One of the most influential podcasters in the world is bringing attention to the sport of hockey during a pandemic.
Joe Rogan talked about hockey fights and the toughness of hockey players in episode 1460 of his podcast. Rogan’s podcast titled “The Joe Rogan Experience” regularly receives millions of listeners per episode and has arguably become the most popular podcast in America. At the time of this writing, Rogan’s podcast was ranked second overall on Apple Podcasts in the United States, according to Chartable.
The former UFC commentator launched the podcast back in 2009 and has interviewed some of the most important people in the world on his show, including Tesla founder Elon Musk and whistleblower Edward Snowden. Rogan’s guest on this particular episode was comedian Donnell Rawlings, who is best known for his work on the Chappelle Show.
During episode 1460 of “The Joe Rogan Experience”, both Rogan and Rawlings gave praise to hockey players and their toughness.
“A lot of hockey players have no f**king teeth”, Rogan stated.
“But that’s like a badge of honour for hockey players”, Rawlings responded. “They’re like f**k that s**t.”
“They don’t give a f**k”, said Rogan. “They like to take them out and show you.”
Rogan then brought attention to a famous hockey illustration done of a goalie prior to masks being introduced in 1966. A professional make-up artist and a doctor recreated the face of ex-Maple Leafs goaltender Terry Sawchuk to showcase the scars he sustained during his 16 years as a goalie in the NHL without wearing a mask.
Sawchuk reportedly received over 400 stitches during his time in the league. His wounds healed and his scars weren’t visibly seen, so the re-creation of his injuries was reportedly done to show the extent of his injuries over the span of his career.
“They would just take it in the mug son”, Rogan said. “Can you imagine a guy slap-sticking one of those hard ass pucks…”. Rogan was in awe after being informed hockey slapshots can be as fast as 106 MPH.
Rogan and Rawlings eventually discussed the current age of hockey in which Rogan states he’s been to a couple games. He explained that watching the game on television just doesn’t compare to being there live.
“They’re [hockey games] fun. It’s wild in person..watching people skate and fly by…”, Rogan explained.
Rawlings went on to say that he basically goes to the games just for the fights.
“That’s the interest for me”, Rawlings said. “I’m black. You go to a hockey game, you just want to see a fight. You don’t even know who’s playing. You’re like ‘oh s**t, he just f**ked him up’.”
Rogan gave praise to hockey fighters in this day-and-age and noted how’s there strategy that goes into the fisticuffs.
“Dudes know how to fight now”, Rogan stated. “There’s some hockey fights where you watch guys throw crisp punches with technique where you’re like ‘oh jesus’.”
When asked by Rawlings if hockey players train for the fights, Rogan answered the question without hesitation.
“Oh 100 percent”, Rogan answered. “Yeah you can fight. It’s the only sport where you can fight. Do you practice hitting the puck? Well okay practice beating the f**k out of each other. You can do that too. It’s part of the game. Part of the game is beating the f**k out of each other. It’s the craziest game ever. There’s no other sport. Just stop and think about that. No other sport where you fight bare-knuckle in the middle of an ice-skating rink at the drop of a hat.”
Rawlings also added that fighting is the highlight of the game for him and mentioned how it’s cool that two players can stay friends after dropping the mitts. Rogan mentioned the referees just let the players go at it and don’t interfere.
Rogan went on to discuss how hockey fights have evolved over time. He talked about how originally hockey fighting was just tough guys trading blows with each other. Now it’s evolved into players dishing out hip-checks, flattening each other and ending one another with one-punch knockouts.
One specific fight that Rogan references on the podcast appears to be a tilt between heavyweight fighter Ryan Reaves of the Vegas Golden Knights and Ottawa forward Scott Sabourin. While not confirmed it was this specific fight, Rogan explained how a player avoided a punch, let it pass and then countered with a perfect right-hand swing. Reaves has become one of the scariest fighters in the league and executed this maneuver to perfection against Sabourin during the 2019-20 NHL season.
“I’m like ‘oh that guy can fight’, Rogan exclaimed. “That’s a guy with like real skills.”
If you don’t want to search through the full three-hour podcast episode to find the part in which Rogan discusses hockey, this specific segment has been clipped by Rogan’s official JRE Clips Youtube channel. You can watch Rogan give his take on hockey fights below:
Fighting is always going to be a controversial topic in hockey, but it’s cool to see Joe Rogan use his massive platform to recognize hockey fighters and acknowledge hockey as having some of the toughest athletes in the world.