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Alex
PickupHockey All-Star
Canada
2816 Posts |
 Posted - 02/23/2009 : 07:54:04
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I've been thinking lately and it seems to me that hockey is head and shoulders above all other sports in terms of class. Think about it.
In baseball, the steroids scandal is embarrassing the league left right and center. 5 of the top 12 all-time home-run hitters were juiced I think I heard. The highest paid player ever, the home run king, the entire New York Yankees... it's disgraceful.
In the NBA, 40 percent of players have a criminal record. Remember the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case?
In football, you've got your Pacman Jones, Michael Vicks, and the list goes on. Not to mention all the damn yapping they do. There's a week between each game for players to mouth off. What's the big problem in our league, Sean Avery? Anyone ever heard of a guy named Terrel Owens? Seriously, Avery's sloppy seconds comment wouldn't even get noticed in the NFL.
That's my theory. NHL players are the classiest and the league is the classiest.
''Yes we can!'' -Obama
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n/a
deleted
4809 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 08:33:19
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Hockey the classiest? Ha, that'll be the day . . .
1. The only sport (discounting boxing and MMA) that allows for brawling ON THE PLAYING FIELD.
2. Sean Avery? He looks golden besides past offenders Todd Bertuzzi (charged by police for criminal activity during the game!), Chris Simon, Marty McSorely, Bob Probert, and many others. Not to mention the drunk driving guys . . . of which there is a long list.
3. And steroids? Try cocaine, or sports betting, and see a bunch more classy players . . . just because hockey's standards and testing aren't as stringent, doesn't mean that the players aren't juiced, btw.
Maybe among the big four team sports we look good, but the whole fighting on the field of play thing sets us back a step no matter which way you cut it. Ask the fans of those other sports, and that is the first thing they will mention. Beyond these four team sport leagues, there are tons of classier sports, here's my top three:
1. Golf - head and shoulders above the rest
2. Soccer - sure, they have drugs . . . but where else do you have hugging, exchanging of shirts and gifts, and players kissing each other?
3. Billiards - As you can expect, it's a gentleman's game, despite the barroom reputation of smoky halls and beers on the table. They even wear tuxedos!
"Take off, eh?" - Bob and Doug |
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Axey
PickupHockey Pro
Canada
877 Posts |
Posted - 02/23/2009 : 08:39:40
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| Every sport has its classy guys and embarrassments. I think boxing is head and shoulders above any sport in terms of class. Of course there are idiots in the sport as well, but what does it for me is I was in the West Edmonton Mall. At one end was Eric Lindros sitting at a table taking autographs, unshaved, jeans and t-shirt. A little ways down the mall was Oscar De La Hoya, doing the same only freshly shaven and in a suit. |
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Guest5382
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Posted - 02/23/2009 : 09:14:09
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quote:
Originally posted by slozo
2. Soccer - sure, they have drugs . . . but where else do you have hugging, exchanging of shirts and gifts, and players kissing each other?
Soccer?? really??
There is a saying soccer is a gentleman's game played by thugs. where as rugby is a thug's game played by gentlemen.
Not that rugby players are all class but they are much classier overall than soccer players. |
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Guest9109
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Posted - 02/23/2009 : 09:40:23
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| didnt realize signing autographs was a black tie affair. not that lindros was a classy guy, i would never say that |
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Guest9109
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Posted - 02/23/2009 : 09:43:36
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| and btw, whenever people start getting paid this much money, a huge percentage of them turn into idiots, no matter what sport your in... and soccer a gentlemans sport? theres more diving in one soccer match than in the entire Beijing olympics this past summer!!! |
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Guest5382
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Posted - 02/23/2009 : 10:14:59
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quote:
Originally posted by Guest9109
and btw, whenever people start getting paid this much money, a huge percentage of them turn into idiots, no matter what sport your in... and soccer a gentlemans sport? theres more diving in one soccer match than in the entire Beijing olympics this past summer!!!
Yes soccer is a gentlemen sport. Unfortunately it is usually played by not so honest people. Hence the saying. |
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Leafs Rock Planet
PickupHockey Pro
Canada
902 Posts |
Posted - 02/24/2009 : 13:28:55
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quote:
Originally posted by slozo
1. Golf - head and shoulders above the rest
Slozo, he is talking about sports. 
Just kidding I love golf, one of my favourites.
Hockey does involve what some would say, violence, and most other sports dont. Classiest probably has to go to baseball amidst all the steroids and gambling, back in the day probably were the athletes with most respect for the sport. Now, not so much. |
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MSC
PickupHockey Pro
Canada
601 Posts |
Posted - 02/24/2009 : 14:16:31
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| I think you're kidding yourself or are very naive if you don't think performance enhancing drugs play a part in hockey (especially in the minors and all pro leagues that don't start with NHL). |
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Beans15
Moderator
Canada
8286 Posts |
Posted - 02/24/2009 : 19:32:39
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There are good and bad members of each sport. Not all NHL players(or those involved in the NHL) have been all smiles and sunshine. Do we forget about Alan Eagleson and his pilferage of pension money from the NHLPA?? What about McSorley, Bertuzzi, Simon, and others who's on ice activities have been far from Classy? Drug and alcohol abuse. Under age drinking. Death attributed to speeding or drinking and driving. HOFer's getting changed with obstructions of justice. We could go on.
And I just want to touch on the baseball/steriod thing really quickly. One has to remember that the MLB only brought in a steriod policy in the past few years. Many of the players (starting with Canseco as the first real poster boy) that have been found to have use or admitted to using steriods were not breaking any rules at the time. It was unethical, but not against the rules. And as a side note, I think the entire MLB owns one Jose Canseco an apology for all the nasty things they said and for basically banish him from the sport for him doing nothing more than tell the truth.
I would have to agree that Pro Golfers are rarely in any kind of scandal. Tennis comes to mind too. In fact, if you think about sports globally, the "unclassiest" sports appear to be the 4 big sports in North America. However, I would agree that of those sports, there seems to be fewer issues in hockey than in others. I would put soccer very close to those sports as well. There have been more than one situation of death/destruction/mayhem in the world of soccer both on and off the field. Match fixing in Italy, ties to the Mob in some countries. They are no saints themselves. |
Edited by - Beans15 on 02/24/2009 19:35:15 |
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Axey
PickupHockey Pro
Canada
877 Posts |
Posted - 02/24/2009 : 21:04:44
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quote:
Originally posted by Guest9109
didnt realize signing autographs was a black tie affair. not that lindros was a classy guy, i would never say that
It doesn't hafta be, but that's class for a guy to do that like De La Hoya, Lindros is just an idiot in all apsects of hockey. But after a boxing match the other guy usually congratulates his opponent and gives him some kind of motion of class toward him. Not all, but most. Although there are the Tyson's who ruin everything about it of course. |
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Hustler90
Top Prospect
Canada
53 Posts |
Posted - 02/25/2009 : 17:15:24
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| Hockey used to have class until it became infested with goons. Like how about when players used to fight and when they were done gave the other guy a pat on the back occasionally. You don't see that anymore. A lot of the respect and class in hockey has vanished. |
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Hockey players athletes with most class? 
