Tales from rideshare apps (I’m a FT Lyft driver, so I always like hearing stories)
If you have any suggestions, send them my way! I’ll also be tagging this with my interests so feel free to like or follow, I’ll mainly be posting things like above or personal posts about my life
now that it’s the offseason and the fanfare has died down i’m just gonna say it no one gave two shits about nashville’s goalie chants before they thought we might actually have a chance at winning the stanley cup
It is one of the most popular things that non-Preds fans talk about in my Lyft rides. “I really like your team, but you guys have got to get rid of those ‘sucks’ chants. They devalue the game.”
In 1998, the Nashville Predators front office sent up a handful of diehard Dixie Flyers/displaced hockey fans up to Wisconsin because the office knew that Nashville embodied more of a ‘college sports’ environment (this was pre-Titans) and wanted to bring more of a college hockey atmosphere as a foundation to the Preds fanbase. Several of the chants the Preds fans do are directly from the University of Wisconsin hockey games--i know this because I went to a game at the Kohl Center and went “wait... these chants are the same as Nashville!” It made me feel right at home.
This was the birth of Cellblock Section 303, with many organized chants and a family of hockey-loving wackadoos that like to make people laugh. They have some old gems that never left the section (such as after the second period, when the opposing goalie is leaving the ice in the attack zone in front of 303, the section used to yell “come back and we shall taunt you a second time!”), and they even made (now dated) song lyrics to taunt other teams, especially the Red Wings. They were all very entertaining, but the ‘sucks’ ring loud and the rest of the arena chimed in to make it a staple of Preds games.
It doesn’t devalue the game. Sure, it may not be as family friendly, but I’ve gone to football games where fans behind me spill graphic, sexual, and misogynistic vitriol. I would much rather hear “sucks” a hundred times than that.
It is part of the growth of the Preds fanbase for the last 20 years. It’s not going anywhere, and just because the nation finally recognizes Nashville as a hockey market after 2 decades doesn’t give them the right to change what has been an establishment for years.
it’s so disgusting that we as fans and consumers think that we’re entitled to every aspect of celebrities’ lives just because we watch their movies/listen to their music/etc. we’re literally not entitled to any information when it comes to their personal lives. they don’t owe us anything. the fact that people think otherwise is disrespectful.
man i can’t wait to fully embrace my role as weird aloof cousin who never comes to family events and whomst you only know is still alive cos they occasionally like your instagram pictures
Why the Nashville Predators Throw Catfish on the Ice
With NHL fans and media eyes on the Nashville Predators first Stanley Cup Final run, it has become one of the biggest stories of off-ice antics.
From #CatfishGuy getting charged with disorderly conduct and ‘wielding an instrument of crime’ in Pittsburgh, to the catfish with a blue cowboy hat and a penguin in its mouth before faceoff of game 4, everyone has been curious of the story of the catfish. Even NBC analyst Jeremy Roenick did a special with Titans Linebacker Taylor Lewan catching a (clearly dead) catfish in Percy Priest Lake.
But this is not the first time the Nashville Predators have thrown catfish. In fact, the unique tradition goes back over 13 years.
In order to really understand the first cast of catfish, we have to go back to the inaugural season of the Nashville Predators in 1998. A vast majority of the first season ticket holders of the Predators were lifelong Detroit Red Wings fans, donned “PredWings” by many. This happened because multiple car companies opened offices and factories in the Middle Tennessee area, with many employees moving from the Detroit area. A lot of these fans became the first real Preds fans, enjoying the new hockey market, but the moment that the Red Wings came to town, the Preds jersey would go into the closet and the Red Wings jersey would come out. Suddenly, it looked more like an extension of Joe Louis Arena rather than Nashville Arena.
The rivalry grew from there. Preds fans born and bred in Nashville took serious distaste for the Red Wings, even though at the time their performance on-ice was clearly better than the Predators. The chant section of the Nashville Arena, “Cellblock” Section 303, made specific chants and taunts for Red Wings fans, including changing the hook of the Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop” to “AY! OH! WINGS BLOW!” The section would give out signs that said “Death Before a Red Wings Fan” along with “Red Wings Suck” and “Ay! Oh! Wings Blow!” pins.
It’s only appropriate that in 2004, the Nashville Predators clinched their first playoff berth... against Detroit.
Now this is where the catfish comes in.
Catfish is a major agricultural commerce for Tennessee, specifically in the western region of the state. Hundreds of farms raise catfish for restaurants nationally. In 2003, the Catfish Out of Water City Art Festival kicked off at Centennial Park in Nashville. The exhibit featured 51 7-foot-long catfish statues painted to incorporate the social, historic, and economic facets of living in Tennessee, dispersed around town at parks, historical landmarks, and, yes, the Nashville Arena where the Predators played--painted with a hockey rink on its back.
Here is an example of one of the statues, since I cannot find the picture of the catfish in front of the arena:
So throughout the 2003-2004 season, there was a catfish on exhibit in the main plaza on the arena.
When it was made known that the Predators would be playing the Detroit Red Wings, some fans knew about the Detroit Red Wings tradition of throwing an octopus on the ice. The first octopus was thrown on Red Wings ice during the 1952 playoffs, believed that each leg represented a win to the road of the Stanley Cup. Of course, at that time, it only took 8 wins, unlike the 16 required now.
On April 11, 2004, the Nashville Predators had their first ever home playoff game. I was 14 and sitting with my dad in the heart of 303. Before the game started, a lone fan (who I believe was kicked out for his antics) threw the first ever catfish on the ice--an act of defiance against the Red Wings and PredWings in the stands. Fans cheered, flummoxed and humored at what just occurred. How did he even get it in? How bad did that smell for his seatmates? Will ushers and security turn the other cheek in the future? Was this a play on the Red Wings Octopus?
For the first few years, the catfish were reserved for Red Wings games, in defiance of the octopus yet again. Then it became a playoff staple, with sometimes 2-3 hitting the ice in one game. At times, fans would hold onto a catfish late into a game, waiting for a goal to dispose the carcass as a “Rally Catfish” to get the fans going and help the team with momentum. At this point, it’s almost an expectation for a catfish before every home game next year.
While it may be viewed as a “copycat” to some, the Nashville Predators fans have made it their own. It could be that many new fans don’t know that much about the early Red Wings rivalry, especially now that Detroit resides in the Eastern Conference, debilitating the past “little brother” feel that Nashville once had. Not once has the media or fans claimed that this tradition was taken from anywhere else because, in great Nashville fashion, the tradition has been turned into their own. Keith Urban donned a catfish in game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. The Predators Pro Shop at the arena sells stuffed catfish with the Predators emblem embedded on the side. The Tennessee Titans Linemen, took it to the next level, even pouring beer into the catfish:
It’s a fun tradition that has grown exponentially over the course of a decade. It’s just another thing to add to the list of what makes Nashville nontraditional in the best way. Now lets hope that fans continue to know the times to throw it--before the game, after the game, or any time that the Predators will not be penalized for it!
NEXT TIME: We’ll go in depth as how the Nashville Predators TV timeout “Standing O” began--hint: it wasn’t this playoff series.
