There certainly was a lot to take in there. I have to say I agreed with much, disagreed with much, and yet somehow I generally agree with the general sentiment.
Toronto has always (since I got here in 1992) been labeled a "lunch-pail" sports town. The fans don't want the fancy Bay St pretty boys with their fancy, $2000 suits, they want the "average Joe" who packs his lunch to work in a Coleman cooler.
I don't want to go into what I agreed with or disagreed with (namely Don Cherry and the whole Boston Bruins part), but I did dig through some very old threads on this very site to give some support to the general sentiment.
Let's start with Sundin.
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=18096
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=21049
Here we have 2 threads that basically rail on Mats and some people chime in with their views on the Captain. It's a very small sample of what was aired during that time....did I mention that in the early 2000's, the Toronto Maple Leafs were among the league's best teams and had, by that point, beaten the Senators in the playoffs 3 times.
Also note that, in 2004, Mats Sundin was named NHL Second All Star Team Centre....after apparently being basically untradeable!
There were positives said about the big Swede.
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=17417
Here is one stating that the team should have started preparing for the eventuality that Sundin would one day not be here. As we all know, the team has never, ever, come close to replacing Mats. The best they've done was give us Tyler Bozak, an undrafted College player.
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=170503
But now, we move onto the real thing I wanted to look up. Old threads involving our favourite journalists......if we could even call them that.
Simmons and his wisdom:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=12584
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=22097
Cox and his:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=19025
A little summary of how popular these guys were back in 2003!
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=29500
And again:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=171918
As you can see, not only have we had to endure the same clowns in the media for well over a decade, we've had people complain about the bias, the negative spin and the downright fabrications these "journalists" spew. How any of them have any medium with which to infect the general public is horrifying.
How the "fans" soak up these stories and repeat them as if they're Gospel is even more horrifying. These are people with functioning brains, but they take the written word of someone they've never met without a shred of skepticism and/or questioning thoughts.
Simmons claims that Kessel ate a hot dog nearly every day from the same vendor on such and such streets and people lose their minds that it's actually true. There's no need for fact-checking. There's no need to question how this man has this information. There's no need to wonder why a "sports journalist" opens a sports article with someone's supposed eating habits and the monetary effect it will have on a street vendor. That's clearly the more important piece of news that day, not that the same player had been traded to another team in the same conference.
To sum up, if you honestly believe that the drivel and the vitriol that is thrown at the athletes in this city has no bearing on their will to either come here, stay here, or perform to their very best at all times, then you're just not thinking clearly.