Editor: The NHL has sunk to gutter lows with its incurable contagious greed which is indefensibly shameful and despicable. Fighting like rabid pigs in a trough, the league and players battle over billions and pensions instead of showing sportsmanship, class, heart, charity and professionalism.
Let’s be frank — no athlete, musician, artist, actor, director, etc. is worth the sinful wages they get while holding us hostage so they can live like kings.
Turn back the clock to the days of the true legends of NHL. Eddie Giacomin, Jacques Plante, Phil Esposito, Bobby Clarke, Terry Sawchuk, Stan Mikita, Dave Keon and others were heroic role models with class. They would never think of striking to spit on the fans and collateral businesses.
Since the days of Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and others, there is the sickness of selfish overpaid clowns in the last 27 years. Many strikers are whiners, show unsportmanship conduct, are greedy and unionized. This amplifies the sins of sports and the bad image they give fans and aspiring athletes.
Fans are brainlessly forgiving instead of teaching these parasites a lesson by boycotting games to watch them at home. That would bring these leeches off Cloud 9.
The salaries should have been capped decades ago, as nobody is worth $2 million a year, whether they play well or flop. The top player should make $700,000 — and that is excessive. If we culled their greed, you could trim down ticket prices and other costs.
If they had a moral compass, they would give $1 billion to charities and still have lots. Maybe U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders need to hammer them more with taxes, as with banks, auto giants and others. When is enough, enough?
To unionize sports is the same as to unionize tradespeople, who make far more than they are worth, only to enable them to overcharge the public. You can see the insane money trades make locally and in the oil sectors. Like the NHL, we need to cap wages in all sectors — including public servants.
Professional athletes should not be unionized nor have pensions, etc. If they cannot manage their assets to pay their own medical, dental and retirement years, they are doing something wrong.
If you ever watch shows like MTV Cribs, you’ll see rich fools flaunting their wealth.
Don’t tell me they cannot afford to pay for their own dental work, prescriptions and save for their retirement, and live like kings? Maybe they need lessons in manners, social grace and modesty from classic legends like Tony Esposito, Cesare Maniago, Bobby Orr or Serge Savard and others.
Too many zeroes now play in pro sports, and many idolize them instead of seeing them as they are — pathetic greedy whiners who know no limits. There are too many fat cats, it’s time to make them leaner.
Hopefully the fan base will dwindle, but we are a bleeding heart society and will soon forget their wicked deeds. How many businesses suffered from the collateral damage? None of these overpaid fools have a conscience or dignity.
Lasik Trumann,
Langley
