OOF… that’s tough.
The Nashville Predators are in the middle of their off-season after a less-than-stellar campaign this past year. The team failed to make the playoffs, but let’s be real… even if they do, you can just about always guarantee a first round exit for the Nashville hockey team. And while having a tough year is nothing new for sports fans of any kind, to keep morale up, the players, families, and more are gathering to give back to the community that supports them.
They are also showing prospect players the importance of their involvement in the Nashville community and have dedicated a whole day to service.
At the start of July, the Development Camp prospects stepped off the ice, volunteering their time to organizations like Tools for Schools, Cumberland River Compact, Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Bethlehem Centers of Nashville, Nashville Food Project, and Nashville Inner City Ministry.
The Nashville Predators shared some of the activities in which players were involved and how they were engaged in nearly every area of Nashville.
“The Players built furniture for teachers, helped clean the Cumberland River, raised spirits at the Children’s Hospital, showed off their hockey skills to local children with a game of street hockey, and shopped for school supplies with middle schoolers.
With each group getting involved in a different area, the prospects were able to experience the places that make up the community that represents each side of Nashville.”
It’s amazing to see professional sports teams giving back to the community. After the service day, the Nashville Predators began to go viral on social media for their day of service, but not for the incredible charity work that they were doing, but rather for the shirt all active participants were wearing.
Everyone was sporting shirts that read:
“Preds in the community.”
Of course, “Preds” is short for “Predators,” referring to the Nashville Predators, but the internet is interpreting it as having another meaning. Predators in the community… like the kind that require registration on a list and aren’t allowed near schools. I mean, maybe don’t name your team the Predators though, right? The team debuted as an expansion team in the 1998-1999 season, but something tells me that if they were entering the league in 2025, someone would have enough foresight to choose a different name.
Social media quickly took off, prompting the marketing team to reconsider this phrase choice.
Even just adding Nashville in front of this phrase makes it feel a little better… I think?
In the Nashville Predators’ defense, the team name and calling your city ‘Smashville’ does not give you much to work with without it being perceived as questionable. I recall once buying a Predators hat from a boutique that read “SMASH” across the top. As soon as I left the confines of Nashville wearing said hat, I got all of the strange looks.
