The Tomahawk Chop. A surprisingly controversial chant to say the least. And no, not because people think its offensive or anything, but rather because people just seem to love it or hate it. If you grew up as a Braves fan like I did, it has always been a part of the culture – a culture that itself is very hard to rationalize.
Even though I’ve been doing the Chop all of my life, a few experiences I had while attending the Braves v. Red Sox series at Turner Field this past May made me want to explore the subject a little further. For starters, I would just like to applaud the Red Sox fans who made it out for that series. I know that the Sox have a huge following everywhere they go, but they were outnumbering Braves’ fans 3-1. Now one could assume that the hometown fans just didn’t show. Wrong. That series actually had the highest season ticket attendance so far this year, and the day game on Memorial Day was bringing in people from all over the south to support the Bravos – it still wasn’t enough. I don’t have a problem with Red Sox fans though, and even though the Sox swept that home-and-home series, I still enjoyed the Boston fans being there. They made the game feel more….nostalgic.
Anyway, the Chop would start playing and the Braves’ fans would start chanting, as is tradition, while at the same time the Red Sox fans would start booing and jeering and snickering and cursing, don’t forget the cursing, the cursing is very important. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!!!!!! (insert bad imitation of the chant and melody)” – Red Sox fans everywhere. I of course, being a committed Braves fan, was quick to defend my reps of elbow calisthenics. Besides, its not as if Neil Diamond is anymore stimulating than the Chop, right? To be perfectly honest, their teasing wasn’t getting to me as much as the sight of other Braves’ fans not fully committing to the Chop when the time was right – but more on that another time. All I could really say in defense of my beloved Chop was a quick and not so clever: “You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it first.” You know those moments in your life where you say something and regret saying that thing as soon as it lifts off your tongue. Yeah, this was one of those moments for me. Luckily, the Red Sox fan I was “debating” with wasn’t too keen on his overall sports history. I admit it, I let my emotions get carried away with me. For those of you who aren’t following my train of thought yet, let’s reverse a few lines. “You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it first,” is the absolute most hypocritical thing a Braves’ fan could have possibly said in that moment. Why? Because, unfortunately, we didn’t think of it first. Calm down activists, there’s no evidence that any Native American tribes thought of it first either. No, the creator’s of the Tomahawk Chop, as much as I hate to admit it (again, I’ll explain later) come from the bright pupils of Florida State University’s Class of 1980. Seems fitting that the Home of the Seminoles would spawn the Chop that is loved and hated by so many sports fans universally. After all, FSU is one of those schools that, athletically speaking, people really really glorify or really really want to be scalped.
The history is kinda fuzzy from what I can gather, but according to L.V. Anderson of Slate.com, the Tomahawk Chop was first created by the 1980 Seminole Marching Band as a way of….authenticating the schools brand? Florida State, until 1972, used a caucasian male as their mascot, of course dressed as a Indian. His name was Seminole Sammy. You can read her original article, When Did People Start Doing the Tomahawk Chop?, here: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/09/origins_of_the_tomahawk_chop_scott_brown_s_staffers_mocking_elizabeth_warren_are_continuing_a_long_tradition_.html
So how exactly did the Chop get to Atlanta? If you guessed Deion Sanders, you’re right! Sanders, a collegiate wonder on the gridiron, the diamond, and on the track, as well as a Jim Thorpe Award Winner for his skills as a CB was drafted by the Royals and Yankees in the 1985 (6th round) and 1988 (30th round) respectively, signing with the Yankees in ’88. He signed on to play professional football with the Atlanta Falcons when he was selected as the sixth overall pick of the 1989 NFL Draft and signed with the Braves a short time after – assisting the Braves to both the 1991 and 1992 World Series (he did not play with the team in the postseason of 1991 as the NFL required him to attend camp with the Falcons, making the Atlanta Braves one of the only teams to make it to the World Series with a 24 man roster in the live-ball era). Deion was a controversial figure in the minds of Braves’ fans simply because they questioned his dedication to the team playing two sports and all. Production wise, the fans had nothing to complain about – Sanders was a solid hitter and fielder. But, Braves’ fans have always had a personal connection with their team, but when it came to Sanders, there always seemed to be a sort of disconnect. Many fans slandered him for not following the team to Minnesota in 1991, though he had no real choice – contracts are contracts. Still, in many fan’s eyes, the 1991-1993 rosters seemed, how can I put this……..corrupt. Corrupted by a Brave who wasn’t really a Brave. Retrospectively, Sanders, though questioned for his loyalty, gave the fans something that would eventually become and intricate part of Atlanta culture, something that Braves’ fans still do to this day: The Tomahawk Chop.
It started as a celebration: Sanders would do a few brief chopping motions whenever he would steal a base. Eventually, it became a dugout thing: something to be done to bring the team some extra mojo with runners on base or in a rally situation. Then it became a lower level thing: when the players would stand on the rail of the dugout and chop, fans would chop. Then it became a stadium thing: superstitious baseball fanatics thought the chop was working, and the phenomenon spread. A version of the chant on the stadium organ soon followed. Then it became an Atlanta thing: fans started complaining to their physicians about elbow discomfort and tendonitis, a side-effect of a condition colloquially known by the CDC as, “Chopitis.” Then it became a national thing: as the Braves’ games were being covered by Ted Turner’s Superstation TBS, the Tomahawk Chop began to receive glances from people around the nation. It stuck. Stuck hard. This segment from The Wonder Year gives a few more details:
That kid with the two tomahawks always annoyed me, but at least he tries. A real big thanks to Deion for this one – my life would certainly be less awesome without this blatant ripoff. But, that’s what it is at heart – a blatant ripoff. This is why I personally believe the the Chop is such a touchy subject; why it is so universally hated and defended by different groups. The Chop, though it sounds awesomely intimidating, is silly. Yes, a Braves’ fan is calling the Chop silly. It is! And for more than one reason! Here are just a few:
1. It’s a almost exact ripoff of something that is done more awesomely someplace else.
2. The ripoff has been deluded almost to obscurity – Braves’ fans don’t really know why they do it. They just know they should.
