Some lovers do it during sex, I surmise.  That’s private and harmless. Some folks do it while driving, I’ve observed.  That’s potentially a killer.  Some actors do it in the movies.  That’s supposed to be funny.  The Hockey Meatball does it during play whether practice or a game.  That’s destructive to team discipline and spirit.

I theorize that it’s the primary cause of a team’s inability to break its perennial cycle of dashed hopes and dreams.  I’d call it the Maple Leafs Syndrome but that’s grist for yet another blog.  I suspect that, just like the lab rat spinning its wheel, there are team ups and downs but never any forward momentum or progress.

What’s the problem?  It is anti-social, hyperkinetic, jackass behaviour.  This hockey player lacks the ability to control his egocentric cravings.  In his hedonistic self-absorption, he is totally unresponsive to his fellow players.  Undoubtedly, he is a very skilled, individualistic player.  He can score goals almost on demand.  However, he craves attention the way perverts crave Pamela Anderson.

In his ‘”me, me, me”’ hockey style of play, ‘jackass’ frenetically bops up and down the ice like a jettisoned pinball driven by its own force.  He treats other players as lampposts lighting his path to the limelight.  He feels no shame.  He’s not there to James Brown anyone.  He is out to make himself feel good’.

Regrettably, a coach more interested in winning the game than building a formidable team tolerates jackass’ antics.  The coach’s eyes are, as the joke goes, focused on the hole, not the donut.  The toleration turns to support as the season progresses and rather than cut the goof, thereby gaining leadership credibility, the coach gives jackass more and more playing time.  It matters naught that all the other players have lost respect and feel betrayed.

In the end, the Hockey Meatball wallows in a mound of tasteless spaghetti. This detracts everyone within smelling distance.  And, what of the team?  Well, there’s always another year and more mistakes to repeat.

Ozzie

• Posted by: Ozzie
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