Last week, I wrote about how great the NCAA tournament is, and this week I will be doing the same. Just for a different sport:
I love to hate on Boston University from time to time, but moments like this give me goosebumps. There already has been an equivalent to that moment involving our school (with yours truly shown in the clip) and THAT WAS JUST THE FIRST GAME OF THE TOURNAMENT.
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I've given up trying to convince people who don't watch hockey to get into it. Frankly, if you don't like it, then we don't want you here. But for those who do watch, there's a reason those who love hockey are ALL IN.
Growing up in San Antonio, Texas you don't see that kind of passion that often, although our team makes the news every now and then. To be honest, even as a hardcore hockey fan, growing up I couldn't care less about college hockey.
Then I got here, to BU, and our lord and savior Jack Eichel almost got us the championship my freshman year until a moment happened that I won't post a video of here in the article (here's a link). We got smoked last year by Denver in the first round and now we just barely survived North Dakota in a game that can be summed up by this:
Anyway, here's my pitch for watching the Frozen Four (noting that I'm a fan of most or all the sports I'm about to discount, although the fact that you're reading this likely means you go to BU and the fact that we're in it should be enough):
It's a sport played on ice with razor blades attached to your feet where you basically spend 60 minutes (or more) trying to either hit somebody or be hit. There are no egos and whining like basketball, there's no flopping and 0-0 ties like in soccer, there aren't a bunch of people standing around and waiting for most of the time like in baseball and there are no wife beaters or serial terrible people like football. Do you like the underdog stories? When Providence beat BU just 2 years ago they were THE LAST TEAM IN THE TOURNAMENT. Other than baseball and football, where wild cards and underdogs can admittedly win, parity doesn't really exist in sports. As great as the NCAA basketball tournament is, outside of UConn (which let's be real, isn't an underdog) name one underdog school that actually won the whole thing. I'll wait.
America loves conflict, look at our president and the fact that we pay Skip Bayless, a man who is so under-qualified he might as well be Secretary of Education, millions of dollars to start it, and in addition, we love blood sports. It's why boxing was, and UFC is an incredibly popular sport. In addition, this is why no matter how many concussion lawsuits or terrible people end up playing in the NFL, it will never go away, sorry Mark Cuban.
So yes, hockey will always be Canada's game, and it will never be as popular as sports like football. Yet, for people who are always trying to fix it and dump on it, I'll just leave this here:
So even if you're not a fan, and even if you don't know what's going on, if you're sick of watching college basketball and LaVar Ball, and especially if you have a team in it, tune in to watch the most beautiful game on this planet. You won't regret it.
