Toronto Maple Leafs' Tyler Bozak Did Nothing Wrong with His Halloween Costume

Here we go again.

A hyper sensitive news media in a market starving for hockey news blowing a story way out of proportion.

As if Toronto's sports media hadn't been overwhelming and hyper-critical already, they've now decided to delve into the realm or what is morally right or wrong.

Last night, Maple Leafs center Tyler Bozak dressed up as Michael Jackson for Halloween.

The problem many have with his decision is that he elected to wear face paint to make himself black.

Cue the media hounds in Toronto.

First up we have the National Post''s Sean Fitz-Gerald, who not only wrote about the incident, but decided to include an in-depth interview with a professor at Queen's University as to why it was wrong.

Next, we had the Globe and Mail who took a more objective approach, just reporting what happened and not offering their opinion.

This may not seem so bad, but by reporting something so trivial, it makes it seem like something big happened.

When two national media outlets decide to report on Bozak's Halloween costume, people are going to assume it's a big deal.

Bozak, however, insists that it was simply a tribute to an artist he greatly admired.

That's a tribute to one of my fave artists. For anyone saying its racist is crazy!

— Tyler Bozak (@Bozie42) October 31, 2012

Considering it's Halloween, I personally don't see what all the belly-aching is about.

The politics of it, however, will be discussed in other venues and I'll leave the political pundits take care of that.

Where I take issue with the media trying to make this into news comes on a sports front.

This kind of thing epitomizes why players no longer want to play in Toronto.

In the days where Toronto was making the playoffs on a regular basis, players were willing to tolerate the intense scrutiny that the media tended to pour on.

Not to mention, it was usually focused solely on their performance on the ice.

Now Toronto is a team who hasn't made the playoffs in years, the media is still just as aggressive as it ever was and they've even started analyzing and critiquing your moves off of the ice.

With a salary cap now in place, player can look just about anywhere and make the money they desire. The tradition of postseason hockey in Toronto is a fading memory.

So why would any player want to play here?

If Toronto is to ever become a contender again, they will not only need to develop their own prospects, but being able to sign a big name player in free agency is a must.

Toronto's sports media needs to take a step back and stick to reporting on hockey.

Let the editorial sections of the newspaper deal with the occasional off-ice hiccup.

Follow @LeafsWriterBR