Let the man move on
I'm not one to stir the pot (ha), but I do find something a little strange, and it all has to do with hockey. So stop reading if you don't want to read about people and hockey and team Canada.
The basics are simple: People are upset about Todd Bertuzzi being included on the team, because they think he projects a bad image to young hockey players. If you don't know what I'm on about, you obviously haven't seen This famous footage, depicting Bertuzzi sucker punching Steve Moore from behind, and then landing on him. Bertuzzi was found guilty of assault, and was given a year's probation , and he was suspended from NHL (and some Olympics) play until August 2005. At that point, the NHL even sat down to talk about whether he should be suspended for a longer period (because of the play stoppage of last year).
Meanwhile, Steve Moore suffered broken vertebrae and a concussion and has been unable to resume his career. He's since tried (and lost) to sue the Vancouver Canucks and Bertuzzi, in a civil suit.
So we've got all of that out of the way. Now, people who wanted Bertuzzi jailed for the incident are saying that he's a black eye on team Canada. I find a problem with that. Without even bringing up the background on how everyone's forgiven Ben Johnson's past record (wait, did I just do that?), I'd also like to give you another name on team Canada that's had even worse of a case than Bertuzzi.
Dany Heatley. Stew about that name for a while and ask yourselves what the difference is. I know it sounds terrible for me to say, but the bias is there. One was on the ice, the other wasn't. They've both had more of their share of support, and they've both had their nay-sayers. They're both playing fantastic for their teams right now, and trying to move on from where they've been, which could, in a sense both be described as acts that were low points in their lives. They're both still young. Give the people a chance to move on.
In Bertuzzi's case especially. As for Heatley, he was charged with vehicular homicide as a result of the crash that killed teammate Dan Snyder in 2003. He pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide, driving too fast for conditions, failure to maintain a lane, and speeding. He was sentenced to three years probation, and was given the full support of the Snyder family, even while others were skeptical of the whole situation. People have slowly started to concentrate more on how great he's doing this year.
But Bertuzzi still gets booed in many arenas, he still gets things thrown at him, and he still has more people on his back than any player I can remember seeing since Marty McSorley (swung his stick and hit Donald Brashear in the head with seconds left in a game. Brashear lost consciousness and suffered a Grade 3 concussion. McSorley was suspended for 1 year, and a jury found McSorley guilty of assault with a weapon. He was sentenced to 18 months probation), and that whole thing basically caused McSorley to retire due to the reaction from that.
We hold athletes in a different regard than celebrities, because a lot of kids are watching players of all sports. And everyone in the world suffers through some horrible event in their lives. Todd Bertuzzi, like Heatley is never going to forget what he's done. He'll probably live through it every single day. Isn't that enough?
The basics are simple: People are upset about Todd Bertuzzi being included on the team, because they think he projects a bad image to young hockey players. If you don't know what I'm on about, you obviously haven't seen This famous footage, depicting Bertuzzi sucker punching Steve Moore from behind, and then landing on him. Bertuzzi was found guilty of assault, and was given a year's probation , and he was suspended from NHL (and some Olympics) play until August 2005. At that point, the NHL even sat down to talk about whether he should be suspended for a longer period (because of the play stoppage of last year).
Meanwhile, Steve Moore suffered broken vertebrae and a concussion and has been unable to resume his career. He's since tried (and lost) to sue the Vancouver Canucks and Bertuzzi, in a civil suit.
So we've got all of that out of the way. Now, people who wanted Bertuzzi jailed for the incident are saying that he's a black eye on team Canada. I find a problem with that. Without even bringing up the background on how everyone's forgiven Ben Johnson's past record (wait, did I just do that?), I'd also like to give you another name on team Canada that's had even worse of a case than Bertuzzi.
Dany Heatley. Stew about that name for a while and ask yourselves what the difference is. I know it sounds terrible for me to say, but the bias is there. One was on the ice, the other wasn't. They've both had more of their share of support, and they've both had their nay-sayers. They're both playing fantastic for their teams right now, and trying to move on from where they've been, which could, in a sense both be described as acts that were low points in their lives. They're both still young. Give the people a chance to move on.
In Bertuzzi's case especially. As for Heatley, he was charged with vehicular homicide as a result of the crash that killed teammate Dan Snyder in 2003. He pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide, driving too fast for conditions, failure to maintain a lane, and speeding. He was sentenced to three years probation, and was given the full support of the Snyder family, even while others were skeptical of the whole situation. People have slowly started to concentrate more on how great he's doing this year.
But Bertuzzi still gets booed in many arenas, he still gets things thrown at him, and he still has more people on his back than any player I can remember seeing since Marty McSorley (swung his stick and hit Donald Brashear in the head with seconds left in a game. Brashear lost consciousness and suffered a Grade 3 concussion. McSorley was suspended for 1 year, and a jury found McSorley guilty of assault with a weapon. He was sentenced to 18 months probation), and that whole thing basically caused McSorley to retire due to the reaction from that.
We hold athletes in a different regard than celebrities, because a lot of kids are watching players of all sports. And everyone in the world suffers through some horrible event in their lives. Todd Bertuzzi, like Heatley is never going to forget what he's done. He'll probably live through it every single day. Isn't that enough?
posted by De Lifte at 6:50 PM
2 Comments:
It's actually pretty sad. Let's face it, Steve Moore wasn't a good hockey player to start with. Colorado kept his contract and let him try out after he felt he was healthy enough, and obviously he didn't fair well, THAT is why he persued Civil Court...and failed.
Heatly killed a man, his best friend. Bertuzzi mugged and broke a man's neck. Don't forget about the Shane Doan incident, there is a politician in Que. who wants Doan removed from the Canadian team because he may have said anti french comments while playing Montreal...ugh, it's just stupid, the politician in question wasn't even at the game...
Team Canada is a pride thing, and I'm sure one person or another has a reason why some one on that team shouldn't be there...fact is they are all top caliber players who have a role to play on that team and they are in the view of the Canadian Exec. the best people for the job and I look forward to watch Bertuzzi stand in the front of the net of the world and pot one for us, as long as they wear the maple leaf I'll cheer.
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