What if we tried to make Pittsburgh not look stupid & petty tonight for the HBO 24/7 camera’s and national TV? Lemieux once got a standing ovation in Philadelphia when he showed up.
Today all I see and hear is reporters all over the radio, news print and social media telling me about how I should boo Jaromir Jagr tonight. I will not. Here is the truth… Jaromir Jagr was dying alive in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was trading every player around Jagr who made more than league minimum and was keeping Jagr around to sell tickets.
I’ve always been one that gets confused about how Heroes and Villains work in the Pittsburgh sports world. Jaromir Jagr didn’t say a word when the team was hurting for money and he wasn’t receiving a pay check. Mario Lemieux sued the team and forced them into bankruptcy because he wasn’t getting paid even though he wasn’t playing.
Jagr got upset that the Penguins traded away all of the talent except him, and said he was dying alive because of it. At that point of his career, he loved hockey more than money. The Pittsburgh media turned what he said into a huge media bonanza and chased Jagr out of town. It was at that point in Jagr career he learned the hard way that the NHL was a business and nothing else.
Here is how it breaks down to the Pittsburgh media:
Jaromir doesn’t say a word when he is not getting paid but is unhappy the Pittsburgh Penguins are making their team uncompetitive = VILLIAN
Mario sues the Penguins and forces them into bankruptcy when he’s not getting paid then tried to move the team to Kansas and or sell it to Blackberry owner Jim Balsillie who was moving the team to Hamilton = HERO
If it is all the same with all the ignorant media & fans out there, I will be cheering Jaromir Jagr tonight, he won five scoring titles and 2 Stanley Cups for the Penguins right up until they screwed him. Of course I will only be cheering before they drop the puck, depending on what he does after that, I may boo him.
Amen, brother!
You definitely put a different And interesting spin on how everyones perspective is a bit skewed, but think about it. Which one do you trust? did you really think Mario would move the pens? Jagr lies all the time and gets caught in the lies.
Without getting into the Jagr villain-Lemieux hero thing (don’t agree with you, Phil, Mario saved hockey in Pittsburgh) the one article I regret writing for PenguinPoop was my dagger-laced commentary about Jagr spurning the Pens offer in favor of the Flyers. Whether his decision was noble or not, he didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.
They say there’s a thin line between love and hate. That’s especially true here in the ‘Burgh, where we take sports heroes into our hearts. Coming from the Czech Republic, I’m not sure Jagr ever understood that, or even understands it today. Maybe he doesn’t care.
Is Jagr a prima donna? Yes. Was he the best teammate and captain the Pens ever had? Not by a long shot. Still, I agree with Phil. It’s time to take the high road and appreciate him for what he is—a truly great hockey player who provided Penguins fans with a boatload of wonderful hockey memories over the years.
Rick, I’m guessing though that your commentary on Jagr’s summer decision was written from an emotional spot though. Not as a writer who later sat back and analyzed things and assessed the impact of what was written. That emotional spot, that passion, is where the fans are booing from.
Krundle,
Does this mean you would boo Lemieux if he made another comeback???
I might, but not because I dislike Lemieux, only because he shouldn’t. I was just making a point that to boo a guy because he was unhappy that the team was being dismantled seems wrong to me. Jagr was the Captain of the team and told it like it was and nobody wanted to hear it. Lemieux made some poor decisions and everyone forgave him. Jagr deserves respect for what he did for hockey in Pittsburgh.
But, what about the disrespect he showed Mario and the franchise this summer?