Neil Young with Leafs crest on ass
The CBC has declared something called Hockey Sweater Day In Canada today where you take a photo in your favourite team’s hockey sweater and send it in to them.
That’s all well and good and fun, but there’s been a horrible betrayal in all of this — Neil Young has declared he’s a Winnipeg Jets fan.
The godfather of grunge, who in the past has rooted for the San Jose Sharks and, more famously, used to wear beat-up jeans featuring multiple Toronto Maple Leafs crests as patches, made his new loyalty clear in a video that shows him in a Jets jersey.
Sure, he’s from Winnipeg, but when you put a crest on your ass, like he did for the Leafs, shouldn’t it be 4Life!?
Neil wore those jeans in 1989 when he performed “Rockin’ In The Free World” on Saturday Night Live, long considered one of the show’s best live performances ever. (P.S. Thanks to Sean, Darryl and Val for helping me find photo evidence).
Those jeans had a profound effect on me. In fact, I was so inspired by the idea of hockey logo’d pants that I dismantled a Chicago Blackhawks crest from my brother’s jersey that had become too small for him and sewed said crest on my own jeans. I wore those pants all the time. In fact, one time when I was in a bar in Midland, Ontario, Mike Keenan, former coach of the Hawks, was there too, and he started casually stroking my leg where the crest was. There wasn’t any sexual intent there. At least that I knew of… But still.
Anyway, there’s a certain commitment a guy makes when he sews a hockey team’s crest on his pants. I love Neil like he’s an extra grandfather, but I can’t abide by this pro-Jets shift. Especially because the Jets suck.
Here’s Neil performing on SNL:
The Poke Check Diaries 
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