(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Baseball is still considered America’s pastime. Football is America’s sport. Basketball has been on the rise for years. 

Still, without a Canadian Stanley Cup victory in 15 years, the NHL does not receive nearly as much media attention as the other three. It also has a much smaller fanbase.

Let us take an objective look at this. 

Baseball is slowly losing all credibility in the country. Based on this year’s All-Star game, there appears to be but one savior: Albert Pujols. He is the only superstar left that has not been directly linked to steroids or other performance enhancing drugs.  

If he is able to achieve either 62 homers or the NL triple crown, that would be a significant lift for the sport. At this point, that remains to be seen and the achievements over the last decade and a half have been shadowed by the steroid menace.

Football has taken much of the limelight from baseball, but it still has its problems. Everything from Michael Vick to Steve McNair’s death, to the myriad of problems with Cincinnati players has Commissioner Goodell pulling his hair out. 

While each of these situations have been dealt with in an appropriate manner, it stands to reason that problems in football are not isolated incidents.

Basketball:  See above football. Same reason, different players. Namely Stephon Marbury, Carmelo Anthony and Dennis Rodman.

So with all the ambiguous problems surrounding the resolution of these issues, why does the seemingly innocent NHL get no love? Three big reasons exist, among many smaller ones.

First, the media hype resulting from these incidents in other sports bolsters the recognition of the sport.  Whether good or bad, recognition is everything. Hitler may have been recognized in a bad way, but 50-plus years later, people are still talking about him. 

The NFL season hasn’t even begun, but already we’re talking about the sport due to the release of Michael Vick from house arrest. The most interesting piece of gossip from the NHL is Marian Hossa and where he would end up. Not great for the media coverage.

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