I first took notice of this at the beginning of the season when I attended a Capitals vs. Devils game in October.
During the national anthem, the fans shouted “Red!” for the “rocket’s red glare” part of the song. Two nights ago I attended another Capitals game, and this time the “Red!” chant was much more pronounced and anticipated by all the Washington faithful. After the Capitals starting racking up goals against the Maple Leafs, the crowd mocked the goalie after each goal with a familiar cheer. It went something like “One, Two, Three, Four….[Number of Goals Scored], It’s All Your Fault!” Lacking in both coordination and vigor, it was a rather lame rendition of the cheer we do every time we score against an opposing team.
There’s no question that both of these cheers were stolen from the Cornell hockey faithful- they’re just way too similar to the ones we do at Lynah. “Stolen” might not be the right word, since I don’t entirely disapprove of Caps fans doing these cheers, and Cornell alumni were probably responsible for starting them up in the first place. But in any case, despite my lifetime allegiances to the Washington Capitals, I certainly hope that our fan base will acknowledge the origins of these newly adopted cheers.
It was you. You did it.
Wow that was fast Bonica! You got me all figured out.
ha, I dissaprove of both of these chants. Though not a total “I love my country” conservative, I think it’s highly disrespectful to shout over any part of the anthem, and our fans do it twice (The second being the “O” that the maryland Caps froms have brought from the Orioles).
I also don’t like the “all your fault chant”. I guess it’s not too bad when you are leading like 4-0 or 5-1, but when the game is close, or you are losing, and the fans still do it – It’s pretty dumb.
Maybe you could convince Cornell to copyright these and reclaim them so I don’t have to hear it? That would be awesome. We could even through in the “O” and Who Cares chants!
– BTW – The coordination has gotten somewhat better as people started catching on. It still gets a bit rough sometimes, since often it gets so loud in the Phone Booth that you can’t hear when the cheer starts.