Let me make something clear: I would have NO interest in watching the basement-dwelling Stars play against a team located in a desolate place like Calgary. But you better believe that I will check out this matchup the next time it happens, as I want to see Dion Phaneuf beat the daylights out of Avery. Or vice-versa, I don't really care. I want a fight. I want to tell my friends about it the next day at work.
The Sharks have the cup wrapped up, so please give me some other reason to watch this sport! A flat-faced Sean Avery would be delightful, thank you.
I hope that the next time a team owner or NHL official uses the word "integrity" to describe their goals, they think about the cost of that very concept. Integrity is swell. But not at the cost of millions, perhaps billions, in future revenue.
Sean Avery will be famous, and therefore rich, well after his undistinguished career reaches its conclusion.
I can't wait to see what other stunts NHL players pull when they realize this truth.
25 comments Last one added 5 months ago — Leave a Comment
Daniel Arouchian 7 months ago
Nice read,but there's something i don't understand
"Sean Avery, a below-average hockey player on a lackluster team, is about to become the most famous athlete on ice." What did he ever do for the sport of hockey to earn that title? Apart from being an annoyance for the league and even the teams he played for, what did he accomplish?
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Bryan Goldberg 7 months ago
That's the whole point... people don't just pay to see great hockey, they pay to see interesting people. Would you be normally interested in watching a Stars/Flames game on TV? Maybe. Would you want to see Dion and Sean fight? I would pay to see that!
Even though I care about the integrity of sports, I also care about the leagues succeeding. The NHL is in a perpetual state of trouble from being a bad business. Maybe it needs a little bit of Sean Avery to shake it up. Even better, what if a player with real talent became a tabloid regular? Cheezy, yes, but it makes the league rich.
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Was El-Halabi 7 months ago
I don't think that I necessarily agree with your assessment of Avery. Granted, he's no sniper - however, he fulfills an important role on a hockey team. He's an agitator, and someone that's worth more than goals. What's more than that, he pots about 15 goals a year, as well as putting up his fair number of assists. I think the important question is this - is the disharmony that he causes in the dressing room worth what you get on the ice?
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Zander Freund 7 months ago
Avery might be a piece of crap, but Bryan's got a point: the NHL has always struggled to attract mainstream attention, and this could be financially beneficial for them.
The worst thing Gary Bettman could tell Avery during their chat is to "act with integrity" considering all he did was some old-fashioned trash talking. It's simply hilarious that a player would get suspended for saying "sloppy seconds" in a sport where ramming other men against glass walls as hard as you can and punching each other in the face is standard procedure.
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Daniel Arouchian 7 months ago
I agree that the NHL needs the attention but personally think that personal attacks are not the way to go.
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Long John Silver 7 months ago
Z
one is physical though, the other one is verbal, are they comparable ?
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Long John Silver 7 months ago
its like -
calling someone a bastard (in more graphical terms) - and punching someone are two nasty, yet differnt things right ?>
do i make sense ?
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Zander Freund 7 months ago
True, they are different Long...but if anything the physical threat is worse, no?
"Stick and stones" right? You punish the sticks and not the stones...doesn't make sense to me.
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Randy Medina 5 months ago
I'm with Bryan and Zander on this one. For better or worse you need to market your villains and heroes and the NHL does neither and then gives itself far too much credit for playing a game outdoors every year while America is sleeping off their New Years.
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Daniel Arouchian 7 months ago
Bryan,of course I would want to see Dion fight Sean :)
Thank you for the explanation :)
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Ken Armer 7 months ago
My issue is, Avery wasn't lying. Maybe Bettman should suspend Avery's mom for teaching him not to lie.
Nice article Bryan, I always enjoy your take.
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Long John Silver 7 months ago
i guess money can buy integrity - but not the other way around
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Rob Ellis 7 months ago
Bryan,
You have succeeded in proving that a comment like this would bring more interest to the NHL and sell more tickets. I will give you that.
Now maybe I can help you look at it from another angle. Millions of kids watch hockey and can be seen in their driveways emulating their heroes everyday. They watch those heroes play and listen to every word they say.
I don't know if you're a parent, but if you are would you want your 11year-old son watching his "hero" refer to women as "sloppy seconds?"
Every player in professional sports needs to accept the fact that they are a role model and should act accordingly.
Making derogatory comments toward women is not appropriate and should not be tolerated by the league or the club. I don't care if it was done to generate interest in a game. This is the NHL not the WWE!
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Sterling Eby 5 months ago
Yeah millions of kids do watch hockey.
But note if you watch about half of the hockey teams, they are full of goons running out on the ice and getting into fights. Like Jody Shelley, Parker, Neil, Tucker. So many others. Role Models eh? Cuz thats the kind of hockey everybody likes. Right?
So to pin something Avery's sloppy seconds comment was bad. Sean Avery made a mistake yes. Give him a 3 day suspension and get it over with. hes been gone like 10+ games now or something. This is rediculous
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David Allan 7 months ago
I am not buying the publicity is good publicity arguement. My mom knows who Kobe is too, because she associates him with a trial on Colorado. By the way she has yet to run out and watch a Lakers game or buy a Kobe jersey becaue of it. So that I agree the NHL needs to do a better job at marketing its stars. I would disagree that showing up on Perez Hilton's website is way of going about it. Your statement is it sells. I'd like to believe that fringe NBA fans aren't buying Kobe's jersey because of a rape allegation. And if they are, then the NBA can have them.
