The Hockey Athlete

One of the reasons I have been flocking to hockey more so than any of the other major sports is the athlete itself. Being from the Pittsburgh area, my 1st love was actually with the Pirates baseball team. My Dad was a huge Pirates fan and taught me a ton about baseball. My 2nd love was the Steelers. Being from this area, it is hard not to be a Steelers fan. We have no basketball team here but I did grow up loving the Bulls and Jordan and Pippen and Armstrong. Hockey was an acquired love that I slowly developed. I detailed this in my earlier post.

Over the years my passion has shifted. I have painfully watched the Pirates make terrible decision after terrible decision. They now have 18 straight losing seasons. I still love the Pirates and baseball but there is no doubt the Pirates have the worst ownership and management team in any of sports.

I know do not have any interest in the NBA whatsoever.

The NFL is quickly turning me off as well.

Most of this has to do with the players who play the sports. Hockey players are a different breed. They play the game with passion, with pride. They are humble. They are tough. Now I understand its unfair to lump all players into categories. There most certainly are bad apples in hockey just like there are some very great people involved in the other sports. For the purpose of my point, I am taking about the athletes in general.

For example, how many times have you seen a football player jump up and celebrate a sack like he just won the lottery although his team is down 30-3? All these dances, struts, and celebrations are ridiculous! These are athletes getting paid millions of dollars. They are expected to make plays. They are expected to make a catch when the ball is thrown to them. Can you imagine a hockey player going into some sort of dance after each and every hard hit he puts on an opponent?

Baseball players have grown into a miserable bunch as well. As a kid, I used to love going to games early with my Dad to get autographs and mingle with the players. Now the players act bigger than life. They act as if the fans owe them something. Then there is the whole steroids thing but I'm not going there now.

Whether its baseball. football, or basketball, any given day you have headlines of drug use, sexual harassment, domestic violence, ect.

You rarely see this with hockey players. For the most part, they are just like us. They too are millionaires but they haven't let it go to their heads. They are grounded. They are humble. They have pride in their sport. They feel privileged to be able to play in the NHL. They have respect for the game and for its fans. They are much more accessible.

I feel a connection with hockey players that I just dont feel with any other of the major sports athletes. Because of this, hockey continues to grow as my passion and sadly, the other sports are fading.