cry me a river

the hockey world is up in arms because at the upcoming NHL all-star game fans will see, for the first time, the new tight-fitting jerseys designed by reebok. many pundits are going on record against the change. david pratt of the province wails:

"Let's be clear about one thing.

This latest wardrobe malfunction is not about image or, as the league has recently suggested, about further reducing obstruction -- this is about money.

The NHL is betting you the fan will shell out millions of dollars to buy the new look.

The fear we all should have is the 350-pound middle-aged wannabe with a gold card who shows up in at the mall wearing one of these tight-fitting hockey leotards. Small children should not have to be subjected to that kind of trauma."

i understand that for many the protest voiced over the new uniforms is fueled by nostalgia for olde tyme hockey (like eddie shore used to play? -- sorry, there had to be one slapshot reference in here), a game that was a sport and not a commodity. however, admittedly, the rower in me gets a little ticked off. we've been putting up with middle-aged, spandex-wearing, olde tyme schoolboy rowers suffering from nostalgia of their own for years. seeing a pudgy hockey fan squeezed into a leafs jersey somehow just isn't as frightening the sight of a middle-aged man sausaged into an animal print uni. oh, and ladies take note of the duct tape to protect against slide bites. rrrrrrrrrrroooooaaaaaarrrrrrrrrr. sexy.