So I was checking out HFboards today and there was a thread on the main board called "Quite possibly the worst article ever written about the NHL." Now, most posters on HFboards are pretty dumb, but to declare something "quite possibly the worst," I mean whoa, that's really sticking your neck out. Given the superlatives and the recent incident with quite possibly the worst article ever written about the NBA, my first fear was "oh no, Dan Bernstein wrote about fighting again, didn't he."
I hovered over the link. I see chicago.cbslocal.com out of the corner of my eye. "Oh, no, he
did write about fighting again. This is gonna get bad."
I clicked it. Well, no, he didn't, but it's the next best thing! BEEP BOOP!
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/01/15/ ... ey-fights/Quote:
I am not a hockey expert. I enjoy the game — I had season tickets to the minor league team that played in the Quad Cities but am not a dyed-in-the-wool Blackhawk fan from birth.
PRO TIP: do not start an article about hockey with "I don't know much about hockey." You will be torn to ribbons every. single. time. It doesn't matter what else you wrote, which may well make sense because I don't see much point in fighting either. But DON'T DO THAT, dude. And double-plus-don't follow it up with an appeal to authority, "well, I checked with Matt McClure and Jay Zawaski." Then we'll hear it from them.
And so there's some number-crunching, whatever. But this,
Quote:
No other professional hockey organization tolerates fighting like the NHL, and no other sport comes even close to tolerating it. In 2009, Tommie Harris was ejected for hitting Arizona Cardinal Deuce Lutui during a game. Was he applauded for being Chicago tough and giving the Bears momentum? No, he was roundly and rightly castigated for losing control and incurring a dumb penalty. The NFL and NBA took steps long ago to remove fighting, and it’s time for the NHL to do the same.
In no way should I be construed as wanting to eliminate physical play in hockey. Teams can play a physical game with plenty of checking without resorting to what is considered assault in any other context. Imagine if NHL goons swung their sticks at opponents’ heads. What would the reaction be? Calls for immediate suspension, banishment from the league and criminal proceedings. And yet swinging a fist instead of a stick makes it acceptable? Simply ridiculous.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT DAN ALWAYS SAYS. "Oh, I love hard hits! But fighting, heavens no! oh, my monocle!" Can't I ask why it's acceptable to engage in the loosely organized chaos of the NFL, but punching someone has to elicit this shock and horror? I think the bloodsport of the NFL is far grislier than any stupid hockey fight. But we can't ban that because watching big black studs from slave states kill each other makes our Sundays fun.
Bernstein clones. Sigh. They're going mainstream.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.