The media (including this paper) buzzed this past week about head shots, concussions and how to prevent devastating damage to NHL players such as Sidney Crosby. Reading the output, the greatest impediment to any change in the NHL seems to be a hockey subculture that often views players - even Crosby - as expendable at the expense of preserving the game's culture of intimidation.
Lost in the debate, however, is the role of the media, particularly the electronic media, in fostering this culture. With a few exceptions - mostly former goalies - network TV analysts are players who owe their careers to the it's-a-man's-game" culture. They act as if their church is the one true hockey church. Be honest, are Don Cherry, Mike Milbury, Nick Kypreos, P.J. Stock, Matthew Barnaby, Brad May or Tie Domi going to appear on nationwide TV and say, "We need to get guys like me out of the sport?"
Of course not. They lionize the code that put food on their plates and their faces on Hockey Night in Canada or TSN's SportsCentre. (Witness Milbury calling analyst Pierre McGuire a "soccer mom" on NBC on Sunday for advocating sterner rules.) Typically, the network voices against the code are lowly journalists who never experienced the NHL. So who are you (the viewer) supposed to believe?
The networks also emphasize fights (Sportsnet's weekly Friday Night Fights package, for example) and include fights disproportionately in highlight packs.
Punch-ups and big hits are low-hanging fruit for programmers. TV craved them, the NHL delivered them. There are remedies to prevent injuries like the ones suffered by Crosby and a legion of other players. But perhaps the solution starts with the media taking a good look in the mirror at itself.
Warring Partners
The members of the Canadian Olympic TV consortium - CTV/TSN, Rogers - insist they will continue with the 2012 Olympics in London and with bidding for the 2014 and 2016 Games. But with news this week of talent raids and TSN's plan to challenge Rogers on sports radio, the skirmishing between the two media giants finally broke into the open.
Rogers Media boss Keith Pelley is about as popular with his old TSN chums as Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes. Behind the scenes, the sniping is nasty and the ammunition is real. If the sides re-up for TV rights in the next Olympic cycle, it could be the coldest marriage since Don and Betty Draper on Mad Men.
Lost in the TSN/Rogers kerfuffle was news that Shaw Communications, proud new owners of Global TV, is getting into the talent raiding. The Calgary-based company snagged Olympic consortium executive Christos Nikitopoulos as its vice-president of sports. What sports, a Global fan might ask? With control of the next generation of TV/Internet/phone dominance in play, Shaw needs to get into the rights' game to extend the brand, perhaps with an Olympic bid or even challenging for the NHL contract that begins in 2014.
Could CBC be a partner to wrest the package away? "Not enough ammo between them," one industry insider says.
False Labour
Hockey fans will recognize the plaintive tone from NFL media these days. As the current season heads to its final game at the Super Bowl, football media are talking about the insanity of shutting down a sport for labour reasons when it just signed a $20-billion (U.S.) deal with ESPN. They wonder how the league can throw away the record TV ratings they're now enjoying (more than 40 million for New York Jets-New England Patriots game Jan. 16 and a record rating for a divisional round) to keep the Jacksonville Jaguars solvent.
ESPN's Tim Hasselbeck says that if government were addressing the wildly popular sport today it'd have to regulate it as a controlled substance.
Yes, yes and yes. But as hockey fans can tell you, stop making sense. No pleas for the consumer will affect these obscenely rich parties from a little bare-knuckled brawling. Teams did not retain losing coaches because they saw a full season on the horizon.
With its TV billions guaranteed in the event of a lockout, the NFL has little downside besides a scathing Bob Costas editorial and some fans waxing indignant. There will be games lost to this head-butting, then the world will go on with an 18-game schedule, a rookie salary cap and a rueful nod of the head from fans who more clearly see their true place in the sports food chain.