Think the Media Is To Blame for the Toronto Maple Leafs' Woes? Think Again

Are you as sick and tired of hearing how the media in Toronto breaks players as I am?

It just isn't so. There is no more evidence of this fact than by looking around the world at other top-market teams.

Do the New York Yankees suffer from being the main market in Major League Baseball?

Hell no.

Instead, they simply win championship after championship, 27 in all in 40 appearances in the World Series. There doesn't appear to be any media issues with the Yankees.

Now you might be jumping up and down arguing that MLB has no real salary cap and the Yankees simply buy the pennant every year. You’d be right, but isn't that what it was like in Toronto just a few short years ago? So the salary cap makes no difference on whether the media puts too much pressure on players to win in a particular market either.

What about the NFL? Roger Goodell's league has a salary cap like the NHL does. How do the biggest markets in football fare?

New York, New England and Pittsburgh are a few good markets whose teams are under plenty of scruitny, and none of those squads have issues with bringing home the Lombardi trophy now and again. There is no media curse in those cities that comes down like a hammer, preventing players on those teams from performing well.

In fact, it’s the opposite. NFL players seek out these teams and prefer to play for them. If you don’t believe me, just look at Eli Manning as an example, as he refused to play with the team that drafted him, the small-market San Diego Chargers, and was subsequently traded to the New York (football) Giants. No, the big markets in the NFL have no media issues that prevent them from winning.

OK, then, surely basketball suffers the same media hounding in the big markets that Toronto suffers in hockey.

Teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat have all been perennial cellar-dwellers for years and can’t get any good talent to play for them.

Not!

You could make a case for the New York Knicks, though. They haven’t made a playoff appearance for nine years. They have only won the NBA title twice, in 1970 and 1973, but have been to the finals eight times in their 54-year history.

Though not quite as poor as the recent Leafs record, the Knicks are known as the team of futility in the NBA. The one difference is that they don’t seem to have a problem getting big-name players to play for them. Nor do the fans cry that the pressure cooker that is New York media has kept their team from performing to their potential. No, the Knicks fans usually scream at the coach, GM or ownership for their woes.

So what about the biggest sport in the world, soccer? Major League Soccer (MLS) is really the minor leagues, so let's look at the big boys of soccer.

Teams like Manchester United, Barcelona, AC Milan and others are perennial winners. In fact, soccer, of all sports, has the most consistency with their big clubs. Unlike North American sports, world soccer club teams don’t really rise and fall. Instead, the minor teams develop talent that the bigger clubs buy. In this way, the big clubs remain big and the smaller clubs remain small.

I can’t say I know every team’s complete history, but I have never heard of a soccer team complaining that the hometown media had a negative historical impact on their players that prevented them from performing to their potential.

Take a look at Liverpool in the English Premiere League (EPL) this year. Liverpool is arguably the most storied franchise in England, and this year they are fighting to keep from getting relegated. (For those of you who don’t follow European soccer, the bottom three teams at the end of the year get kicked out the Premier League and must play the next year in a lower division. That would be like saying the Leafs are so poor that they must play in the AHL next season.)

If you haven’t already guessed, this is a huge deal for Liverpool fans. Aside from being outright embarrassing, being relegated means a whole lot less money for the club and no possibility of playing in any European tournaments. The loss of income translates into less money to spend on player salaries that in turn lowers the quality of the team. Not only that, but big-name players will more likely leave a team that has been relegated and look for a new top club to play for.

In this sense, being relegated can ruin a club for years and years. Yet with all of their trouble this year, no one associated with Liverpool is blaming the local media for any part of the team’s woes. In fact, the media has played a significant role in making positive changes to the side. One could argue that the media helped apply pressure to get Liverpool’s manager sacked and a replacement put in to help save the team. 

Media scrutiny is simply part of the life of a professional athlete.

I am just not a believer that playing in the hockey Mecca that is Toronto for the Maple Leafs is any more media-strenuous than playing in any other big sports market around the world.

It’s just an excuse, and a lame one at that, to obfuscate the real problems that have faced the Leafs for years. That reason being that from Harold Ballard to the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, the Leafs have had a long string of terrible ownership.