With all the Vicks, Owenses, and A-frauds of the sporting world it can be easy to become a jaded, narcissistic Negladelphian. But with all the ever-present negativity/stupidity, there is some good to talk about every once in a while as two former Philly athletes have shown us.
Take Brian Dawkins for instance: the former Eagles safety recently decided to give his allotment of tickets to the Eagles/Broncos game to former team employee Dan Leone (the guy who got fired for calling the team “retarted” for letting B-Dawk go.) Regardless of whether Leone deserved to get fired (he did, by the way) it’s still a classy move by Dawkins…
“I thought it’d be a good gesture. Had I not … signed with Denver, that guy would still have his job.”
If that doesn’t speak to a man’s character, I don’t know what does.
Continuing our Friday Night/Saturday Morning theme of high class, former Flyer Keith Primeau has decided to donate his brain to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy when he dies. Primeau’s playing career was cut short due to multiple concussions and he decided to make a sacrifice so others wouldn’t have to deal with what he went through…
“Many former athletes are suffering from (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and are in urgent need of treatment or a cure. There is no easier or more important way to support this research than to give a piece of yourself.”
There’s not much I can add to this post that hasn’t already been said about either Dawkins or Primeau: they are both incredibly talented athletes who not only made a big difference on the field/ice, but off it as well. I’m proud to say both of them played for teams we love and support.
Enough with the mushy stuff, though. In the comments section of that Primeau article I linked to there was a comment from “oregonwingsfan” about Keith that epitimizes to me how ignorant and pathetic some people can be.
“If he could skate, his brain would not have suffered so much. Waste of size.”
Aside from the fact that that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, how the hell can you post something like that about Keith?!? On an article about how he’s donating his brain to finding a cure for something awful nonetheless!!
Look, I understand you’d be a bitter human being, oregonwingsfan. I mean if my hometown team falsely declared itself to be “Hockeytown” even though they can’t sell out their own arena in the playoffs and no one gave a damn about the team when they sucked back in the early 90′s…I might be a bit frustrated too. Doesn’t give you an excuse to pile on a classy, talented player like Keith Primeau (and I don’t care what anyone says, if you saw the way he carried the Flyers at certain points of his career you wouldn’t question his playing ability.)
Then again, having to live and work in a place like Detroit might be enough to corrupt even the most well-meaning of individuals.
