CNN/SI writer disses hockey:

[Revolt]

CNN/SI writer disses hockey:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/pete_mcentegart/05/21/column.nhl/index.html

No mention of soccer.

[Foots]

A Pittsburgh Post Gazette writer wrote an article also dissing hockey

They are almost similar

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04142/319803.stm

[stevewhit0]

I hate the approach people take because hockey sucks on TV its no longer a major sport, that’s crap. I'll be the first to say hockey is a brutal sport to watch on TV. Hockey is by far the best sport to watch in person. Other then baseball, hockey has the most pro teams and leagues in the country. Until all these leagues die hockey is a major sport.

[Cascarino's Pizzeria]

Hockey - exciting, fast-paced, hard-nosed and the players are the most stand-up guys in sports (well, except for Danton).

Basketball - dull, meaningless regular season, fouls all over the place for the slightest infractions, the players can't stay out of trouble. Playoffs were over once LA beat San Antonio.

Gee - which sport is doing better?

[Foots]

the players are the most stand-up guys in sports (well, except for Danton).



and Macsorley (sp?) and Bertuzzi

[SABuffalo786]

and Macsorley (sp?) and Bertuzzi

As the Jackson 5 put it so eloquently,

"One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl"


Hockey players are the best guys in North American sport.


Baseball and Football players on the other hand......

[Foots]

As the Jackson 5 put it so eloquently,

"One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch, girl"


Hockey players are the best guys in North American sport.


Baseball and Football players on the other hand......

Every sports has it's share of good and bad guys.

[el_urchinio]

Every sports has it's share of good and bad guys.

True, but it seems that somehow other sports are way ahead of hockey in terms of shady happening and especially off court conduct. I mean, when was the last time a hockey player was breaking records while pumped full of steroids(MLB) or getting arrested over and over for pot possession and/or spousal abuse(NBA) or was put on trial for a succesful murder(NFL)? The worst you can accuse NHL players of is setting a really bad example for the kids with their hair. There are more mullets per capita in small towns in Canada than anywhere else in the world.

[ticogordo]

True, but it seems that somehow other sports are way ahead of hockey in terms of shady happening and especially off court conduct. I mean, when was the last time a hockey player was breaking records while pumped full of steroids(MLB) or getting arrested over and over for pot possession and/or spousal abuse(NBA) or was put on trial for a succesful murder(NFL)? The worst you can accuse NHL players of is setting a really bad example for the kids with their hair. There are more mullets per capita in small towns in Canada than anywhere else in the world.

i think i agree with el_urchino, i think there is a disproportionate amount of better guys in hockey than some of the other sports. i think this is because while basketball, baseball, and football players all strive for individual glory at lower levels to get to the higher progression, hockey players are taught from a very early age to be teammates. the quarterback is one guy, and in college and high school can carry a team. in hockey you need at least a full line to carry a team. in basketball guys get out of the ghetto by being the best individual player they can be. hockey tends to be a rich white guy sport (close to 1200USD to start playing <pads, ice time, etc...>, and twice as much for goalies), so that need is not as pressing.
just a thought...

[Glenwood Lane United]

i think i agree with el_urchino, i think there is a disproportionate amount of better guys in hockey than some of the other sports. i think this is because while basketball, baseball, and football players all strive for individual glory at lower levels to get to the higher progression, hockey players are taught from a very early age to be teammates. the quarterback is one guy, and in college and high school can carry a team. in hockey you need at least a full line to carry a team. in basketball guys get out of the ghetto by being the best individual player they can be. hockey tends to be a rich white guy sport (close to 1200USD to start playing <pads, ice time, etc...>, and twice as much for goalies), so that need is not as pressing.
just a thought...

I also think that coming up through juniors with those ungodly bus rides between games really humbles you, and gives you a better perspective on life.

[stevewhit0]

I also think that coming up through juniors with those ungodly bus rides between games really humbles you, and gives you a better perspective on life.

Yea I can preach to that, I still have nightmares of all the time I spent on the bus. Having a bus break down in the middle of Texas with no A/C, spending two weeks on a bus in Montana and North Dakota can really humble you.

[hertha supporter]

The prices for watching a NHL game is too high though...Bruins game for $90??? Crazy prices and I've heard that it's similar throughout the league.

