Sportsnet has Mats Sundin exclusive: Still no decision
It's Sundin's world. We're just livin' in it baby.
I can just picture it:
The Sportsnet reporter giddily called into the central desk yesterday.
“We got it!” he proclaimed triumphantly.
“Are you serious?” asked his producer.
“Totally. Sportsnet exclusive, baby!”
There was a joyous popping of champagne corks, a steady flow of confetti from the ceiling and a party the likes of which Sportsnet hasn’t seen since Pratt and Taylor won their timeslot that one time. And why not? It was an exclusive interview with Mats Sundin!
An enterprising Sportsnet reporter caught up with the long-pontificating centerman on a golf course in Sweden in hopes of getting the definitive word on Sundin’s future. Go on. Guess what he said.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Sundin said. “I think sometime in August I hope to come to a conclusion on what I’m going to do — if I’m going to play or not this year.”
The 37-year-old unrestricted free agent also reiterated that he has no deadline for a final decision.
“I never had a deadline,” Sundin added. “I know there was talk about first of August, but I never said. I said sometime in August hopefully I’ll be able to make a decision. I won’t make that until I really feel comfortable with making a good decision.”
Hey Mats, let me finally make the decision for you. Stay home, and shut up.
At this point, I can’t imagine that a single person gives a quarter of a crap whether or not you play. Sign in Montreal, sign in Vancouver, sign in f-ing Turkmenistan for all I care. Just go away.
“Sometime in August hopefully.” You have to be kidding. You’re an adult. One of the few standing members of the old guard of the NHL. You’ve been around so long that you played for the freaking Quebec Nordiques. Can’t you show a little bit of class and at least offer a “no comment?” Is that too much to ask?
“I haven’t even worried about any teams,” Sundin insisted. “I’m just trying to bring my mind to a point where I can make a good decision whether or not I’m going to play hockey right now. That’s my first decision and we’ll go from there after that.”
It’s sad that it doesn’t matter to Sundin what he’s doing to his legacy, the sport, and the fanbases and organizations of the several franchises that are still inexplicably interested in signing him. Sundin has become the ultimate “me” player in the NHL. Maybe he’s the nicest guy in the world. I haven’t met him. But this is just making him come off like a total douchebag.
We know, Mats. It’s really tough trying to decide if you have enough money (which HockeyZone Plus says is more than $74 million just in NHL salary) or if you really need that extra $6-10 million. Put it this way, if he cared about or had any passion the game at all, he wouldn’t still be going through this tired routine.
And shame on the Canadian media, too, for breathlessly reporting every time Mats Sundin has a bowel movement, and what said bowel movement thinks of all this talk of playing in Montreal. I understand it’s the dead of August (because what type of an idiot starts a hockey blog in mid-July) and stories are running awful thin. This whole Sundin saga has certainly provided me with a lot of words’ worth of opinion to blather on about, but I’m just a jerk with a laptop spewing crap into an infinite void. You’re an entire international media corporation. Surely there’s more upon which to report than this. Hell, fabricate some story if you have to. God knows you’ve milked this phony piece of garbage for all it’s worth.
The collective hockey world, including the fans upon which you depend for things like ratings and pageviews, is at wits’ end.
Shut up about Sundin. I promise I will.
