WASHINGTON (WUSA9)-- "Unleash the Fury!!!!"
If you've been around any Washington Capitals fans lately, you've probably been hearing that chant a lot.
You will definitely hear it often with the Caps advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals, the first time since 1998.
But why do fans say it?
Where did it come from?
I was able to do some digging around into the history of "Unleash the Fury", and the story of how it came to be is pretty interesting.
It all started with a man by the name of Scott Brooks.
And no, I'm not referring to the Wizards' head coach.
While working in the game operations department for the Atlanta Thrashers, Brooks began to pay attention to films that could possibly be used for "rally" clips.
As a big movie fan, that was easy for him.
When Brooks went to see the movie, "Road Trip", and he saw the part where Tom Green was trying to motivate the snake to eat the mouse by screaming, "Unleash the Fury", something clicked.
He immediately thought about sports.
His first thought was about the Fury at Berry College (where he went to school), and the second thought was about the Thrashers.
Shortly after seeing that movie, he put together a "rally" video for the Thrashers that was centered around the now fan favorite chant.
The video was full of highlights from "Remember the Titans" (filmed at Berry College), "Varsity Blues", "American Pie", and obviously Tom Green screaming, "Unleash the Fury".
Fans in Atlanta couldn't get enough of it.
Transition to 2007, when Brooks was hired to be the director of game entertainment for the Caps, he had a meeting with the guy who was in the position before him.
According to the Washington Post, while the guy was showing Brooks the team's big-screen clips, he said, "Oh, you're going to find this next clip a little familiar."
What he was referring to was an almost identical 'Unleash the Fury" montage.
Scott Brooks kept the concept, but had to make some adjustments to make it just right for the D.C. area.
So he got rid of some clips, shortened others, and added in more.
After all the edits it became the video clip that fans cheer for and love today.
Caps' senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Tim McDermott didn't even expect the video to catch on with fans like it did.
McDermott said. "I didn't think it was going to take off the way it did. That's why he's the game operations guy and I'm not."
After the Caps made it to the playoffs in 2008, the video was the main entertainment to get fans excited.
There were posters, t-shirts, and even jerseys.
"The moment that video clip starts, the first second, you see everybody start to stand up," McDermott said.
Contact Ashley on Twitter @AshleyHasSpoken
