Plenty of fans of teams sometimes criticize the athletes who play for those teams. That’s even true for celebrity fans. But it’s rare to see a celebrity fan-athlete interaction spill into a multi-year back-and-forth, and especially to see the latest volley there being a profane one at the opening of an athlete’s speech at a Stanley Cup victory parade.
That’s what Florida Panthers’ defenseman Aaron Ekblad did Sunday. And that was just the latest shot in a back-and-forth he’s had with LIV Golf star (and South Florida resident, and Panthers’ fan) Brooks Koepka. Here’s what Ekblad said Sunday:
“F*** YOU, BROOKS KOEPKA”
— Aaron Ekblad, wearing a traffic cone on his head
INCREDIBLE. pic.twitter.com/FC9hOL5X3Q
— jeremy chandler taché (@jeremytache) June 30, 2024
Some context is very necessary for that. This started at a March 2023 Panthers game against the New York Rangers, which Koepka attended in a suite with several friends. It was an “Italianfest” theme, so they wore tracksuits. And, during the game (where Florida blew a 2-0 lead and lost 4-3), a fan in the crowd took video of a tracksuit-clad Koepka holding a traffic cone and repeatedly yelling “f***ing traffic cone” at Ekblad:
He hasn’t stopped. pic.twitter.com/zQqSiYQwGm
— David R (@David954FLA) March 25, 2023
Ekblad initially responded by saying he didn’t know Koepka, adding “We’re not buddies” and “We’ll never be buddies.” But Koepka then texted him to apologize, and the two cleared the air. And as David Dwork wrote in a The Hockey News piece on this last summer, many of Ekblad’s teammates found it funny from the start, and Koepka was featured by the Panthers plenty of times after that (including banging their pregame drum ahead of Game 4 in last summer’s Stanley Cup Final). But Ekblad certainly got a perfect public response of his own in on Sunday.
For his part, though, Koepka was celebrating the Panthers’ win this past week:
THE PSSSSSSSSS ARE STANLEY CUP CHAMPS pic.twitter.com/9Aumq3tt9C
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) June 25, 2024
Amusingly enough, this was at least the second prominent f-bomb during this parade. And it goes to show that it’s not just the fans on the street who drop them. Sometimes it’s athletes themselves, responding to the f-bombs they’ve heard themselves in the past.
[Jeremy Taché on X/Twitter]
