The Red Line Rant - Pro athletes

It seems as though Marian Hossa is not a happy camper. He turned down a 3-year, $11.5 million offer from the Senators, and comes accross as insulted.

"We're at a dead point right now," said Hossa "We are nowhere. They offered me a three-year contract, but it wasn't good enough...It wasn't anywhere close to my comparables. If you look at my points the last two seasons, they've been close to Iginla and (Boston's Joe) Thornton..."

If he's seriously comparing himself to Jarome Iginla, he's gone off the deep end. And because the Bruins are playing hardball - rightfully so, in my opinion - it still remains to be seen what Joe Thornton will get. In fact, Hossa's numbers are lower than Markus Naslund, who has averaged 41 goals/season over the last four (compared to Hossa's 36; only scoring more than 40 once in his career), so why should he even make Nalsund money?

"I'm not pissed off. You know me, I'm not that type of guy. I love the city of Ottawa, I love the fans there. I want to be part of that team for a long time. I just want to be paid what I feel is a fair amount and I don't want to settle for less."

You know, one of my main pet peeves with professional athletes is when they spew out verbal diahrea and expect everyone to buy it as candy. I don't know how many times I've heard empty sentiments such as "I just love the city. I love the fans, if it were up to me I'd spend my entire career here....".

Give me a break you selfish wankers.

Do these players not realize that they are wealthy beyond imagination whether they sign $4 million or $7 million contracts? What's the point of bitching and moaning and making yourself look like a selfish greaseball because your ego is inflated to galactic proportions?

Ego has driven the pro athlete for years now, and apparently there is no end in sight. Does Hossa, and players like him, not understand the team concept anymore? Of course, it's a rhetorical question, because they obviously do not understand that should any player gobble up close to the maximum salary of 20% of a team's payroll, that they severly limit the funds with which to buld a successful TEAM. Does Hossa not grasp the fact that should he get anywhere near the $7 million figure, the Senators can immediately bid adieu to Martin Havlat, Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Daniel Alfredsson, etc?

For once I'd just love to see a player put his money where his mouth is at. If you really want to play for a winner and you really love the city, then sign a contract that makes sense for both sides. Take a bit less to play for "the city that you love", take a smaller amount to enable the management to build a winning team. For God's sake, is life really that horrible in the $4 million salary bracket? Is it too painful to get up in the morning and look in the mirror to realize that you don't make $7 million? Does it wound your pride that much to only see 19 Ferrari's in the driveway instead of 12?

It's all about the money - it has been for much too long now, and I'm sick to death of the spoiled brat mentality that pro sports has become. The salary cap was supposed to put a reign on salaries, but now, thanks largely to the incessant demands for ego feeding contracts, it seems as though it may only accomplish the break up of deep and highly skilled teams.