I'm still reeling. I should be, since I just watched both the US men's and women's hockey teams lose to Canada in agonizing and heartbreaking fashion respectively. But that doesn't mean the hockey at the Sochi games wasn't amazing in spots. Watching both US/Canada women's games sparked a new interest in women's hockey for me (mainly for the anti-Canada stuff by now), and the US/Russia pool play game was probably the best game of hockey I've seen in 4 years. But the Olympic magic will soon fade, and everyone will be left to talk about the role of the NHL with the Olympics. It's complicated... far too complicated, even though it seems a cut and dry issue. Everyone in the world sans the 30 men signing NHL paychecks away want the NHL at the Olympic Winter Games. But it's never that simple, is it?
Ed Snider and Garth Snow have both been outspoken about their hatred of the Olympic break. If Snider cracked the door open, then Snow busted it down. On the Olympic break, Snider said "There's no benefit to it whatsoever. If anything, I only see negatives. The players want to play and the players' association has a lot to say about it. As an owner, I think it's ridiculous." Aside from reminding Snider that the Flyers made the Stanley Cup Final the last time NHL players went to the Olympics, he's only stopped short of calling Don Fehr a bad influence. And he's right. Even if his view is completely selfish, he's right. What good do the 30 owners get by sending their highly paid assets over to someone else with a high risk of injury and no way of covering the losses if they do get hurt? And the NHL makes, appreciably, nothing from sending their players over and stopping their season for 3 weeks, aside from maybe a little buzz and a few extra shirsey sales. While Snider might have been the only owner with the stones to talk, I'd bet the conversation in the 29 other boardrooms echoes similar thoughts.
After watching his prized asset John Tavares get injured in Sochi and be lost for the rest of the season, Garth Snow was understandably peeved. It's a "joke" he said that the IIHF can use NHL players and not reimburse their teams if/when they get hurt, but he was just getting started. He said it's the biggest reason why the NHL shouldn't be in the games, and it should be amateurs. He's right too. And please, silence your inevitable "the Isles weren't making the playoffs anyway" trumpets. Garth Snow might have been the only one to say anything, but do you think Ken Holland is happy that Henrik Zetterberg is out for the rest of the regular season because of an Olympic injury? Or Dale Tallon is any less peeved that Alex Barkov and Tomas Kopecky both got hurt during the games despite the fact that his team is crap? It's almost an all-risk, no reward situation for owners and GM's when the Olympics come around, to say nothing of breaking up the flow of a NHL regular season. All of them are right as well. Obviously though, this debate isn't one-sided.
The highest pinnacle for some players (mainly European) is to win Olympic Gold for their country. While this thought may seem foreign to American and Canadian fans, all of the talk of Russian players jumping ship if the NHL didn't go to Sochi should have at least brought that point home. Even then, ask any one of the players for the US or Canada and they would have said 100% that they'd go to every Olympics that they were called up for. Winning Olympic Gold might not be the same as hoisting the Stanley Cup for Patrick Marleau or David Backes, but they're certainly proud to be there at any rate. As they should be. And they're right too.
And what of the IOC and IIHF? This is the biggest possible stage for hockey to be on, and they make a killing off of it. Going back to amateurs and a few European professionals only harms their bottom lines, also saying nothing about NBC and whoever holds the Canadian Olympic rights from 2018 onward. Needn't we forget either, that hockey is attracting more buzz in the States now than the NHL regular season ever would, and only the Olympics really provides that stage aside from the Stanley Cup Final, and one could argue that's a stretch too. And everyone above is also right.
So if everyone's right (and they are), where does that leave us?
The IOC and IIHF need the NHL since the Men's Hockey tournament is the biggest event at the Winter Olympics and garners the most buzz. The NHL one could say needs the IOC and the IIHF to get more people watching their league, especially in the States, where the game can only grow. The NHL players will always want to go to the Olympics since not only is the door open, but there is pride in representing your country that will always be higher than representing a corporate logo on your sweater. But the NHL takes on all the risk and nearly none of the reward by doing what to many is a fait accompli. Now what?
How about a World Cup of Hockey? In this case, the NHL and NHLPA keep all the revenues, but will it ever be as a big as an Olympic tournament is? And will the players line up to play in it like they would for the Olympics? Probably not.
