I used to love to watch football......I used to love to watch basketball.....I used to love to watch baseball........but I got tired of watching the T.O.'s...Allen Iverson's and Barry Bonds of the world. They had the mentality that they were bigger than the game...bigger than their teamates and bigger than the fans. Sick is how they made me feel. Millionaire babies with a warped sense of reality. That's how I felt about all professional athletes.....
Then I went to my first Sharks game......not only was ice hockey the fastest and most exciting game I have ever watched.....the athletes seemed cool.....they seemed approchable.....they seemed like a guy you would have a beer with at the corner bar. Sure, hockey players are seen as goons who like to fight, are missing teeth and have no brains because they take hits from somebody going 100 mph on the ice. But as I got to know the game, you got to know the players and you found out that they were as cool as you thought....great to the fans and easy to approach. When we lived in San Jose, many of the Sharks players lived in my neighborhood and we would see them out and about....always saying hi to folks.
Well today, one of the great leaders on the Sharks team retired. Jeremy Roenick, a great US born player, sure to make the hall of fame. I will miss seeing him on the ice, he always had a spark to his game and he took the younger players under his wing. I hope they listened because nothing beats experience.
In part of his speech, he tells the younger guys to remember the fans, appreciate them because without them, you are nothing. How many times have you heard T.O., A.I. or Barry say those words......never.
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