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troy testa 7 months ago
This is well written and maybe I'm missing the point, but Sean Avery is a disgrace to the Dallas Stars, his teammates and the fans here in Dallas. Its the sean Avery show all day all the time and nobody here gives a sheyat. if it wasn't for his four year $15 mil contract, he would never play for the Stars again. In fact, don't be surprised if Brett Hull loses his GM job because of this. Hully stuck his neck out for Avery and that awful guy just lopped it off.
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JYOUNG 7 months ago
I find it hilarious that you say you would want to see Avery and Phaneuf fight. First of all, even if it did happen, Dion would ruin him. Second, it would NEVER happen because Avery is a sissy. He agitates and then runs away. Why would he go fight someone the size of Phaneuf when he's too much of a whimp to fight guys as tiny as David Clarkson on the Devils? Nice try, but Avery is a little girl that needs to grow up and play the game. Hockey is about skating, skill with the puck, etc. Not calling people names and being a whimp. He's a disgrace to the sport and doesn't belong playing if all he can do is annoy people. I wouldn't be surprised if he was banned for life after his next offense. His hearing with Bettman is a clear sign that the league has had enough of him. Had this been a more serious offense, it's very possibly he wouldn't be playing ever again.
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Matt Eichel 7 months ago
I totally agree that Avery is something the NHL needs when it comes to exposure and getting interesting people into the game. But the way he goes about it is to be blunt - obnoxious and a disgrace to the league. Whatever happened to players who were men and not a bunch of spineless chatterbox soap operas.
The Dallas Stars are the worst in the West right not and Avery isn't helping their situation. If I'm an NHL GM, there's no way in heaven or hell that I would ever sign Avery. He's spineless, never fights heavy-weights when they want to drop the gloves, but does his little rag-doll impression.
Avery makes me sick. But for the NHL and their goof of a commissioner, he's a dream come true. That's why the NHL is in such bad shape - because we've got total clowns like Bettman and Avery dictating to the fans what's good and what's bad and how the NHL should entertain.
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Jeremy Wark 7 months ago
Hockey heroes are created in one way, playoff accomplishments. Team rivalries are created the same way.
I could give a rat's ass if a Hollywood mom knows the name of a hockey player, seriously. As a gate-driven league, every team has it's group of hard-core fans. Put an entertaining team on the ice and you'll create a lot more buzz in your community than a character like Sean Avery.
Something tells me that the sale of Avery jersey' ain't going anywhere anytime soon. I also don't see any team sponsors lining up to "cash in" from the controversy.
Jer
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Jeff Badger 7 months ago
Nice argument Bryan,
I've made a similar case on another site. You're basic premise is correct.
Let me first say that I don't condone what he said. It was in poor taste, but I'm referring to the words he chose, which are why this is an issue in the first place.
Sean Avery is 1 good publicist away from being the best thing to ever happen to the NHL. Problem is, he acts as his own publicist and he isn't very good at it.
If Avery had said "Left-overs" or "Cast-offs" instead of "Sloppy Seconds," and it hadn't been so premeditated, the League would not have gotten involved, and we would have seen Phaneuf run him over repeatedly on Tuesday night.
Yes, a lot of people, me included, don't like what Avery does a lot of the time. (it would help if he would fight a bit more to at least show a spine - then he'd get a little more respect). But that's the point, as Bryan points out, look how much attention he gets for himself and the league. Yes, some of it is negatitive attention, but some of it is good, and draws new fans who only want to see what he might do next, and could end up becoming fans of the game. This is exactly what the league needs.
What Avery is TRYING to do could be very good for the game. However, he needs to tip-toe along the line - this time he crossed it with his choice of words. You simply can't say something like that on television while you are representing your team or the league. If he'd said it on the street, that might be a different issue. In the dressing room at impromtu presser is practically grounds for dismissal - it certainly would be in any other profession.
On that note - anybody notice Avery is no longer on the roster on the Dallas Stars official website? Looks like Hicks is't kidding.
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Rafal Ladysz 7 months ago
San Jose has the cup wrapped up? Easy there, the only team they've beaten in the postseason in the past few years is Nashville. Then, a second round exit came.
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Spencer Callaghan 7 months ago
Being a lively personality is one thing.
Being a misogynistic ass is quite another.
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Reed Kaufman 7 months ago
I like the fact that Sean Avery tries to point out that the NHL needs improvements in marketing. I also like the fact that he tries to stir the pot and create a little more emotion in situations. But the way in which he goes about doing this is off the mark. You can't simply say that Jarome Iginla is a boring player when he is better at every facet of the game than you are. And you definitely can't try to incite bad blood by insulting someone who's not on an opposing team or in the league altogether.
Many people would make these same arguments about Terrell Owens. Though not recently, he has been in the news all the time, and it usually hasn't been good publicity. I think his thought processes are not that dissimilar to Avery's- that he thinks he is helping his team or league by generating publicity, but really he is just making everyone cringe and ask, 'Why?'
Sean Avery is becoming the Terrell Owens of the NHL.
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Bryan Goldberg 6 months ago
I agree, his methods stink.
I don't like Avery, and think he's a moron.
But one area where he somehow sees the light is on Marketing. The NHL sucks at it, and the Avery scandal should like a fire under their asses... if the only way for the NHL to make international headlines is through a lewd comment, what does that say about the league as a business?
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Rob Ellis 7 months ago
You can be a "character" and still do it with a little bit of class. Jeremy Roenick is a perfect example of that. He was outspoken and said what was on his mind but you would never hear him commenting on something that had absolutely nothing to do with the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKXZklI35s4&feature=related
I wish he had've played in Toronto for just one season.
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