bettman

As mentioned this morning in the roundup, Gary Bettman got a whole lot of boos at the NHL draft this weekend at the Wells Fargo Center. Booing a commissioner is not a new thing. Bettman himself is booed so much he probably can’t even hear it anymore, David Stern used to seem legitimately giddy when he was booed at the draft, and Roger Goddell is basically a super-villian at this point. Yet, as predicted, it didn’t take long for someone to declare the booing of Gary Bettman a disgrace and — once again — bring up the booing of Santa Claus.

Two separate posts on Sports Illustrated‘s Too Many Men on the Site blog tried to shame the crowd for booing Bettman. One post, written by a self-proclaimed Rangers fan, said:

“When Gary Bettman came on stage, and the boo-birds were out in full force. The commissioner is booed in many venues he appears at, especially when he presents the Stanley Cup each summer. I had never experienced it live, but I think it is safe to say this was the loudest he has ever been booed. I watched the broadcast afterward, but the cameras couldn’t do it justice – the booing was much louder in the building than it was on TV. Every time the man tried to speak he was droned out almost entirely to the crowd, and some of the people were remarking how annoying it was because no one could even hear what he was saying. In all honesty, although Bettman is a polarizing figure in the NHL community, the booing yesterday was actually a disgrace to the sport and to the event, and the fans should be ashamed of themselves for such a lack of respect.”

Anyone decrying someone else for not showing “respect” for the commissioner of a major sport is probably a blast at parties. But that wasn’t even the worst one. There was also this, with one of the most tired memes of sports fandom:

“Perhaps it is a clear indication of how the Flyers season and post-season is going when the biggest thing going for Flyers fans is how loud they booed NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Obnoxious booing is the quickest way to spot the Philadelphia sports fan in the room; that and the fact that they’ll proudly tell you in-between bites of a Philly cheesesteak how they once booed Santa Claus.”

You see, that’s where you’re wrong, because the only people who can’t shut the hell up about Philly fans booing Santa Claus are the New York Times, ESPN, and … others. You’re still pulling out the same nonsense line that people have been using since the incident actually happened … in 1968. For reference, that was the 2nd season of the Flyers’ existence.

Can everyone else finally move on? We did. I mean this August will mark the 15th anniversary of the time we threw batteries at J.D. Drew. That was worse and even that was 15 years ago. If you want to keep throwing us on Worst Fans lists and all of that, fine, but come up with some better reasons.

h/t @PhillyPartTwo