Posted 04 April 2012 - 01:01 PM
Yes, plenty of other people are guilty of all the things for which people fault Crosby and use in their (probably altogether vain) attempts to somehow tear him down. And, were this just about the allegations in question, that'd be that. Thing is, though, it's not really about the allegations (not primarily, at least).
It's not "Crosby's a DIVER!"
It's "CROSBY's a diver!"
Plenty of people pull the same s*** he pulls. But plenty of people aren't him. He is the face of the National Hockey League, and, by extension, the current face of ice hockey itself. People who bash him, what they're sore about is the fact that ice hockey's biggest star, the NHL's golden boy, the guy who more than a few have called the next Gretzky, is kind of a ****** bag.
I'm sure he's actually a really great guy and all. But that's essentially moot. The issue is that The Next Great One, for whatever reasons, real or imagined, valid or inane, seems to have this way of inspiring intense loathing in one out of every, say, ten people - when, ideally, you'd like for it be more like one in every, say, hundred. In other words, you'd like for him to be more likeable - because, at the end of the day, this guy is (one more time!) The One. And we're stuck with him. For a long time.