Wednesday, February 17, 2010
On the Olympic goalie mask controversy
6:05 AM | 
Posted by
Nick Mendola
WGR 550) -- At the risk of courting controversy and being told I'm "un-American" by some commenters on this site -- who apparently think observing worldwide agreements will install Osama bin Laden as President -- let me lay a few thoughts out there on the Ryan Miller/Jonathan Quick goaltie mask controversy.
As reported Tuesday, the two American goaltenders were told by both the IOC and IIHF to take certain phrases off their masks. The IOC is wary of political, commercial and personal statements in the games, though this feels hypocritical on a number of levels. Here are my takes:
-- So Ryan Miller can't paint a play-on-words of a beer slogan bearing his last name onto his mask. Big deal. It's a bit hypocritical that NBC can buy the rights to the Olympics and then sell advertising, but if Miller were getting money from the brewery bearing his name for competing in the games, it'd be wrong.
-- They also wanted Miller to take "Matt Man" off his mask. To me, this is absurd. What is this promoting besides cancer awareness and the memory of a cousin/friend? Is Latvia going to be up-in-arms because they are pro-cancer? Will Karlis Skrastins run Miller because of how much he advocates the idea of "letting people figure out they have cancer" on their own? Are they anti-doctor? It's stupid.
-- Here's what I do understand: why the IOC wanted "Support Our Troops" taken off Quick's mask. In the United States, the term "Support Our Troops" is relatively-innocuous. At its most "inflammatory," the slogan is an attempt to quell the sort of hate thrown at soldiers upon their return of an unpopular war in Vietnam. With the popularity of the war in Iraq on the decline for so long, it seems "Support Our Troops" came to the forefront to say, "Hey! Hate the game, not its players. They are serving their country."
Which is right, but flip the script. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan have athletes in these Winter Games, but if one of the Afghani tae-kwon-do competitors or Iraqi rowers in the 2008 games stitched or painted "Support Our Troops" on their uniform or boat, I think there might be some problems in America. Would they be stupid problems? Possibly, but that's life these days. I'd simply offer that the IOC doesn't want to court that drama, so it puts up pre-emptive drama.
As reported Tuesday, the two American goaltenders were told by both the IOC and IIHF to take certain phrases off their masks. The IOC is wary of political, commercial and personal statements in the games, though this feels hypocritical on a number of levels. Here are my takes:
-- So Ryan Miller can't paint a play-on-words of a beer slogan bearing his last name onto his mask. Big deal. It's a bit hypocritical that NBC can buy the rights to the Olympics and then sell advertising, but if Miller were getting money from the brewery bearing his name for competing in the games, it'd be wrong.
-- They also wanted Miller to take "Matt Man" off his mask. To me, this is absurd. What is this promoting besides cancer awareness and the memory of a cousin/friend? Is Latvia going to be up-in-arms because they are pro-cancer? Will Karlis Skrastins run Miller because of how much he advocates the idea of "letting people figure out they have cancer" on their own? Are they anti-doctor? It's stupid.
-- Here's what I do understand: why the IOC wanted "Support Our Troops" taken off Quick's mask. In the United States, the term "Support Our Troops" is relatively-innocuous. At its most "inflammatory," the slogan is an attempt to quell the sort of hate thrown at soldiers upon their return of an unpopular war in Vietnam. With the popularity of the war in Iraq on the decline for so long, it seems "Support Our Troops" came to the forefront to say, "Hey! Hate the game, not its players. They are serving their country."
Which is right, but flip the script. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan have athletes in these Winter Games, but if one of the Afghani tae-kwon-do competitors or Iraqi rowers in the 2008 games stitched or painted "Support Our Troops" on their uniform or boat, I think there might be some problems in America. Would they be stupid problems? Possibly, but that's life these days. I'd simply offer that the IOC doesn't want to court that drama, so it puts up pre-emptive drama.
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