Last night, the right wing owner of the Philly Flyers had Sarah Palin drop the puck to open the game and the hockey season in Philly. It's a shameless ploy by owner Ed Snider to promote his right wing agenda. Luckily, he was met with less than an enthusiastic reception. It's his team, so he can do what he wants, just like George Steinbrenner can with the Yanks (much to my dismay), but what was shocking to me was that a long time MSG sports host called Snider and the Flyers out for it.
Al Trautwig hosts the show along with former players Ron Duguay, Dave Maloney, Ken Daneyko and Butch Goring on MSG and he had this to say on their new "Hockey Night Live" (rough transcript)
Trautwig: I want to hear all your opinions before we start. I just want to let you know that every email is on my side, but what happened tonight before the Ranger/Philadelphia game was an absolute disgrace.
Q: What happened, Al?
Trautwig: They brought out the Vice Presidential candidate...
Duguay: Oh, look how hot she is.
Trautwig: Stop it. Stop it..
Daneyko: I am a Sarah Palin fan.
Trautwig: I don't care. Hear me out. This is disrespectful of the Philadelphia Flyer fans and to the National Hockey league.
No, no, no, everyone that walks into the room, Kenny, what's the two things that kill a good party? Religion and politics. So let's say every fan walking into this building has stated their love for the Flyers tonight, let's say it's 50-50 and the election is close. Now they're presented with a VP candidate, an almost endorsement by the Flyers. And some are uncomfortable with that. Why should they be put in that position? Why don't they just put rabbis and priests at the door and say come on over to our side?
Daneyko: The Flyers have that right. I think people are a little more intelligent in this country than that to worry about whether Sarah Palin is dropping the puck or not. She's a celebrity nowadays....
Trautwig: Why would you put a negative mojo into let's say half the arena, a third of the arena? Why would you want to do that on opening night?
Duguay: But Al, all this is about entertainment. Hockey is entertainment. She's entertainment. She's the hockey mom of the States.
Trautwig: To Democratic fans, she's not entertainment. Fingers on the chalkboard.
Sure Duguay, we're electing a VP because you think she's hot. Anyway, send an email to Al and tell him thank you for stating the obvious. Let us enjoy the games in peace.
doesn't work
Sure it works...
The mainstream media is mad because an integral part of mediatainment
complex (pro sports) is used to support a member of the "corporate" party?
Absurd.
Why not? You think pro sports fans and owners are any different for the
millions of other selfish and stupid American consumers?
Addicted to hot cars, sleek cellphones and the boob tube.
90% of the people I know can't name 3 congresspersons, but they can
give analysis, in minute detail on their sports "heros".
I got my letters in high school and on the field on or the mat,
our hometown fans cheered their hometown athletes. It's natural and
good. But professional and college athletics is not about family or
community. Half the Flyer's aren't even American let alone home town
heros. There is no tangible connection between the pro teams of today
and their fans other than the fans had to pay a rich guy top build
their new stadium and then overpay for shitty seats because the good
seats are reserved for our corporate masters. Moyers says it better
than I can www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxaLvc6Arpg
getting the 404
it's all about "entertainment".
Hermetically sealed fresh and packaged in plastic wrap for your leisure enjoyment.
Quicktime download works
Since when is a vp candidate entertainment? When did our election process become entertainment. I don't get it.
Okay folks tonight we got a really big show so let's forget those mundane "socialist" or "liberal" projects such as roads, highways, ports, bridges, police departments, fire departments, and public schools to educate everyone, not just the elite in society we here by present . . .
Sarah Palin
Potvin Sucks!
And I think this was great! It was a ton of fun to boo that witch and wave my sign and hear the remarks from the people (ironically, everyone working at the arena loved my go home palin sign, most of the negitive comments were from people seated in the lower level) in the arena.
And it did bring a ton of coverage to a hockey game. There is no such thing as bad press...
So, who won? Was it a plus for the Flyers?
christ, you guys pelted santa with snow balls
roudiest fans in the nation...in all sports
Doogs never was too bright - forgive him, lol
Don't say no religion or politics, then bring in Palin...sorry but as a vet, women and mom...I was for the well deserved booing! She and McCain are the first party running that have both been convicted of abuse of power...that's a fact.
