Monday, January 30, 2023

A legend dies, but does he deserve the platitudes...

We lost Bobby Hull, the Golden Jet, probably the #2 player all-time in the NHL to Gretzky, announced today.

He was 84.

And that would normally break out the tributes and all.

But, with a hat-tip to my anonymous friend, Sam Fels of Deadspin is not so sure that should be the result of all of this.

Fels wrote a scathing piece of Hull's legacy and the truth behind the Golden Jet today.

  • Two of his three wives allege domestic abuse.
  • At least one of the incidents added assault of a police officer to the take.
  • An interview with a Russian newspaper had Hull state opinions sympathetic to the Nazi party.
  • He then sued two newspapers for trying to publish the comments.
  • Only after the massive scandals surrounding the Blackhawks did the team finally remove Hull as a team ambassador.
But when one of your own (Fels is from Chicago, as my friend pointed out) basically calls Bobby Hull a "unremorseful puke-stain of a human being", that needs to be noted.

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But that's not the only thing which needs to be noted about the NHL.

The NHL appeared, for a long time, to be one of the more progressive of the major sports leagues.

At least two incidents surrounding team Pride Nights for the LGBTQ community seem to have indicated that time has ended.

The Flyers on January 17, and the Rangers over the weekend both appear to have stated they no longer support the LGBTQ community.

And it raises an ugly reality:  Hockey is very White, and it takes a lot of money to work your way through the ranks to get even near professional level at the relevant age (uniforms, equipment, travel, etc.)...

And there are at least two teams in the NHL in Florida.

You know what that means, right??  MAGA.

And it's time we start understanding what that all means, especially as it appears things are splintering apart.  The masks are falling off, and people are getting a better look at leagues like the NHL and how little they actually support human rights and progressive causes.

I think these teams, at the barest of minimum, would've rather the NHL not supported the first non-binary hockey tournament, held late last year in Wisconsin -- which the NHL came out in full support of...

So how many more teams are gonna botch this and give the false mea culpas?

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