Darkness of sport

Everybody in Toronto is in a panic. The leafs are once again losing and after 40 years without a cup we’re all up in arms. Blame whoever you want but the bottom line is that this team has not had had a solid foundation to build on for years. Like any good organization building a winner starts from the top and filters down. When was the last time the leafs had strong leadership? Pat Quinn was certainly a good leader but his hands were tied to some extent. As were Cliff Fletcher’s. No folks, we need to look to the top and start with ownership.

The teacher’s pension board owns this team. How many other teams in the NHL are owned by a large group? Of course there are many markets with investment groups and “silent partners”. The difference here is the profitability factor. Everyone in business wants to be profitable but you can’t dismiss the fact that it is of greater importance for a group of pension stakeholders. Imagine… the Leafs lose money, the pensions drop and the teacher’s can’t retire. With the Toronto marketplace that will likely never happen. And with the pension group owning this team out of greed and a lack of respect for heritage don’t expect a cup anytime soon. What Toronto needs is a single owner or a group with one person in charge and focused on winning.

Focused on winning? What a concept! Could you imagine if the Leafs had the same commitment Ottawa has or New Jersey or Detroit. Well, whether they admit it or not Peddie and Tanenbaum are the most two out of focus hockey execs that exist. One’s Yin the other’s Yang. While one says “were not doing this” the other is doing the exact opposite. Success comes from leadership and leadership demands alignment and consistency. How is the rest of the organization suppose to know what’s going on if these two clowns don’t know what’s up and what’s down? To Tanenbaum’s credit he does offer more in terms of wanting to win and hockey knowledge but being a minority shareholder the final say is always left to Peddie. Why keep these guys? or moreover, why keep Peddie? Obviously he turns profit and that’s what the board wants but let’s get real. The Maple Leafs are as close to a sure shot ROI as any product can possibly be. Look at Harold Ballard. This guy ripped fans off for years and still racked in the cash. Commitment to winning is clearly the last thing on the Pension Boards mind.

John Ferguson Jr.? What else needs to be said. He’s made some brutal mistakes. Overpaying, no-trade clause, trading prospects, draft picks… the list goes on and on. Clearly this guy wasn’t ready for prime time when our friend Peddie brought him in. Who’s fault is it? Both, of course. Accountability and ownership has not been a strong point for either and yes if your leaders aren’t accountable do you think everyone else down the food chain will be? I do have some empathy for Ferguson. I mean, if my boss continually ran me thru the media the way Peddie has with Ferguson I would probably lose my marbles. That’s not to say that Peddie isn’t right about Ferguson’s shortcomings it’s just that some things should be left behind closed doors. But Peddie needs a scapegoat and someone to take responsibility. He’s not so we know who is. A true leader will always have the backs of their team no matter what the circumstances are. Again, Peddie demonstrates nothing in the leadership department. When follower’s witness such behaviour they feel it’s acceptable and follower’s will follow.

Paul Maurice? Give him a chance. You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit. From day one he’s been working with limited talent trying to make the best of it. I think he has a true desire to win… one of the few in the organization.

At the end of the day changing GM’s and coaches will not work in saving the Leafs. They need to start at the top and work down. Let’s get a new owner, CEO and President with knowledge and passion about hockey in Toronto. Let the President hire a GM that’s ready for prime time and let the GM deal with the day-to-day hockey operations and make the decisions without interference. A patchwork job will not work here folks. This is going to be an extremely long process.

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For him to start this game with players like Michael Silverstre, who had not played for over 6 months, Rio Ferdinand, who got injured against Middlesboro on Sunday, leave out Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo showed the contempt he had for Roma’s chances and they did not let him down.

Frankly Italian football has been an embarrassment for 2 seasons now and it is time they take stock of how far they have fallen from grace. All they do is bicker about refereeing decisions and constantly gripe about the success of Inter Milan saying they are being favoured by referees, that they have stopped getting world class talent into their league.

AC Milan are actually thinking of bringing back Andriy Shevchenko back to their team. It is bad enough that they have the oldest squad in the world but instead of trying to reduce the average age, they keep buying players that are past it.

Managers are sacked and rehired on a constant basis showing that the people that are running the clubs do not have a clue. What is the point in sacking a manager if you are going to bring in someone worse, only to sack him and then rehire the previous manager?

This is not something that happens once in a long while, it happens very often with different clubs.