As the owner was obviouly trying to shove his politics down everyones throats and the fans spit her back up. Yes she's cute, but voting for cute or any one issue is like aborting the chance for the life of our great country!
People, please.
Just because you don't like her politics (and I don't either) it doesn't not mean you need to rail against her as a person. She is known for being a hockey mom. She is a popular at this time, experiencing what I hope will be limited to 15 minutes of fame. She dropped a puck at a hockey game. BIG DEAL! This is not part of a right wing conspiracy to steal votes of hockey fans. Get over it.
But this is Bushes Murica'
Where everyone basically wants to kill each other in one form or another.
The Uniter!
She went out there and stuck her puss out for political points...it backfired! Maybe if her Evangelical, right wing numbnut base had a hockey team down South, they would have given her a hero's welcome! Such was not the case here...a lot of people in PA are sick of the Republicans and when there out there on a night to enjoy their sport and get away from politics, the last thing they need is some assh*le like Sarah Plain trying to score polticial points by crashing their prty! Give me a break!
the drug-addled enlistee?
the pregnant 17-year old high school dropout?
the baby?
the girls?
she even lies about her kids' sports activities. none of her kids even play hockey!
the drug-addled enlistee?
the pregnant 17-year old high school dropout?
the baby?
the girls?
she even lies about her kids' sports activities. none of her kids even play hockey!
Palin dressed Piper, 7, in a Flyers jersey in an attempt to deflect the boos, then said, "How dare they boo Piper!" I cannot believe how this woman uses her children as props and expects the rest of us to think she is a good mother. The woman will stop at nothing in her relentless ambition to become vice president. I already expressed my displeasure to the Flyers, a team I have never liked and now have even less reason to do so.
Ever had a religious nut knock on your door? They bring their kiddies so they won't get sworn at. Doesn't work at my house. I swear at them anyway.
Yes, I believe how she can use her kids as shields. Lots of religious wackos do the same thing.
Extreme right Christians? Try this (with a footnote to my oldest son who actually did this!). Straight face this but tell them that you don't have time to discuss religion right now, but you would like them to come back tonight to discuss their religious beliefs right after your goat sacrifice.
You will never see them again.
Mormons, Don't answer the door, and call the police and tell them that two strange young men all dressed in black were just at your door.
You will never see them again.
be hockey to come home to after the 12 hour day blowing leaves.
Who's the fancy boy on the left? Looks like somebody made a wrong turn at Studio 54.
Apparently he never left the 1970's
not only was duguay a mediocre player, his taste in women is apparently mediocre as well, I mean if you really look closely at her, she's not a mutt, but she's a long way from hot. daneyko? another mediocre player who apparently can't think above that level.
Mother Figure
I wouldn't get angry at Duguay. How many political commentators have given equally retarded opinions? Why should we expect dumb members of the sports media to have a more intelligent conversation about politics than dumb members of the political media?
When Duduay played for the Detroit he was a slug who thought with his pecker and now it seems that some things never change!
will save us.
"She's just like us. She even said so!"
I'm glad that Flyers fan at least had the sense to boo her. And I'm glad that someone on the hockey show had the decency to call this out for the disgrace that it was.
As an aside, our fantasy hockey league this year is named the "Lipstick on a Puck" league.
Lipstick on a Puck. Classic.
Gahhhh! Sarah Palin is not HOT!
Yeah until the makeup comes off
I'm not a sports fan, but I think politics should be left out of it. Politicians should simply stay way and leave it for fans to enjoy regardless of their political persuasion.
Aside from that, how despicable of Palin to use her daughter as a shield when she showed up knowing she was going to get booed. What kind of parent would do such a thing?
We have a evangelical running for VP she'll do whatever it takes to protect her own ass.
"What kind of parent would do such a thing?"
The kind reaching out for straws. Bet she practiced all day long, near a quiet stream, on how to drop a puck.
Only talent she has is reading teleprompters, like bush, and all the space between her ears is taken up by hidden earpieces.
