You may or may not have heard the seemingly venomous chatter surrounding Sidney Crosby’s David Letterman “snub,” but there’s a reason the air has settled on the matter: it wasn’t a big deal.
Frankly, it would’ve been equally as unimportant had Crosby decided to make an appearance on the late-night television show.
Do National Hockey League officials really think that Crosby standing with a Gold Medal wrapped around his neck reading a “Top 10” List would suddenly make the sport of hockey more relevant, interesting or popular?
I didn’t think so.
If anything, casual hockey fans would likely be more inclined to pity the game’s most polarizing figure—not to mention the game itself—as he stood in front of a camera, the poor guy.
Why? Because the hype surrounding Crosby’s overtime game-winning goal that beat Team USA for the Gold Medal would’ve been subdued.
Why? Because Sire (yes, sire) Letterman requested that Crosby appear on the show five days after the “goal heard ‘round the world.”
Guests like “The Flying Tomato” had gone on during the days immediately following the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
“Sid the Kid” was an afterthought.
NHL officials and certain members of the media ought to be ashamed of themselves for criticizing the decision and for making it public.
The same people who produce commercials that force viewers to log on to Facebook to watch Crosby (spoiler alert!) defeat teammate Max Talbot in a Sid vs. Max vs. Dryer showdown should look in the mirror and ask why they’ve so successfully failed to make hockey enter the mainstream.
Don’t hate the player.
Hate, in this case, the NHL.