The Big Lead

Max Kellerman: Hockey Isn't One of the Four Major Team Sports

Ryan Phillips
Max Kellerman at REVOLT And The National Cable And Telecommunications Association's (NCTA) Celebration Of Cable -
Max Kellerman at REVOLT And The National Cable And Telecommunications Association's (NCTA) Celebration Of Cable - / Jason Merritt/Getty Images
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On Thursday, Max Kellerman took to First Take and claimed, "nobody cares about hockey." He further stated that hockey isn't one of the four major team sports. Our question is what does Kellerman think the four major team sports are?

Here's the video:

Um, OK.

We're going to assume he thinks baseball, basketball and football are three of the major American team sports. If that's the case, what's fourth? We're also assuming he's only talking about American sports because he mentioned ratings, and the only ratings that matter in his discussion are American television ratings. So what does he think is fourth? Soccer? The NHL's ratings are, in general, better than Major League Soccer . And hockey has seen some ratings spikes recently. Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues was the most-watched Stanley Cup game since 1973.

Fellow ESPN anchor Linda Cohn was quick to disagree:

I'm not here to champion hockey as some emerging sport or something that's wildly popular, but it's definitely the fourth major American team sport. There's really no question about it. Major League Soccer has made in-roads and could compete, but the NHL is still in the top four.

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