Only inbreds and Joe "five packs"(inflation) understand and can relate to her.
This isn't even a metaphorical shield, either. Knowing how hockey fans have a history of throwing stuff onto the ice in celebration or outrage... this was no doubt a way to keep people from throwing things at her (might hit the daughter!), or to let the kid "take one for" the campaign, so everyone can feel sorry for a hurt child (and, thus her vote-hungry mommy).
You forgot the best part of the night John, 4-3 Blueshirts. Let's go Rangers. Let's hope they don't get any more 4 goal leads though.
What's hot about her? She's shrill, got a voice like nails down a chalkboard, corrupt, ignorant, a flagrant liar and a religious nut job.
Calling a Middle Aged woman "She's Hot" is popular among boys who were severely neglected by their own mothers in 99% of the cases.
Anything to get the Mommy Love they missed during childhood.
Simpletons.
Her stupidity is turn off.
.
"Look how hot she looks..."
"I'm a Sarah Palin fan! I lover her. I think it's awesome..."
"Don't be Keith Olbermann of the Liberal..."
"... She's a, ah, celebrity now-a-days..."
"This is all about entertainment. Hockey's entertainment, she's entertainment. She's the Hockey mom of the States."
"It's a good looking face..."
Can we agree, these men are sexist pigs? What matters to them is the stroking of their base instincts...
The only one with some whits about himself is Al.
I mean, this was a sporting event...
... NOT a political event. Stunt, yes...
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
Me thinks fancy boy is trying to prove his heterosexuality just a little too much.
Trautwig seems to get the reality of the situation. The other slobbering jackasses who were thinking with their little head---not so much. How unprofessional and crude of them. They need to go back to the monkey cage at the zoo.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
Disco Stu and those other 2 clods are consuming valuable oxygen that could be used by more enlightened beings.
Tried to thank Mr. Trautwig but the send/submit button wouldn't work---
the drooling jocks conflate the 'entertainment' value of hockey--and of course, by extension, all 'pro' sport--with the political spectacle. The really interesting thing is that they see utterly no distinction between the two. Neither does Palin, of course.
Gee when a Gooper has to sit through an lib appearance or opinion in a public venue, they suffer in noble, tolerant silence. Don't they?
Also who's the Bon Jovi knockoff? There's a dork who deserves a President Palin with her mitts on his investments.
Missing the point. This is a woman who is a candidate for vice-president, politicizing the game - which, as a season opener, should be all about hockey. Not an ambitious trollop with pretensions of being 'America's hockey mom' or any other nonsense.
Don't look for me anytime soon at any Flyers or Sixers games.
People who say it's Ed Snyder's team and he can do what he wants probably don't understand that he's playing his teams in facilities paid for by Philly taxpayers.
I live in Philly, I go to games, and putting Palin out there was a slap in the face for everybody.
I don't know anybody, left or right, who liked this idea and the way that Snyder tried to pass it off as 'non-political' is typical republican condescending horseshit.
Go Fightins!
Yes, and that's another thing taxpayers should refuse to do - fund anymore billion dollar stadia and arenas for privately-owned professional sports teams.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
It wasn't to promote Snider's right-wing agenda (or her own, certainly not McCain's, I swear, she'd be having a great time running for the veep slot if it weren't for Johnny boy bringing the party to a screeching halt). No, it's not about promoting an agenda so much as providing a smokescreen, a little sacrificial lamb for the non-wingnuts to balance out the evil karma McCain/Palin's been generating. At all their campaign rallies, people have been shouting out sick twisted s**t about Obama. So they send Palin and her li'l girl out to Philly where they're booed and ridiculed and now Fox News can get their nipples in a twist about just HOW WRONG it was for a vice-presidential candidate to be treated to unjustly, and in front of her daughter no less. End decision: Aaaahhhhh, they all do it, so the racist crap/smears/death threats GOP rabble-rousers spew is now negated by 30 seconds of booing by hockey fans in a non-political event. There. As far as the GOP is concerned, the scales are balanced and we can go back to talking about what's REALLY important: Why Obama won't fess up to the extent of his relationship with Ayres. Oh, sure, he says, he's come clean, but that's what someone with something to hide WOULD say, ya know?
