Split Loyalties – Rob Howe’s dilemma
Ok, so I’m a sports fan. A sports nut in fact. Aside from tiddlywinks and that thing they call ‘rugby’, I doubt whether there’s sport I won’t or haven’t watched at some point.
I find it so unbelievably hard to be impartial when watching sport and therefore I always have to have someone or a team to support. So much so that if I came across two snails racing along the garden path I’d more than likely pull up a chair and root for one of them.
Now when it comes to my first love football, my allegiance is quite simple and very clear.I am, always have been and always will be a Sheffield Wednesday fan. Nothing will change that.
But when it comes to hockey I have split allegiances. Not in the same league mind you, not even in the same country. I guess like most UK based hockey fans I have a team over here – which in my case is Sheffield Steelers – and a team over the other side of the pond – which is Pittsburgh Penguins.
Which came first?
Well for me it was Steelers, although Penguins followed soon after. Both are steel towns of course so it was a natural fit for me. However, do I have a stronger tie to one of the teams? Should I necessarily have one? It’s hard to call.
I’m a season ticket holder for the Steelers, I’ve followed them up and down the country for years and Sheffield is my home town. You’d think it was no contest, especially as the obvious geographical constraint, not to mention the financial one, has meant that I’ve only seen the Penguins in person on two occasions. Still, that doesn’t mean they mean any less to me as a fan. As I said it’s a tough call, but only one of my teams has brought me to tears when they won a cup and only one has made me name one of my children after the team’s star player. I’ll leave you to work that one out for yourself!
Of course there has never been any danger or possibility of my allegiances ever clashing or being tested. That was until now.
What started as an evil rumour then became a horrible fact. Could I believe my eyes and my ears? This had to be a wind up, right? No. It sent a shiver down my spine. The Steelers had signed a Philadelphia Flyer. Not a former Flyer, but a current one! Oh thank you NHL, thank you Lock-out! As if I didn’t already have an unbelievably low opinion of Gary Bettman.
So I found myself in a quandary. How could I, a Penguins fan, square my cross-state hatred of all things Philly, with my love for my home town team? How could I bring myself to cheer for one of ‘them’ over here?
The Flyer concerned, Tom Sestito, will be playing for my UK team after all.
But he’s a Flyer!
Oh the perils of being a sports fan with split loyalties.
But having calmed down slightly and looked beyond my somewhat blinkered black and gold view, it might just be that the Steelers have signed more than just your typical Flyers’ goon. To pigeon hole the 25-year-old American as such would perhaps be unfair.
Look beyond the 1,012 penalty minutes that he’s accrued during his professional career and you’ll find a guy that’s more than just a role player at the NHL level. Sure that’s what he has almost exclusively been used as by the Flyers and before that the Columbus Blue Jackets. But the 6’5” power forward has shown he is more than just a daunting physical presence out on the ice. He can skate and has put up respectable numbers in the AHL, at times showing the kind of offensive ability that will stand up well in the EIHL.
Not that you should take my word for it. The Flyers organisation obviously liked what Sestito has to offer, despite an up-and-down 2011-12 season which saw the New York State native earn his himself a 4-game suspension after a fight in a pre-season game, and then a season ending groin injury during a fight against Buffalo’s Zack Kassian in February, by awarding him with a new one year contract this summer.
So come Sunday evening when Tom Sestito skates out at the MotorPoint Arena for the first time wearing not the orange jersey of my most hated NHL team the Philadelphia Flyers, but instead the orange jersey of my beloved Sheffield Steelers what should I do? Do I follow my instincts and do what any right-minded Pens fan would do and boo and jeer him with every last ounce of breath in my body? Or should I remember that I’ll be a Steelers fan that night and make the most of seeing the first current NHL player to grace the House of Steel in a Sheffield jersey?
I’ll be honest here I’m not sure quite how I’m going to react. But if you happen to be in Sheffield on Sunday evening and see a crazy man in a Penguins’ jersey who’s foaming at the mouth…
