"Bettman cancels NHL season"

This is just a sad day. Hockey has become "the first major pro sports league in North America to lose an entire season to a labor dispute." Not exactly a statistic that I would strive for or be proud of, but the NHL's "commish"--and players, apparently--don't exactly seem to mind it too terribly much.

Last night while playing poker, I was discussing the lock-out and impending cancellation of the season w/ John. Apparently the hockey players refused a $42.5 million dollar salary cap, and came back at the owners (or powers that be, whatever you want to call them) with a proposition of $49 million. And that is per team. $49 million dollars PER TEAM. (Can you imagine what that is split up between, say 30 guys? And not all of them are gonna get an equal cut of it, either.) It's incredibly difficult for me to imagine why the hockey players are so adamantly against a salary cap when they make so much money to begin with.

But John made a point that I'd never really thought of: sure, hockey players make a ridiculous amount of money per season, but so do just about all other pro athletes. That wasn't his point, like, "Well everyone else is being spoiled-ass rotten with exorbitant amounts of money, so hockey players should be, too." His point was that, it's a safe bet to assume, hockey is more dangerous when compared to the other pro sports. (Touche. When the hell do you have to worry about getting an ice skate to the face while playing football or baseball?) His opinion seemed to be that hockey players are a bit tougher (not saying in any way that football players aren't tough), therefore they "deserve" a bit more money for the wear and tear on their bodies. I don't know if I agree 100%, but I do definitely see his point.

Granted hockey may not be the most popular sport in the USA, but there are those of us out here that like...no, love it. Too many good memories that I have are courtesy of hockey--going to games w/ my dad, watching them on TV, memorizing the stats of all the Blues players (yes, folks, I have been known to do that)--and I'm not quite ready for hockey to fall short by the wayside. I can't imagine there being no hockey...sure, I'd still have baseball to watch...in the summer. But what about the winter?? Football? Naw. Hate to say it, but I'd choose hockey over football ANY day.