CFCF executive producer Barry Wilson is convinced that last night was not a bunch of hockey fans out of control. In his own words, “I do not believe for one minute that true hockey fans had anything to do with this mess.” He talks at length about the pathetic lives of some agents provocateurs, and then suggests that police and the courts need to use every tool at their disposal to punish those responsible and prevent any further riots from happening as the Habs move into the semi-finals.
Now, I’ve never been a hockey fan. I am one of the folks who impatiently waits until the end of the playoffs every year, for Coronation Street to return to its regular weekday evening slot. All the cars driving around with Canadiens flags sticking out the windows seem tacky to me. To be frank, I think hockey should be long over when the temperature is consistently in the double digits. Ice hockey in late April, in May & June? Now if anything is pathetic, that is.
I’m not naive enough to think that the rioting was completely unplanned. Looting liquor stores, cell phone suppliers, and sporting goods shops sounds like an easy cash grab while the police are busy trying to maintain order in a gang of over-excited sports fans who have already shown their tendency to get out of control too many times. But to say that no “true” hockey fan was involved in the rioting & looting? That seems quite naive, if you ask me. What is it that hockey fans value these days? I’m not so sure it’s really about sport anymore.
I believe there was a time when Montreal had something to be proud of when it came to hockey, but these days professional hockey seems to be about two things: money & violence. If the players aren’t being traded to the highest bidder so they can earn millions of dollars a year, the ticket prices are climbing so high that it’s pretty much impossible for Joe Untel to take his kids down to the forum – excuse me, the Bell Centre – to see a game.
When it’s not the money it’s the violence we have to be concerned about, and even in the minor leagues and the kids’ hockey teams this is becoming a significant problem. We’ve got bad coaching, parents getting physical with coaches and officials, players putting each other into hospital. Want to talk about pathetic? Let’s talk about the people who make excuses and say that hockey isn’t a tea party: of course kids are going to get hurt, players are going to get into it a bit at a game. It’s a real man’s sport. It’s not for sissies.
It’s odd, martial arts aren’t for sissies either, but the kind of violence we routinely see in hockey would get a person kicked out of any good dojo – probably the first time it happened.
I grew up with the legacy of Rocket Richard, of Boom Boom Geoffrion, the fond remembrances of hockey’s true heyday exemplified by the NFB film The Sweater. Heck, as a teenager I lived just blocks away from Guy Lafleur (who himself isn’t these days the shining example of humanity.)
It seems to me that in the “good old days” hockey in Quebec was a way out for a francophone who didn’t have many options available, especially if he didn’t speak English. Kids were put on skates here almost before they could walk, and every boy played hockey from the time he was coordinated enough to make the stick connect with the puck. If he got good enough, it meant fame and a good living, and not having to be stuck with the same old blue collar jobs his father had to choose from. Options for a French speaking kid were limited before the Quiet Revolution, especially in Montreal where English businessmen controlled the job market.
But we’re not living in those good old days anymore. Anyone who’s ever had to worry about getting that little piece of paper so their kids have the right to an education in English knows that. Whether or not I agree in principle with the model in which the pendulum needs to swing all the way in the opposite direction to repair the damage of an injustice, that pendulum has indeed swung a long way in that direction. If anything, a francophone kid in Montreal has access to more options than an anglophone. And as the English education aspect of the current curriculum reform rolls through the French schools we can only hope there will be decent English instruction in the elementary schools – please, let it be better than the French education in the English schools!
Hockey isn’t the only hope anymore, and as professional hockey becomes more & more commercialized it probably isn’t even an option for the kids who need a way out. All that equipment and the fancy skates – it’s too expensive for a lot of families. Between the ticket prices and the fact that municipal employees often can’t put up or maintain public ice rinks, the closest those kids get to a rink is to watch hockey on TV when it’s not blacked out.
So when people like Mr Wilson talk about “true hockey fans” I have to wonder exactly what it is that fans are supposed to appreciate. Is it the merchandise and the huge salaries the big players bring in? The star players who encourage their kids to start fights during junior league games or help their kids break bail conditions and then threaten to sue because they get caught doing it? Is it the fights on the ice, or the riots in the streets after the games? What exactly is it about winning a quarter-final game that makes people loot stores and set police cars on fire?
I’m not saying we should pull out of the semi-finals, or that we should not have hockey in Montreal anymore. Of course, if that put the regular programming back on the air it would be nice! But I think we need to put things into perspective. Hockey players aren’t gods, they’re just human beings. And hockey is a sport among many, many others. It may be popular here in Canada, and especially in Quebec. But realistically, not all of us even care to watch it. Let’s see a season that ends more or less when the cold weather does (and yes, I mean finals and all!) Let’s see ticket prices come down to a reasonable amount, and players who can take a few bumps and bruises (or verbal insults or calls they don’t agree with) and not end up picking a childish fist fight. Are you playing hockey, or do you want to be boxers?
Call me a bleeding heart or tell me I’m a woman & I wouldn’t understand it, but I just don’t see what there is about hockey to look up to these days. My son isn’t at a place where he can talk about the people he looks up to, but I can tell you that my girls don’t idolize hockey players. In our house the people we look up to are folks like our Kancho and Shihan who have put their hearts into teaching their art for years and are happy with a simple “Domo Arigatou” at the end of a class. They are Canada’s servicemen and servicewomen. They are the farmers who grow our food, and fight to make a decent living for their families. You won’t find a single sissy among those folks, and they do a darned sight better job of being role models for today’s young people than any spoiled prima donna on skates who thinks he’s too good to follow anybody’s rules. Nothing pathetic about that, Mr Wilson.
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Tags: Bullying & Violence, hockey, looting, Montreal, Parenting, playoffs, police cars burned, professional sport, riots, role models, Stanley Cup