And so it goes...
Is this guy saying that it was disrespectful to hockey that Palin was there? Or is he saying that it was disrespectful for people to boo her or something?
To anyone who thinks Sarah is hot should remember her nickname is Barracuda. If you saw the movie, "War of the Roses", just don't forget the munch job Kathleen Turner did on Michael Douglas. Ouch!
Ed Snider is just another warmongering coward ( Korean War draft dodger) who wants war for Israel. He should grow a balls first.
Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan openly endorsed George W Bush during the 2004 football season. It turned me off. But at least he didn't do it before or during a Broncos game at Mile High stadium which was built with taxpayer money.
I don't know much about the Flyer arena but if it was built with the help of taxpayers and the owner uses the venue during a sports event to promote his politics than that is unethical. It is unfair to the team's fans who don't share Snider's agenda. It is the National Hockey League not the Republican Hockey League. But then again, since when are republicans ethical?
Wow that chump Ron Duguay likes her because she's hot? I get the feeling thats why McGoo chose the brainless twit in the first place. Forget her stance on important issues, we should all vote for her because she's hot! But then sadly I think of the simpleton GOP voters and it all makes perfect sense.
She's not the hockey mom of my state!! She's not the anything of my state!!
that's what Duguay looks like. What an idiot.
Hey, Duguay, you fucking adolescent who played a child's game for millions of dollars, you belong behind a Zamboni for the rest of your life watering rinks at 5 a.m. not giving us your views on how entertaining a self-loathing, bee-hived, deluded, lying, Raptured, pre-scientific pinhead might be. Fuck you again and take your hockey stick and shove it up your ass!
Don't beat around the bush... tell us what you really think!
that made me laugh right out loud, Neo!
Awkward. Trautwig, stick to the between-period interviews. I think a funnier counter-argument would have been, "For the Rangers 2009-10 home opener, Heidi Fleiss will be dropping the puck, signifying that the NHL is desperate enough to whore itself to get any attention whatsoever from the country in which it's failing."
Hockey mom qualifies her for the VP?
This nation is so screwed.
Even a dry drunk that crashed our economy has not made a huge portion of the American population to WAKE UP!!
Duguay wears a 1970s leisure suit and that haircut, and he thinks he knows what's hot?
gee! and i thought HANK steinbrenner had control now...
or, i thought GEORGE was DEAD!!
I hope that guy speaking really does apply what he's saying to religion too because here in NY at Yankee games they make you sing God Bless America...can't even get up to leave or else the cops stop you. Bad mojo, YES! Prayers at high school games, under god, in god we trust...it's all related I hope people see this.
And notice that one block head guy saying that if you agree with that othe guy that you don't have the intelligence of those who agree with him? That's the same argument style folk use when the topic is religion in sports instead of politics.
If you didn't expect Palin and her "Hockey Mom" persona to be involved in a pro hockey event at some point, you're pretty naive - any NHL city but Philly though, as those Philly fans boo everyone, including Santa Claus.
Still, I don't have a problem with idea of Palin dropping the ceremonial puck at an NHL game, just as I didn't have a problem with Barack Obama making a cameo during Monday Night Football in December 2006 to support his hometown Chicago Bears (which I'm sure pissed off partisan right-wing football fans everywhere at the time).
So those of you in the liberal blogosphere and sports world that are upset about this, you're a biased hypocrite unless you were upset by Obama appearing on MNF as well. Spare me your partisan outrage. This is not worth bitching about.
Watch for it, Glenn Beck will blame the occurrence of this event on the New Deal.
Glen Beck is "America's Idiot"
This video adds one more reason why I have a negative opinion of Scotty Gomez. It started with Mr. Gomez selling himself as a television commercial whore. He would appear in commercials for GCI (an Alaska telephone/cable company) acting all arrogant and smug, trying to make money on the fact that he "used to be a Alaskan", now a NHL player. The first commercial I saw him in I thought "Who is this jerk, and why is he on the television"?