3. The Kansas City Chiefs made a popish-sounding ripoff of the chant a few years ago, but don’t get me started.
4. The Chop is a ripoff based on a creation that isn’t even correct.
As I touched on above, FSU must not have looked into Seminole history very far, or rather into Native American history all together. There is no evidence of any sort of war chant that sounds anything close to the tune of the Tomahawk Chop. Nothing. No sheet music. No traditional Seminole flute. Nothing. Period. Not even from neighboring tribes. The closest thing to a real life version of the Chop would probably come from ancient tribes of New Zealand who used chants with loosely similar melodies to the Chop’s all the time to intimidate their enemy. It’s almost as if they saw a picture of an Indian holding a tomahawk one day and were like, “Wait, they hold those? Really? Look, I can kinda do it with my arm. Quick! Write a song!” At least that makes more sense in my head. Now to be fair, FSU never anticipated a need for the Chop to be historically accurate – it was an organic creation by the Seminole Band. The Chop was never meant to be anything more than a chant that students of FSU would do at sporting events: it didn’t need to be understood, just something to identify them by. However, as it started to spread to other teams, namely the Braves, it became….cheesy. A creation for Florida State could now be used by any sports team with an allusion to Native Americans – with no logical or historical basis I might add. Let’s look at what we have here:
Sports teams ripoff a song written by another sports team who thinks they cleverly made a ripoff of something that actually happened but in reality never did.
My first instinct is to call this a vicious circle, but it’s not. Not even close. It’s a convoluted mess that we seem to be perfectly fine involving ourselves in. No wonder the Red Sox fan’s think we Atlantians are crazy. Either way, I’m still culturally confused.
As if the Tomahawk Chop wasn’t confusing enough for the average Braves’ fan, think about how my little mind almost exploded when I found out I could chop for one team but not the other. Before I began attending SMU, my father raised me as a fan of, get this, the Florida Gators. Which was fine, I loved the Gators. But, how confusing must it have been to be able to chop and chant for your favorite baseball team while at the same time have to boo and criticize the fan base of your enemy university, who was also chopping? To add more fuel to the fire, the choppers who I was booing were directly responsible for my ability to be a chopper for the team I loved. Have you ever heard the saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,”? Yeah, this is nothing like that.
This however also illustrates another reason why the Tomahawk Chop is such a controversial chant: confusing fan alliances.
There are three things that unite southerners more than anything else: Braves baseball, our love of sweet tea, and the SEC. Ah yes, college football, only a few months away. A vast majority of southerners are Braves’ fans, but we all have our own collegiate allegiances, and a lot of us, yes I’m looking at you Florida and Georgia, strongly dislike Florida State. Namely, The University of Florida, Georgia, Miami, and Georgia Tech just up the road from Turner Field. I guess we just have to chop responsibly.
Love it or hate it: you can’t deny that the Tomahawk Chop sounds pretty awesome, and whether you support the Braves or ‘Noles or both, the respective fans are devoted enough to not really care about what other fans think. Many people have asked the question: Who does the Chop better? If I have to give an honest answer, probably FSU. The Chop is home-grown there, and everybody, I mean everybody in Tallahassee will chop till they drop:
Braves’ fans are more passe with their chops, but were getting better.
However, if I had to pick my all time favorite Tomahawk Chop, it definitely goes to the Braves’ fans who were fortunate enough to snag a ticket to Game 6 of the 1995 World Series. Here’s the set up: Bottom of the 6th, no outs, the batter is David Justice. Justice, who had been vilified in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that morning for claiming that the fans weren’t behind the team in 1995 like they were in 1991 or 92, had been struggling at the plate in the series (.211, 0 HR, 4 RBIs). Jim Poole, the Cleveland starter on the mound, throws a Slider for Strike 1, a call which Justice did not agree with. Ball 1 comes next on a Fastball away, attempting to get Justice to chase. Pitch 3 was hit a mile, a hanging Slider up and in that was meant for down and away. Braves lead 1-0, and that was all Tom Glavine, who pitched a 8 inning one-hitter that night, needed. Jim Poole licks his fingers and wipes his brow in disgust. Justice famously pumps his fist around first, and just as he rounds third, the Tomahawk Chop hauntingly plays in the background partially drowned out by the roar of the Fulton County Faithful. Fans begin to chant as the camera pans to Indian Manager Mike Hargrove, who looks as if he has just seen a ghost.
This Chop is most memorable for me, as it served as the moment when the ghosts of Atlanta’s disappointing past were avenged. As Bob Costas said as Justice touched home plate, “All is forgiven in Atlanta.”
Credit for Videos goes to: KENFL74, Bob Parker, and Gerald Lingenfelter
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