As someone who has watched a lot of ice hockey on television, I’m accustomed to having to sit through occasional anti-American rants from Canadian broadcasters. But the latest broadside against Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, one authored by Canadian sportscaster Dave Hodge, has to take some sort of prize for bald idiocy.
As many have heard by now, earlier this week Thomas skipped a White House ceremony honoring the Bruins for their Stanley Cup victory last spring — a decision that Thomas made to protest a federal government that has “grown out of control.” The move was widely interpreted as a slight against President Obama. Thomas has taken his share of incoming fire this week from folks who didn’t take kindly with his decision.
Hodge, known as something of a perennial malcontent on Canadian television, took to his Twitter feed to swipe at Thomas in a manner that supporters of the tea party have come to expect: “Don’t know if it’s fair to point this out, but Tim Thomas has three children named Kiley, Kelsey and Keegan.”
How nice of Hodge to connect Thomas with the Ku Klux Klan.
Since his initial swipe at Thomas, Hodge has deleted his tweet and pushed out this non-apology: “To clarify, yesterday’s tweet was simply a satirical, tongue-in-cheek observation meant to be humourous and not intended to be offensive.” Hodge has also been dinged by his employer, TSN, the Canadian equivalent of ESPN, but they won’t be taking any action against him other than chiding him privately in a manner perfected by Hans Blix.
Eric McErlain blogs at Off Wing Opinion, a Forbes “Best of the Web” winner. In 2006 he wrote a “bloggers bill of rights” to help integrate bloggers into the Washington Capitals’ press box. Eric has also written for Deadspin, NBC Sports and the Sporting News, and covers sports television for The TV News. Follow Eric on Twitter.