With all that’s going on in all the other sports in America, the NHL should really be seizing the opportunity in front of them.
Baseball, America’s “past-time” until around 2004 or so, seems entangled in a never-ending struggle with players on steroids. Baseball fans, perhaps the only ones more stats-happy than hockey fans, are crossing some mighty large names off future Hall of Fame ballots, because, quite frankly, they cheated. It is a stigma they may never be able to shake, and every time a baseball player does something truly great, that tiny sense of suspicion will start to surface from society’s collective subconscious. Unfortunately for the players, in a game so filled with history, no accomplishment may ever go without suspicion again.
Football, America’s new past-time, is riddled with a problem of their own. For a sport which more people gravitate towards by the day, it seems, there are far too many players winding up in trouble with the law, or being put in jail, for a myriad of reasons. Fact is, it’s become a league full of outlaws, one that should have far less success than it does at attracting young fans given the immature personalities of its players. I admit, there are a significant number of players who do nothing wrong at all, but the ones who mess up get an incredible amount of press coverage that it almost doesn’t matter anymore that some players are clean and mature. As if it wasn’t bad enough, the NFL continues to take back repeat offenders regardless of how many strip clubs they shoot up, illegal guns they possess, pounds of weed they smoke, or own appendages they accidentally shoot. People often harp on the “No Fun League” for being as such, but when a large percentage of your players clearly cannot properly walk the line between fun and danger, why should they let them dance like a cracked out robot for scoring one touchdown?
Nobody cares about pro basketball, so blah blah blah Kobe Bryant blah blah moving on…
In light of these dark clouds hanging over (unfortunately) the two most popular sports in America, the NHL has remained frustratingly quiet on the sports landscape. One NHL player, Sean Hill (who? … exactly) has failed the NHL’s drug policy under the same stringent regulations that the other sports adhere to. The only tragedies involving hockey players are the result of on-ice incidents; in other words, our unfortunate events come from playing the game, not extracurricular activities.
Does no one else see the marketing opportunity here? I’m not saying we need to parade around showing off how much more drama-free we are (“We’re mean, we’re clean, get used to it?”); rather, just getting the word out in general will suffice just fine! You want star power America? We’ve got Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Jarome Iginla, and a wealth of other players who are not only phenomenal athletes, they’re humble guys who stay out of trouble. People can discover that part for themselves if they’re so inclined. Just grabbing an increased presence on the sports radar will do just fine for the NHL.
More commercials, more partnerships, and hopefully one day, a deal with a REAL television network, instead of one who cares more about fishing and bull riding. The fact that the sport is clean will market itself once the casual sports fan start actually paying attention in the first place.
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