Terry Tate, office linebacker
Yesterday I told my aunt that it looked like she had gotten fat, but instead of talking with me about how to go to the gym and lose the weight, she just cried a lot and now my uncle keeps getting in my face. It's totally true though, she looks like she put on 20 in the last year. Since when is telling the truth against the rules? Ugh, unwritten rules and codes are so stupid.
Honestly, I'm hitting the point in most of my hobbies where I do think it's time to start gatekeeping. Seems like there's a whole lot of people who don't care about passion, team identity, or authentic competition any more. Good on Greig for doing something to piss Rielly off, and good on Rielly for responding. Obviously, you cannot cross-check a man in the face, which is why Rielly is getting suspended. But this is the exact sort of thing that makes SPORTS a compelling entertainment product. People who post garbage about how codes are stupid a) clearly aren't paying attention to the rest of their lives and b) seem hell-bound on ruining hockey or the rest of us.
At no point should cross-checking to the face be okay, but the entire meta discussion surrounding codes should be shown the door. I didn't write the code, I'm just explaining the code, and the code will change with time, but I will defend the code to my dying breath because the game is better with the code than without. Even if it's all made up, which it is, none of this is real life, it makes the game better because it gives the players something to stand for. In a day and age where no one seems to stand for anything, I want my entertainment to stand for something, even if it's pretend.