It says a lot that Juventus that was relegated last season are 3rd in the league with what is at best an average manager and average bunch of players but unlike Roma they have the will to win. They might not have the quality that Roma possesses but in players like Gigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Pavel Nedved, Mauro Camonaresi and David Trezeguet they have players that would always make a difference to any team in the world.

There is not a chance that with the team Ferguson put out that Juventus would not have scored against United because Fergie took a huge chance and he possibly thought and quite rightly that Luciano Spaletti is nowhere near the level required to win the champions league.

How else would you explain his putting out 1 striker against an injured Ferdinand and Gerard Pique or his playing Cassetti instead of Max Tonnetto? To be fair he did not anything that would have changed my beliefs that his relative success in seriea is due to the lack of good football teams and managers currently as 5-10 years ago he would not have been in charge of a team in mid-table never mind a team challenging for the championship.

AC Milan could quite conceivably come 4th with a side shown up to be also-rans by Arsenal in the San Siro as they are far too old to be challenging for the championship. Teams like Fiorentina and Udinese would be totally embarrassed by foreign teams if they did qualify for champions league next season as they are not good enough to represent Italy.

Inter Milan for all their faults are the only team in Italy that can compete with the other powerhouses in Europe as they have the money and personnel, they just lack the manager. Juventus would have to overhaul what they have and change managers as well to stand a chance as they can only be competitive in a second rate championship that SerieA has sadly become but not in Europe.

Back to the Roma versus Manchester United match, it was cringe worthy to see players like Anderson, Owen Hargreaves, Park Ji-Sung just penetrate through Roma so easily when there is nothing penetrative about them. It just makes you wonder why the manager would persist with a player like David Pizarro and when was the last time that Taddei put in a good performance to warrant a starting place?

It was just too easy for United yesterday and I was shocked to read that some people thought Roma were not an embarrassment just because they were not trounced 7-1 again this season. There were even awarded a non-existent penalty but such is their fragile ego that Daniele De Rossi blasted it well over the bar.

It is just very sad to see a league that was once great degenerate into what it is nowadays with fans just talking about Inter Milan allegedly being favoured with sinister connotations as the standard of football so bad that watching Bundesliga seems more palatable.

I would like for them to get their act together and stop concentrating on conspiracies and start building teams worth watching with character and verve. Unfortunately the mentality is not like that, Roma for instance would actually think it is a step in the right direction that they got beat 2-0 and 1-0 and count the extremely marginal chances that they created.

The Pittsburgh Penguins is a team that has seen a lot of talented players who later went on to become NHL superstars and later on legends of the game. The most notable player is without a doubt the Great Mario Lemieux. Since his first season in the NHL in 1984 scoring his first goal on his first shot in the NHL a feat which has yet to be tied, to breaking the team record for most points in a season by a rookie. Mario was also the first rookie in the league’s history to be named Most Valuable Player.

When the Penguins drafted Sidney Crosby as their first pick, there was a lot of buzz circulating around in the hockey world comparing the great Mario Lemieux with Sidney the kid Crosby. In fact Crosby said that Lemieux was one of his idols growing up and the opportunity to play together was a dream come true. Unfortunately, the pair only played side by side for a short period of time as an irregular heart beat complication forced Lemieux into retirement.

Aside from the idolization and sharing the same locker room, these two players have a lot more in common. Both players in their respective times set the record for the most points by a rookie in the organization’s history. Mario originally set the bar during his first season in 1984 by scoring 100 points. It wasn’t until 2005, 11 years later, that Sidney Crosby beat the record by merely 2 points to finish the season with 102 points.

Their style on the ice while very similar in some ways, also differ. Mario was a natural leader and excelled as the Pittsburgh Penguins captain. When head coach Michel Therrien named Sidney Crosby captain of the team, the move drew heavy criticism from the press and fans alike. Sidney Crosby has yet to prove himself as a captain and until then he will unfortunately not be in the same league as Lemieux.

While some may think that Mario Lemieux would feel threatened by Sidney Crosby’s success, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact Lemieux has taken Sidney Crosby under his wing and has mentored him since the start. During the regular season with the Penguins, Crosby lives with Lemieux and his family in Pittsburgh.

Will Sidney Crosby someday be referred to as The Great Sidney Crosby and surpass his mentor? His rookie years certainly seem to point in that direction.