An Argument

...for why professional athletes should not be allowed to play on Olympic teams.

Last night I went to an NHL game. I love hockey and live NHL games.

I also love the Olympics. I was a few months old when the Miracle on Ice occurred. One of my favorite movies is the movie "Miracle." At the end of that movie, there is a line from Herb Brooks about all of the "dream teams" that have become a part of Olympic play. Coach Brooks goes on to make a comment about how none of those dream teams has captured the imagination and hearts of Americans quite the way many of the amateur players has done.

When NHL players were first allowed to play in the Olympics, for me, it was amazing because players such as Wayne Gretzky, who never had a chance to play Olympic hockey were getting that chance. But this last Olympics, reality set in.

It came in the disguise of the Canadian and US National Hockey teams. Both were eliminated well in advance of the medal round. The teams that took the medals were the Swedes, Finns and Czechs. Two of the teams that showed the most heart were the Slovaks and the Latvians. Now, all of these teams had NHL players on them, but what they had that the Canadians and US did not was the pride of playing for their own country.

I watched in shock as players like Dominik Hasek and Jaromir Jagr got injured because they refused to give up the hard play that would win them an Olympic medal.

I watched in disgust as players like Eric Staal of Canada and Erik Cole and Bret Hedican of the US failed to make easy plays because they didn't want to get hurt and sacrifice the rest of the NHL season. In fact, when NHL play resumed, a Carolina Hurricane's announcer actually said on air that if Cole and Hedican had played the way they were playing in that NHL game in Torino...the US might have had a chance at a medal.

People acted upset that Mike Modano failed to meet with the US team at their final meeting before returning to the US. Modano was right though, players like himself and captain Chris Chelios will not have another chance at Olympic Gold, and they felt robbed by many of the other, younger players who did not behave as if it was an honor to represent their country but were just trying to get out of the games injury free.

In 1980, the US team was a miracle team. It was made up of college players and young men with fight. In one of the most memorable scenes of the movie "Miracle", after losing a game in Norway, Coach Brooks makes the exhausted team run drills tirelessly. Earlier in the movie, Brooks had many of the players introduce themselves by giving their name and where they were from and who they had played for (their college team). Now, as this team was close to collapse, one voice yelled out, "Mike Eruzione." And when Coach Brooks asked him who he played for, Eruzione came back swinging like the fighter about to crumple on the mats who has just enough strength to land one last good one, "The United States of America." These young men had no doubt at that moment who their captain was and what their mission was, to represent their country. They didn't win a gold medal at the risk of not being injured, they won it because they played with pride in their hearts, no matter what the outcome.

I'm not going to say this problem only lies in hockey (remember the US's basketball team in Athens?). And I'm not going to say that there weren't NHL players who didn't give it their all. But, it was embarrasing to watch the US team play and to hear the announcers talking about how no one wants to risk injury. Maybe we need to rethink the idea of just letting professional athletes into this type of arena.

I did say in my last post that I can be cynical about sports, so thank goodness there were those little kids last night pushing the puck around the ice and loving it. Too bad some of the players weren't out their to watch. To remember why they got into the sport.

And it's too bad we put professional athletes on such a high pedestal that we fail to remember they are representing our countries and should play in that manner.