Prior to March 23, 1999, Chris Chelios was an idiot.
Though he had long been established as one of the NHL's best defensemen, was absolutely adored by fans of each city he played in (to that point Montreal and Chicago), and was perhaps one of the most blatant "team first" guys around, I hated the guy.
First, he was a Chicago Blackhawk.
Though, in the late 90's, being a Detroit Red Wings fan meant you had literally nothing to complain about, any loss to the hated Blackhawks was intolerable. Though Chicago wasn't exactly the hockey hot-bed it is now, the decades-long rivalry between the Motor City and the Second City still fueled an admirable amount of hatred between the two fanbases.
However, if I had to estimate, I'd say Chris Chelios alone was responsible for 90 percent of that hatred.
Off the ice he'd proudly state how much he hated Detroit.
On the ice he'd take cheap shots, sucker punch players in the corners, trash talk every time he passed the bench, and then complain to the referees if opposing players did the same thing to one of his guys.
The guy was an idiot.
He was also a brillia ...
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Article written by Matt Hutter
NHL: My Favorite Idiot: A Retrospective on Chris Chelios As a Detroit Red Wing
August 31st, 2010 by Matt Hutter Leave a reply »
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