The Chicago Blackhawks' Stanley Cup victory brought all sorts of celebrity clingers-on like Jim Belushi out of the woodwork, but on Tuesday night, a star posed with the Cup and drew more fire than anyone else has.
That star would be Justin Bieber. Here's a tweet, posted by Blackhawks Senior Director of Market Devleopment and Community Affairs Peter Hassen, with the picture of the pop star with the sport's most famous trophy:
The Biebs meets THE CUP!!! pic.twitter.com/oh4AvDbYbT — Peter Hassen (@PJHASSEN) July 10, 2013
The reaction from across the Twitterverse was swift and brutal, with many fans claiming that Bieber touching the Cup amounted to a sacrilege from which the Blackhawks would ever recover. These angry fans seem to forget that Bieber also posed with the Cup in 2010, and that whatever "curse" they are claiming he has put on it isn't really much of a concern whatsoever.
At any rate, the whole controversy seems a bit overblown. After all, whatever a person thinks of Bieber as an artist, the fact is that famous people pose with the Cup all the time. Whether it's a guy like Billy Dec, known for his string of restaurants and nightclubs in the city, or an actor like Belushi, who somehow talked his way onto the ice after the Hawks won the Cup in Boston, the Stanley Cup is an incredibly famous trophy, and it is a neat experience for those who get to pose with it, even if they are Canadian pop stars that apparently no hockey fans like.
Bieber also angered Hawks fans when a picture appeared of him standing on the Indian head logo in the team's dressing room, a sin that media members have been chastised for doing for years now.
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That controversy is a bit more understandable, especially since just about every NHL team has a similar rule about not stepping on the logo on the floor, but it's also a bit overblown. It's not like Bieber was deliberately setting out to "disrespect" anyone, and if Blackhawks personnel didn't tell him that he was doing something out of bounds, then how was he supposed to know?
At any rate, celebrities posing with the Cup is a tradition that will live on long after Bieber's 15 minutes of fame are up, and if fans are going to get up in arms every time someone unsavory touches the chalice, then they are going to have to make sure to have plenty of vitriol stored up.
