Tart Cider: One of the four things you can't blame Bettman for

August 29, 2005

One of the four things you can't blame Bettman for

If the [Hockey Enforcers] event proved anything, it's that the NHL has absolutely no shame.

While not an NHL-sanctioned event, it did feature an NHL player in Myhres (six seasons, five teams). And constant references were made to how winning the tournament would increase a goon's chances of making the NHL.

Can you imagine Bud Selig allowing a beanball contest to be televised? Okay, bad example.

But surely Paul Tagliabue would never sit by idly as some promoter staged a football clotheslining contest.

A league serious about opening up the game would have kept this off the air.

To state the obvious: Bud Selig and Paul Tagliabue wouldn't have had any choice. Gary Bettman had no choice. Sports aren't owned or administered by the commissioners of their pre-eminent professional leagues, and even if they were, what went down in Prince George wasn't hockey. It had as much in common with hockey as does figure skating. For that matter, from what I've heard about Prince George, it was pretty much a regular Friday night on the town, except the punters had skates on. (Mind you, what I've heard about Prince George comes mostly from smartass Australian tree planters...)

I'd say Brian Hutchinson in the Post had the best rundown of the event, by the way, though it's not going to do much for western alienation.

Posted by Chris Selley at August 29, 2005 08:48 PM

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Comments

I'd be fascinated to find out just what kind of bullying, extortion, or whatever he would suggest Bettman should have used to have "kept this off the air".

That kind of brainless moralizing is a pretty good epitome of the sorry state of sportswriting in our daily papes.

Posted by: Matt at August 29, 2005 09:56 PM

Such a short memory, has our man Zelkovich: I seem to recall a "lingerie bowl" coinciding with the Super Bowl that he failed to use his magical commissioner-powers to shut down.

Knowing what a prude this guy is, you'd think that'd live on in his memory as a day of infamy.

Posted by: Adam at August 30, 2005 04:54 PM