship.
“They’re doing not bad. Hopefully they will make it. It would be nice if they make it and to go to watch them live.”
With the NHL back in action, there will naturally be conflicts. Do the players ever sneak a look at the scores?
Maybe after they come off the ice after warmup? Or between periods? Do they ever glance up at the scores posted in the arena while sitting on the bench?
“No, no, never,” pleaded Gaudreau, maintaining that he’s never really had to.
“When I was at Boston College, we played Friday-Saturday games, so we never had Sunday games. Here, too, we never really play Sunday games, unless it’s on the road. I’ve missed a couple, but I can’t remember missing too many, unless we have practice on Sunday and they play an 11 o’clock game here. Then I try to get off the ice as quick as I can.”
The same question posed to Giordano elicited the same denial.
“I’m usually a morning highlights type of guy — I see what happened the next day, and then I jump on the bandwagon in the playoffs if I can,” said Giordano.
With hockey back, that means so is football, baseball and soon, basketball. But for the players, they insist all those other things are just fun diversions, not distractions.
Of course, until they get home from the rink or to the desired cruising altitude, and out comes the logoed gear, the chirping, and often, the misery, too. Welcome to the ‘”fan” club, players — now you know how the other half lives.
(Top photo: Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Getty Images)