Getting the IOC to split some revenues from the tournament? God no. It was amazing that the NHL and IIHF could even agree on the protocol for sending the players to Russia in one piece, let alone getting all of those men in a room again to agree on a revenue split.
Cherry pick Olympics to go to? The IOC (wisely) wouldn't allow it, and it would set a bad precedent as some players would go regardless of whether the NHL releases their players to do so. Yes Pyeongchang is not a market the NHL is even remotely interested in, but the first Olympic tournament with NHL'ers in it was in Nagano. Close enough.
Abandon the Olympics altogether? They can't do that on numerous levels.
So this is an entirely complex and convoluted issue that is nowhere near an end, or even an end-game. There will be an intense labor battle with blood spilled and many knocked over in its wake.
What do I want to happen? The NHL in every Olympics. What do I think should happen? Have both a World Cup of Hockey and have the players go to the Olympics as well. What do I think will happen? A glorified world-junior tournament in South Korea. Wish I could be more optimistic, but I sat through 2 life-sucking lockouts with this league.
It stinks when everyone is right, and it stinks even more that everyone who is right has the bank account size to match their egos.
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Friday, February 21, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Did You See That: Why Won't You Play For Us?
With the Carlos Vela telenovela mercifully ending (or not if you're a US Men's National team fan that likes to watch El Tri fail), I started to wonder about other players who refused to play for certain teams. Most of these stories are outliers amongst an atmosphere of quiet compliance, but when they do break loose they are endlessly fascinating to see. Here are a few of these stories, and the fallout that came after.
Carlos Vela vs. Mexican National Soccer Team
Vela right now is the best Mexican player on the planet, and he refuses to suit up for El Tri despite that. He could be as much of a hero as Graham Zusi is to that soccer crazy country, but he's decided he doesn't want to go back to that circus. After being suspended in 2010 from the national team for partying (a common theme with El Tri), he has only suited up once since then, and has rejected the call of every coach since to come back. They come off as desperate exes praying that their true love will come back and swoop them up, only to be left at the altar. Not that Vela can play for any other national team, but I'd want to avoid dealing with the Mexican press at all costs too.
Eli Manning vs. San Diego Chargers
Eli didn't want to play for the Chargers, and 10 years later he seems to have forgotten why he almost ruined the history of a franchise that already had to deal with Ryan Leaf. In December, he told NJ.com that he forgot the reason why he spurned their advances (no seriously). "I just can't remember, it's been 10 years. It slipped my mind." This presumably comes from the same part of his brain that has him throw all the interceptions he does. Lesson learned: Orchestrating your own trade because you don't like who has the first overall pick... why didn't anyone else do that...?
John Elway vs. Baltimore Colts
"He would rather be a garbage collector than play for (the Colts)", wrote Elway's agent Marvin Demoff about Elway refusing to play for the then Baltimore Colts. Now I get that Baltimore was going through a rough patch of publicity at that point, but no need to rub it in (Bob Irsay did just that). How close was Elway to playing for the Yankees is an open question, even though the whole West Coast excuse was quickly debunked. Also... why insult garbage collectors? I could think of many worse jobs than that... like working for First Take, for example.
Steve Francis vs. Vancouver Grizzlies
God's will was one of the reasons that Francis cited for not wanting to play for the Grizzlies in Vancouver. Now I know God already hated the Vancouver Canucks (ask Roger Neilson), but this seemed to go a bit too far. Also, he felt his endorsements would take a hit if he played in Vancouver. John Tortorella seems to be doing just fine with that... I know the benefit of anger management classes much better now.
Eric Lindros vs. Quebec Nordiques
There seems to be a trend here: If your team is spurned by a big name draftee at the altar, you can start firing up the moving vans. He also cited endorsements as a reason to not play in Quebec, but speaking French was a bigger block than that. Rosetta Stone unfortunately didn't exist in 1991, and of course taking French classes is too much for a budding superstar (hello Randy Cunneyworth...). An arbitrator had to step in to decide where Lindros would eventually ply his trade, and the Flyers won. Now if Lindros forgot the reason he spurned the Nordiques advances for, I'd buy it more than Eli Manning's quip.
