NHL Backup Goaltender's Twitter Controversy
It's been a while since my last blog post. I'm still recovering from the news that Paul Kariya is sitting out all of the 2010-11 season. I've been a bit sidetracked since the arrival of NHL 11 which I'll be writing about soon enough if I can ever put it down. But moving on..
The majority of NHL fans have no idea who Dan Ellis is. A few fans will remember him as the Predators starting goaltender who lost his starting job to Pekka Rinne last season. Well with the power of Twitter; Ellis has some new found fame. I was going to blog about Dan Ellis and his controversial tweets right after I read them. I was too lazy but Puck Daddy took the story and ran with it. Here's what Ellis tweeted.
If you lost 18% of your income would you be happy? I can honestly say that I am more stressed about money now then when I was in college. I can't explain it and I never thought it would be the case but it is true. $ in no way makes u more happy or makes life much easier. If you don't make a lot of money I don't expect u to understand the same way I could never understand what it is like to risk my life daily as a fire fighter or police officer...especially not a soldier. There r pros and cons to every profession. U r kidding yourself if you think money makes things any easier.
Dan may be right but talk about being insensitive and being way out of touch with reality. He just signed a 2-year deal worth $3-million. He made $2-million last season. $1.5 million during the 2008-09 season. Are we supposed to feel for him? He gets paid to play a game. What's causing him so much stress?
I enjoy when athletes are candid but this is the exact reason why team's usually monitor their players' Twitter and Facebook accounts. These guys make such ridiculous amounts of money that they're completely out of touch with reality and the sad thing is they don't even realize it. He tried his best to explain himself in his half-apology/explanation.
Twitter was a great way to see inside the life of athletes outside of public media. But this is even too much for me. I feel bad for the sincere followers/fans who just wanted a glimpse of things from the inside. But with the recent explosion. I am shutting down my twitter because in no way shape or form do I want this to disrupt my team. I deeply care for my teammates and faithful followers. This has all been misconstrued to no end and ppl's feelings are getting hurt. There was never any intention in my tweets to undermine ppl who are in different income brackets. I donate 10% of my salary each year to help under privileged kids across the world. as long as I play in the NHL my peldge (sic) will remain the same to The Garth Brooks Foundation. I deeply care for the less fortunate and make many efforts to be of even marginal help. I wish you all a happy twitter experience and hope you do not allow this misunderstanding to form the basis of your opinion of me. I welcome any of you to meet me in person to chat. But no longer will I xpress things through this medium. Thx again to all the good ppl I have met on twitter. I wish you all the very best. Peace out twitter!
Ellis donates 10% of his salary to the Garth Brooks Foundation. That should be commended but let's get real here; he can afford to donate 50%-75% of his $2-million salary and still live pretty comfortably. 10% of $2 million is quite a bit different than say 10% of what the arena concessions, ushers, ticket sales, game operations, and the majority of NHL fans make..
I think that what he's getting at is that more money means more responisbility. I see what he's getting at, because i've read a stat that states that 90% of lotto winners are broke in 5 years(which doesn't seem possible, but is however true). In those cases, most didn't develope the discipline to deal with having millions, or earn the right to have that much money, so they spend foolishly to the point that they loose it all in very short order.
ReplyDeleteHis comments did originally have a point, but was lost to those of us that aren't millionares, because it is still easy to imagine what an 18% drop in pay would do to your life style. To think that loosing money is soley a millionares right to understand, is preposterous. I think that is why I considered his comments idiotic, and lost track of his original point.