Soon there were more GCI commercials with him in it. Like the one that he proudly appears with a freshly shaven head, and wearing a business suit, in which he says that he is the same old Scotty Gomez. Well he wasn't lying because he never stopped being a corporate whore. Seeing him almost throw himself at Sarah Palin's feet doesn't surprise me at all. Maybe he is hoping that she will be able to steal the election, so he can be her commercial whore also, opps I mean press secretary. lol
I am still in a foreign land and on borrowed time on this computer...someone tell me the Flyers lost. :-D
The Rangers won 4-3 over Philthy. Now for someone to break Danny Briere in half for running Valiquette.
Trautwig is absolutely correct. I'm no hockey fan; however, if I were at any sporting event and they had the candidate of the political party I was opposed to participate in that fashion, I would be highly offended. I would likely even walk out. It would put such a damper on my enthusiasm. It was rude and inconsiderate, and was clearly an endorsement. Isn't this part of Palin's problem. She's achieved celebrity status ONLY because she's an attractive woman running for vp, not because she's a competent qualified woman running for the job she seeks.
Happens to show just how crazy the Republican party is:
http://www.ronnierayjenkins.com/topics/educat...
This is what happens, Al, when you try to discuss politics with a round table of morons. Oh yeah, she's hot...snicker, snicker, Ron, now go take a shower and get a brain.
Can someone please explain why Sarah Palin is a "hockey mom to the atates"? Because she said so?? If she watched games like she watches those kids of hers than I don't believe that she ever saw 3 periods of hockey played. When was she this hockey mom? Before her political career? For whom? The eldest son before he ran away from home for a year or the eldest daughter before she started screwing the third line? Or was she driving the prop kids to the rink each morning at 5 am...I don't buy the hockey mom story just like I don't buy the other shit she is shoveling.
John, with all due respect I think you're reaching here when you admonish a guy like Ron Duguay for saying that Sarah Palin is hot. I think she's a moron as much as you do. The thing is, not only is she hot, she is the corporeal personification of those right-wing buzz words and catch phrases that permeate American political culture. So yeah, if she is elected its because she's hot and for no other reason.
Asking Ron Duguay or any other sports figure to comment on politics is like asking my Mom's dog Max to comment on politics only there's more tongue.
I agree with you on Ed Snider's decision but don't forget this is the same guy who let Bobby Clarke run amok in Philly all those years. If you ask me, the booing sent the message loud and clear.
So she is to serious VP candidates as Rush Limbaugh is to serious journalism. They are both entertainers. Not a serious candidate, an entertainer! She's Hot omg, pin-up girl for a bunch of sexually repressed closet homos and serial adulterers. So she is the Official Hockey Mom of the states? I didn't vote for her to be my Hockey Mom. What would the right say if the skate was on the other foot? Let's say for arguments sake that Obama held the coin toss for The Dallas Cowboys next week? Think they'd howl up a storm? They would claim it ruined their game when all they wanted to do was watch some football, and they'd be right.
You just got a look inside the mind of the typical republican voter. "She's hot," "She's America's Hockey Mom," and "It's entertainment."
The GOP is not a political party with members, it's a sports franchise with fans.
...red-blooded heterosexual men in North America who finds both Sarah Palin and all contact sports to be completely antithetical and unattractive to my personal sensibilities. Blech..
Fans to Sarah Palin:
Puck Off.
It is good to see that you guys don't have any interest in talking about any real issues.
Who the hell is the Stayin' Alive dude? Holy crap, he makes me want to snort a line of coke and dance the night away to the Bee Gees.
Mike Tice, then the coach of hte Minnesota Vikings, introduced George Bush at a political rally at the Target Center in October 2004, and presentned W with a Vikings jersey bearing the number "1". The Vikings were 5-1 at the time, and from that day forward Tice and the Vikings were cursed. The team lost 7 of its next 10 games, missed the playoffs in 2005, Tice was fired and the team was sold. The team has not had a winning season since, and we are cursed with a coach that makes Dick Cheney seem personable.
Beware the political campaigns of October and the sorrows of November, sports fans, you will get what you politically deserve.
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