Roy Keane vs. Mick McCarthy
In probably one of the best tirades in sports history, Keane went off on manager Mick McCarthy just before the 2002 World Cup, after McCarthy questioned whether Keane had faked injury to avoid playing in a qualifier. 10 minutes of unadulterated fire-spitting that I can't repeat here, but it almost puts Jim Mora to shame. He left Saipan (the ROI base before the 2002 World Cup), and almost single-handedly split Ireland down the middle on what to think about this fiasco. Carlos Vela has been put to shame.
So here are just a few of these fascinating episodes where the simple question "Why won't you play for us?" doesn't seem to fly. So when Andrew Wiggins orchestrates a trade to the Raptors this summer, making Sixers fans cry, know that you saw this here first. Just don't take the Roy Keane route, that might end badly.
Carlos Vela vs. Mexican National Soccer Team
Vela right now is the best Mexican player on the planet, and he refuses to suit up for El Tri despite that. He could be as much of a hero as Graham Zusi is to that soccer crazy country, but he's decided he doesn't want to go back to that circus. After being suspended in 2010 from the national team for partying (a common theme with El Tri), he has only suited up once since then, and has rejected the call of every coach since to come back. They come off as desperate exes praying that their true love will come back and swoop them up, only to be left at the altar. Not that Vela can play for any other national team, but I'd want to avoid dealing with the Mexican press at all costs too.
Eli Manning vs. San Diego Chargers
Eli didn't want to play for the Chargers, and 10 years later he seems to have forgotten why he almost ruined the history of a franchise that already had to deal with Ryan Leaf. In December, he told NJ.com that he forgot the reason why he spurned their advances (no seriously). "I just can't remember, it's been 10 years. It slipped my mind." This presumably comes from the same part of his brain that has him throw all the interceptions he does. Lesson learned: Orchestrating your own trade because you don't like who has the first overall pick... why didn't anyone else do that...?
John Elway vs. Baltimore Colts
"He would rather be a garbage collector than play for (the Colts)", wrote Elway's agent Marvin Demoff about Elway refusing to play for the then Baltimore Colts. Now I get that Baltimore was going through a rough patch of publicity at that point, but no need to rub it in (Bob Irsay did just that). How close was Elway to playing for the Yankees is an open question, even though the whole West Coast excuse was quickly debunked. Also... why insult garbage collectors? I could think of many worse jobs than that... like working for First Take, for example.
Steve Francis vs. Vancouver Grizzlies
God's will was one of the reasons that Francis cited for not wanting to play for the Grizzlies in Vancouver. Now I know God already hated the Vancouver Canucks (ask Roger Neilson), but this seemed to go a bit too far. Also, he felt his endorsements would take a hit if he played in Vancouver. John Tortorella seems to be doing just fine with that... I know the benefit of anger management classes much better now.
Eric Lindros vs. Quebec Nordiques
There seems to be a trend here: If your team is spurned by a big name draftee at the altar, you can start firing up the moving vans. He also cited endorsements as a reason to not play in Quebec, but speaking French was a bigger block than that. Rosetta Stone unfortunately didn't exist in 1991, and of course taking French classes is too much for a budding superstar (hello Randy Cunneyworth...). An arbitrator had to step in to decide where Lindros would eventually ply his trade, and the Flyers won. Now if Lindros forgot the reason he spurned the Nordiques advances for, I'd buy it more than Eli Manning's quip.
Roy Keane vs. Mick McCarthy
In probably one of the best tirades in sports history, Keane went off on manager Mick McCarthy just before the 2002 World Cup, after McCarthy questioned whether Keane had faked injury to avoid playing in a qualifier. 10 minutes of unadulterated fire-spitting that I can't repeat here, but it almost puts Jim Mora to shame. He left Saipan (the ROI base before the 2002 World Cup), and almost single-handedly split Ireland down the middle on what to think about this fiasco. Carlos Vela has been put to shame.
So here are just a few of these fascinating episodes where the simple question "Why won't you play for us?" doesn't seem to fly. So when Andrew Wiggins orchestrates a trade to the Raptors this summer, making Sixers fans cry, know that you saw this here first. Just don't take the Roy Keane route, that might end badly.
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