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December 12, 2005
Clean up nonsensical editorials
Good grief, what crawled its way up the Ottawa Citizen's butt and died? One of its Saturday editorials begins thusly:
Canada has a culture of violence surrounding its premiere sport. As a result, hockey has become a national embarrassment.
Why? Because one (1) man, Stewart Ferguson, assaulted a referee at his son's hockey game, and now he has a criminal record for his trouble. And in the outraged micro-universe of this editorial, this has something to do with the sport itself:
The culture of violence in this noble sport is eroding hockey's value for the young. What parent would want their child to witness that spectacle?
Professional hockey has glorified violence (witness the weak suspension [aka the longest, most expensive suspension in NHL history –ed.] given to Todd Bertuzzi for his neck-breaking incident) to the extent that it has poisoned the amateur rinks.
New lectures on the good old boys getting into a good punch-up are given to television fans most Saturday nights. The result is an assault on a grim day in Carleton Place.
Personally, I blame Mr Ferguson's assault on planetary misalignment. Judging by this editorial, it appears I've met the Citizen's burden of proof simply by saying it.
Posted by Chris Selley at December 12, 2005 10:00 PM
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Comments
Late in one minor hockey game I was playing in, a parent of an opposing player threw a garbage can on the ice and got escorted out by the Mounties. This was 1987, Bantam. Whose fault was that: Don Cherry's, the NHL's, or both, I wonder?
It's absolutely comical to visualize these guys typing away on their computer, longing for the days (before Coach's Corner) when hockey wasn't violent. I don't think they have any idea how insane they sound.
Posted by: Matt at December 12, 2005 10:47 PM
Actually - I think Parliament has created a culture of violence. I am just sick at heart about our most senior Minister of the Crown throttling some poor, defenseless non-violent protester. Okay - I lied; I laughed my ass off - it was probably the only thing that little thug did that I liked. I am sure the "just" will be by in a moment to explain that Chretien wasn't pure laine, and to jump on the Citizen's bandwagon re "anglo hockey."
I am surprised, though, that in an attempt to smear hockey, the Citizen didn't mention Graham James. Not only to these guys have a lousy memory for the game, they have a lousy memory for scandals!
Speaking of Bantam hockey - In the early 70s the mother of a star Bantam player tried to run over the referee in the parking lot at the club I played at, after he had tossed her little darling from an important game. Again, we should blame Don Cherry - I think he was coaching Boston at the time; must've been the tack-collars.
Posted by: Deaner at December 13, 2005 11:52 AM