You go to the games, or watch at a bar or viewing party, and you high-five your neighbor after a Capitals goal scored. During the playoffs, you might have even embraced the fan standing next to you with a bear hug, or used the occasion as an excuse to get your arm around that comely lass beside you. The community of Capitals fans is bigger and stronger than ever. We’ve a whole bunch of potential new friends, many of us strangers to each other, but united in a common passion.
But what about outside the rink, or after the post-game revelry? Have you been so moved by the goodwill generated by this Caps team lately that you’ve expressed a gesture of friendship or offered assistance to someone you’ve never met, simply because they also rock the red? Perhaps you’ve stopped on the side of the road to lend a hand to a motorist changing a tire, or needing a lift to the gas station, because the license plate shows allegiance to Les Capitals. Or fed an expired parking meter in front of a car with a Caps bumper sticker. Maybe you’ve lent a Metro card to a fellow Caps fan in need, just because. Or simply exchanged pleasantries, a warm smile, otherwise expressed all too infrequently, with someone on the street, just because she wore something bearing our team’s wordmark. It makes my day to find a like-minded soul every so often up here in Gotham. And let me tell you — it’s happening more often with every passing month.
How about the flip side? Does your devilish nature reveal itself when encountering a fellow citizen wearing a rival team’s gear? Might you have once, say, leapt in front of a Penguins fan on the left, walking lane of a packed Metro escalator, stopping to stand all the way up, feigning nonchalance? Maybe you’ve started up a leisurely conversation with the bartender on the Verizon Center concourse, knowing a thirsty cabal of Flyers fans are growing impatient in line behind you. Or perhaps you’ve once mischeviously removed an item from the grocery cart of a professed Rangers fan when he was looking elsewhere, surreptitiously hiding it back on the store shelves. Ah, endless possibilities.
Tell us your favorite story of random kindness shown to your fellow Caps fan, or roguish act done against rival supporters. Maybe you’ll inspire us all, on both fronts!