It's only a game...isn't it?

If you haven’t already heard, the Chicago Blackhawks took home the coveted Stanley Cup after defeating the Boston Bruins in a 4-2 series.

This marks the team’s second championship title in four years and its fifth title overall.

As a native of the northwest Indiana suburbs where a large majority of residents are Chicago sports fans, I won’t deny the fact it’s kind of a big, hairy deal.

Now, I’m not that into sports (let alone hockey), but I really enjoy getting together with friends and family to cheer on our favorite teams, and when a great shot is made, even I tend to go crazy.

Call me a bandwagon fan all you want, but the adrenaline rush you get from seeing your favorite team take one step closer to victory is a reason in itself to participate in the excitement of the moment. Even if it means listening to “Chelsea Dagger” over and over again, it’s worth it.

But there are always at least a handful of fans that take things a little too far. Following the Blackhawks’ victory, 23 people were arrested in downtown Chicago mostly for disorderly and reckless conduct. Several storefront windows and cars were also damaged in the ensuing chaos.

This begs the question: what’s the point?

What could possible drive anyone to damage property and create such a hassle for law enforcement just to make a point that your team is far more superior to others? Is getting drunk and crazy like there was no tomorrow really worth it?

All this chaos does is ruin the experience for the few hockey fans that have the unfortunate luck of waking up the next morning to find their cars and/or storefront windows vandalized and property stolen.

Getting excited your favorite team won a championship title does not give you the right to commit acts of vandalism.

Yeah, I went crazy when Christian Watford made that memorable game-winning shot against Kentucky, but that didn’t give me the sudden urge to tip a bus over or light a car on fire.

Sometimes I wonder what goes on in the mind of a person who’s interested in nothing else but hockey (or any other sport for that matter).

I can imagine a few of you hockey nuts reading this thinking to yourselves “What do you know? It’s the Stanley Cup. You wouldn’t understand.”

Well, maybe you’d like to explain this instinct for violent and destructive behavior to a bandwagon fan like me. By all means, be my guest.

­— tjollo@indiana.edu