"Just when you think you've heard it ALL..."
Thursday, February 03, 2005

Posted by Kerrzy

As we enter February of 2005 and the NHL's hyperlink on the ESPN.com toolbar now sits embarassingly below 'motorsports' amid it's tragic fall from grace; it's safe to say that the WNBA is no doubt looking up from the bottom of that list longingly as the proverbial credits begin to roll on the 2004-2005 NHL season, and it's also safe to say that the Olympic Sports section should just be happy that they're even on the list. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge took some time out of doing whatever the IOC Prez does in not-Olympic years to give us all his take on the NHL lockout, first shedding some light onto how tournament play in amateur sport works by saying to a crowd of 800 businessmen recently that "this is something that is not going to happen in the Olympic games"; and unfortunately he wasn't kidding...

Rogges went on to say that "Olympic athletes compete for the honor of their country, they compete for a gold-plated medal" and that "Olympic athletes do not go on strike for a minimum salary of $6-million," before clicking his heels, running face first into a wall and then individually asking each member of the audience if they'd seen his baseball.

The thing I love about the lockout thus far is that the NHLPA is always the voice of reason when people resort to insults in the media. In a CBC.ca article covering this story they said after Rogges comments that "It should be noted that the current NHL labour dispute is not a strike by the players, but rather a lockout imposed by league owners since Sept. 15," and Ted Saskin just had a field day with this one saying-"I cannot understand why Mr. Rogge would comment on the current owners' lockout, when he clearly has no information about any of the issues surrounding it."-

Let's just say that if you saw this guy in the hardware section you'd more than likely feel the urge to run to the till with a fist full of Canadian Tire Money almost immediately.

Rogge certainly takes the early lead in 2005 as far as the stupidest things I've heard this year go; but he's not alone, being followed very closely by a girl that I work with over here in Australia in her 20's who thought that Canada and the United States were in fact the same country, and Peter Worrell.

As we all know Worrell is a 6-foot-7 black man who's a scrapper for the Avalanche, but upon being pulled over for driving with expired tags recently in Floriday, he repeatedly tried to convince the Broward County Police that he was (former Florida Panthers teammate) Andreas Lilja, a white 6-foot-3 Swede; which landed him 'driving with a suspended license' and 'resisting arrest without violence' charges to add to his previous double DUI's, leaving the scene of an accident and criminal mischief for kicking a police cars window. If only his NHL stats were that good. Way to be Pete. Hey if the lockout doesn't get resolved anytime soon I bet that there's some work for you on the NHL's board of Govenors.

Speaking of that bunch of meat heads, in another media-friendly attempt to save face in the eyes of the public eye the NHL, who recently accused the NHLPA of being fixed on it's one idea and not wanting to budge on anything (despite the earthshaking January proposal), came to a meeting to apparently offer a change to their stance on the salary cap range (which they've ironically been fixed on from the start) from $34.6-$38.6-million to $32-$42-million.

Say what you will about the players association's proposal; and the NHL's smear campaign did a good job of screwing the public opinion (obvious by Rogges retarded spiel), but a 24% paycut in an effort to save the season as compared to the NHL upping their salary cap range by $3.4-million is quite significant. I sincerely hope that Gary Bettman didn't trip over his cape after sweeping in to save the day like that. A friend of mine quite often says "it takes two to tango man"; but what's the NHLPA to do if the NHL doesn't want to dance?

Moral of the Story: Can you believe that girl thought that Canada was a part of the USA? Geez, and I thought some AMERICANS were stupid...well they are, but so are Australians, Peter Worrell and Jacques Rogges...well he's just a complete moron...Olympic athletes won't go on strike because they don't make any money in the first place...hell, all Canada does for it's Olympians is give them jobs at Home Hardware so that they can 'save up'!