ST. LOUIS, MO – For as long as I can remember, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve meant one thing and one thing only: Blues vs. Blackhawks. It never mattered where I was living or what needed to be done. I went to the St. Louis vs Chicago game come hell or high water… or a man-made disaster. This year, that ceremonious pleasure was taken from me.
As a young child in St. Louis, this game gave me the opportunity to learn the finer four letter words of the English language. As a teenager, I gained the drunken courage to use them in anger towards women and children wearing Chris Chellios jerseys. As a college student, I watched the games from the Hooter’s Box seats, knowing that after I left the stadium there were 10-15 girls with very low self esteem waiting for me back at the restaurant. When I moved to New York, all my Christmas plans were made around the game in hopes that in addition to the game itself I could buy one night of solitude away from the family. Well… all I have to say about the NHL right now is that Congress passed Fiscal Cliff Legislation.
This makes it official: The NHL and its Players Union are officially the most preposterously inefficient organizations of fools in this country. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BEAT YOU TO A SOLUTION TO A MUCH LARGER PROBLEM! How do you become more inefficient than Congress? Congress is the definition of square peg vs round hole!
Seriously, when you look at it, the Fiscal Cliff is not so different than the situation the NHL. In both situations, if nothing is done everyone loses. From a micro prospective, the NHL situation is actually much worse for the economies involved. In the 30 markets affected by the lockout, thousands of jobs have been lost. Businesses like bars, restaurants are retailers are seeing massive declines in sales – and there is no end in sight. As for the Fiscal Cliffers, at worst they’d only have had to cut the average program’s budget 8-10%. In the case of the NHL, entire programs would disappear, never to be seen again.
This peripheral effect is the exact reason why Penn State did not receive the death penalty, despite the Nittany Lions deserving the death penalty for a DECADE or TWO! The innocent residents and business owners of Happy Valley, however, did not deserve to be punished for someone else’s sins.
So while Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr sit around and argue about millions that are not there (I love hockey but hockey isn’t football), the Zamboni drivers, concession clerks and bartenders of Calgary, San Jose, Toronto, Denver, and Newark are all counting their looneys, tooneys, Sacajawea’s and Susan B’s – just trying to make ends meet as they have all been canned.
It is for these people that I am starting a new charity I am calling it the Foundation for Really Everyone Screwed in Hockey or simply F.R.E.S.H. Slogan you ask? “Lets Get FRESH” Celebrity endorsement? Neil Patrick Harris. Fundraising Event? Meet The Matts Thong Hockey. That’s right, the coming to a bar near you, only on Pay Per View (and you know you want to view it twice) MTM Thong Hockey Spectacular. I envision a three on three match-up between Short Matt, myself and Cheesy Bruin versus Junoir Blaber, The Public Professor and Different Matt. I figure Blaber and Prof have to be on the same team since they are both obviously the Shirts team… even without a shirt. Our goalies will be guest players. I’m hoping to lock up Rex Ryan and Danny Bonaducci.
So who is with me? Let’s make MTM Thong Hockey the greatest FRESH promotion of the year.