The View From Wisconsin

There are times that Stars Behave Badly. Unfortunately, one of them occurred at a recent Predators game (back against the Devils).

A poster named JLSG made the following post about an incident at that game, involving John Rich of the country music group Big and Rich (they of "Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy" fame):

Our seats are in section 105 row G. Great view.

At the Devils game about 5 minutes into period 2, John Rich of Big & Rich fame and his entourage of bimbos and hanger ons come in a couple of rows in front of us.

First it takes a couple of minutes for everyone to decide where they want to sit. Then Mr. Rich stands up with the cell phone in his ear yelling "Here I am with the beer over my head!".

After he makes contact with whoever it was he was talking to he stands there waving and making gestures to this person. This goes on for a minute or so and finally someone yells "Sit down please" and he turns around and says "You're telling ME to site down? I'll just stand as long as I like to."

He stands for the rest of the period 2. The usher comes down a couple of times to ask him to sit.

"I'm a fan" he yells, "Fans are supposed to stand". Apparently the usher can't make him sit, so at the start of period 3 a rep from the Preds comes over and talks to one of his "peeps". Few minutes later the guy comes back and says "Come on John, thy're going to give us a suite." to which he replies "No! I'm standing right here.".

At around the 8 minute mark a couple of Metro Police officers had a short converstion with him (just a few seconds, wish I could have heard what was said) and he promptly sat down. He turned and waioted for the police to leave and then shot evryone behind him (including myself and my 8 year old son) the bird.

The point of this venting is that I want the word sent far and wide to true hockey fans everywhere to boycott Big & Rich. An arrogant punk like that does not deserve the support.

The issue has taken on a life of its own. The incident was mentioned en passant in the Nashville Tennesseean in the "Brad About You" gossip column - twisting the facts just a bit to make it look like Mr. Rich was the one wronged.

Several fellow posters have tried to get the original post out over on the CMT Big & Rich Message Boards, only to have any thread deleted minutes later.

Right now, I'm not sure what's worse: Mr. Rich's behavior, or the reaction to the post.