I don’t like to bring politics, religion or race into my sports shows but the Twitter firestorm brought on by Joel Ward’s game winning goal in game seven is too appalling to ignore. I heard about the tweets and sadly was not surprised. I still kind of shrugged it off until the Bruins got involved and released a statement. At that point I decided to see for myself the ugly ignorance that still plagues a small part of our society. (see for yourself if your interested http://chirpstory.com/li/6781) Keep in mind these tweets are not coming from the good ole boy connection in the deep south, most are from young people right here in the northeast. The late great Joe Paterno used to say “youth is a disease, but it can be cured.” I’m not sure we’ll ever find a magic potion strong enough to cure the deep hatred and complete lack of human compassion that took over Twitter last night. In fact one of the most shocking tweets comes from a local student athlete who is so sure of themselves and their ignorant point of view that their picture, name and jersey number are up for all to see. Sadly that person isn’t the only one that completely exposed him/herself as a bigot. (Good luck in future job interviews, this internet thing is not going away anytime soon) I understand being young, ignorant and in some cases sheltered, but when me and my friends were stumbling through our youth we stayed out too late, drove too fast, and thought we were smarter than everyone. The thought, let alone the action of calling someone out for their skin color never crossed our minds. Again, it’s a small sample from a large fan base but a great hockey series has forever been sullied by the voices of those soulless morons.
On a lighter note my grandma called me fat and I’ve now gone into full blown diet mode. True story, I walked into her house last week and she said “oh, you’ve put on some weight” I mean can’t a guy put on a little man poundage in the face? Anyway, I’ve also once again made the gym my second home. This leads to the lesson of the week. Do not under any circumstances put a $10 bill into a vending machine. I became light headed in the middle of my workout last night and in full desperation mode coughed up a ten spot for $2 protein nuts. All well and fine until I found out the machine didn’t have $8 worth of change in the reserve bin. So if you’re looking for $3 in nickels and dimes, I’m your guy
Eric is Sports Director at WPRI. Living in Rhode Island allows him to fulfill two goals: live by an ocean and feel smart when covering sporting events at an Ivy League school.
April 26th, 2012 at 8:18 pm by Eric Murphy under From the Cheap Seats
Eric is Sports Director at WPRI. Living in Rhode Island allows him to fulfill two goals: live by an ocean and feel smart when covering sporting events at an Ivy League school.