Chad Kroeger performs with Nickelback in Vancouver in June 2010.Jeff Vinnick/The Globe and Mail
With U.S. Thanksgiving approaching, some Detroit Lions fans are telling Nickelback to stuff it.
A petition is circulating online to prevent the divisive Canadian rock group from performing at halftime of Detroit's Nov. 24 holiday showdown against the Green Bay Packers.
The letter slams the Lions for choosing "such an awful band" to perform and poses the question: "Detroit is home to so many great musicians and they chose Nickelback?!?!?!"
As of late afternoon on Thursday the petition had more than 6,500 signatures, a number that was multiplying rapidly as the story spread to news outlets around the world.
Many signatures simply decreed Nickelback as the "worst band ever," while others pointed to the long musical history of the city that spawned Motown, Bob Seger and Eminem.
"Haven't the good people of Detroit been through enough?" read one comment.
It's actually the second time in recent months that a potential Nickelback performance has elicited an outcry from sports fans.
In August, two Winnipeg Free Press critics penned an open letter to the NHL requesting that Nickelback be excluded from the splashy ceremony surrounding the return of the city's Jets franchise.
Long a popular target for derision, Nickelback has nonetheless sold nearly 50 million albums worldwide and scooped up 12 Juno Awards.
The Hanna, Alta., rockers are scheduled to release their seventh studio album, Here and Now, on Nov. 21.