[otterulz]

Major sport or whatever you wanna consider it, I couldn't care less. I still love the NHL and I'm gonna be a Ranger fan till the day I die. Or at least until Glen Sather frustrates the hell out of me that my head explodes.

NHL comparable to Arena Football? Low blow. Hmm.....I guess I care a little.

[MetroAndAGuinessPlz]

i think i agree with el_urchino, i think there is a disproportionate amount of better guys in hockey than some of the other sports. i think this is because while basketball, baseball, and football players all strive for individual glory at lower levels to get to the higher progression, hockey players are taught from a very early age to be teammates. the quarterback is one guy, and in college and high school can carry a team. in hockey you need at least a full line to carry a team. in basketball guys get out of the ghetto by being the best individual player they can be. hockey tends to be a rich white guy sport (close to 1200USD to start playing <pads, ice time, etc...>, and twice as much for goalies), so that need is not as pressing.
just a thought...

Have to take issue with your charactherization of hockey as a sport for "rich" white people. Definitely 99% of the people who play the sport in the US are white but by no means are they all rich. I don't know any rich people but in the white working and middle class areas of the Northeast a lot of people still love to play and watch the game. This is to say absolutely nothing of the fact that at least half (maybe more) of the top 100 rated draft choices this year are from European countries like the Czech Rep. and Russia, not exactly bastions of the wealthy. The sport is obviously more expensive than just getting a basketball and going to the park and its true that a lot of poor people cannot afford to play the game, but I don't see how that has any bearing on how much the popularity of the sport has sunk since the mid 90's. People who love the game find the time and money to put into it for themselves and for their kids.

[russ]

He wasn't dissing hockey as a game,he was dissing how it's run (thanks Gary) and pointing out that it's not really in the full loop of the big three.

NBC picks up the NHL and misses the most important (and maybe only?) hockey event of the coming season,the World Cup.Haha on them.Maybe they'll bring Peter Puck back...

[el_urchinio]

It occured to me while thinking about this that one of the reasons why hockey players tend not to be social miscreants is the way their pre-NHL careers go. Sometimes until they're early or mid-20s, a player will be playing in a regional junior league with little or no national coverage. The alleged 'next Gretzky', 16-year old Sidney Crosby had 135 points in 59 regular season games and 16 in 9 playoff games for Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL. Now, these numbers aren't as impressive when one considers the high-scoring nature of the QMJHL, nor do they come even close to matching Mario Lemieux' tally of 282 points in 70 games in the same league many moons ago, but based on scouts' and even the Great One's impressions of the kid, you'd think he'd get a bit more publicity. Perhaps rightly so, the kid's publicity is mostly on the local level.

Compare this to one LeBron James, whose highschool basketball games were televised nationally and whose team's games you couldn't get a ticket for if you had a terminal illness. Now, it seems like LeBron has handled this well, though the jury is still out after only one year in the pros, but many, many other players hadn't. Does anyone remember Leon Smith? 5 years ago, this 19 year old preps phenom was selected as the last pick of the first round of the NBA draft. Aside from his troubled personal life, the kid was way too raw for the NBA. Coaxed by his agents and many people he met in the 2-3 years prior, he refused to spend a season in Europe honing this skills. I mean, this guy was a superstar in HS, he didn't want to go to no European backwater. To make matters worse, he was selected in the first round of the draft, guaranteeing a 3-year contract at the rookie minimum, 3 million a season. Long story short, between uttering death threats, thrashing his ex-girlfriend's car and attempted NBA comebacks, he managed to fade into obscurity and possibly something worse.

Now, what's my point? My point is that if a guy has been showered with praise, attention and publicity from an early age, he might start taking things for granted. I think there's something humbling about being picked in the first round of the NHL draft and then being immediately assigned to some small-town AHL affiliate for two years where you get to play with banged-up oldtimers, players your age who'll never quite make the cut and veterans trying to jump-start their fading NHL careers. Not quite the glory of chasing Lord Stanley's Cup and you can expect your games to be visited only by the players extended families, friends and few hundred curious onlookers. There is no shock like that in the NBA, though NBDL might one day serve the purpose.

[slipknotter]

CNN/SI writer disses hockey:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/pete_mcentegart/05/21/column.nhl/index.html

No mention of soccer.
Rack him!