Justin Bieber enraged thousands of hockey fans last month when he walked on the Chicago Blackhawks logo in the center of the Stanley Cup-winning team’s dressing room.
Although walking on a certain spot of carpet doesn’t seem like a faux pas to non-hockey fans, it’s a big, big deal to NHL fanatics. Many teams take such measures to ensure no one steps on the logo that they rope it off during press sessions or hire a burly bodyguard to throw off anyone who gets too close.
Apparently those measures weren’t in effect when Biebs and his entourage rolled into the Blackhawks dressing room last month — and fans took notice when the Blackhawks released a picture of Justin strolling all over the sacred spot of carpet. The team’s director of media and community relations defended Justin, saying it was an innocent mistake and he was very apologetic. But, the Hawks’ most devoted fans weren’t willing to let it slide…
During the annual Blackhawks’ fan convention last week, three über fans brought along a large cutout of Justin’s head. Then, they paraded the jumbo face all around the convention and offered people the chance to stand on Bieber. Their adventure was chronicled on the appropriately named Twitter account, @StandonBieber.
Throughout the day, Justin Bieber’s face was stepped on nearly 100 times — including a stomp from Blackhawks’ mascot Tommy Hawks. They guys were even granted entrance into the dressing room to pose on Justin’s face near one of their sacred logos.
In most instances, it would be intimidating for a group of hockey fans to team up against a small kid from Canada. But this seems like a total “no harm, no foul” situation.
“To be quite honest, it started as a joke of revenge, but it’s transpired into what we feel is Blackhawk pride, and more so Chicago pride,” said the fans, Chris Wilkerson, Mark Wegener and Josh Kaye, in an email to Yahoo! Sports. “It’s all in good fun; we’re not hate mongers.”
