Alert the Media: Tim Thomas Didn't Go to the White House

Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas decided not to take part in the Stanley Cup champs' visit to the White House yesterday. On his Facebook page, he wrote this:

I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.
This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

The cynicism is ripe in media circles, so the majority of commentators that I've seen threw out Thomas' "not about politics or party" stuff and just labelled him a "conservative" or, worse, a "tea partier." They prefaced the remarks with the usual mumbo jumbo about how a man has a right to his opinion, and then they crapped all over him.

Kevin Paul Dupont is a good example, breaking out the "but" after a dishonest hat tip to the idea of free expression:

But yesterday was not about politics and government until Thomas made it about politics and government. The day, long set on the calendar, was a day when the Boston Bruins were asked to visit Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate what they did as a team last season....Shabby. Immature. Unprofessional. Self-centered. Bush league. Need I go on?

No, Kevin. We get it. Tissue?

If you've read my blog for any amount of time, then you know that I hold sports "journalists" in the same regard as mildew on a dishrag, so I'm not surprised by the breathless agonizing over a hockey player not visiting the White House. It has, however, been fun to watch the hacks try to drum up a story and then beat it to death on Twitter.

Muhammad Ali changed his name and said the US was a slave state and Vietnam sucked, and blah, blah, blah. He was left wing and anti-war, so sports writers make that part of his charm. If Tim Thomas had said he was against the Afghan war and that the Tea Party was ruining America, the hacks would have been a little more - what's the word? - considered in their opinions of his politics.

I'm neither here nor there on the political angle. Thomas can believe in Martians and recite the Constitution over dinner while wearing a pink shower cap, for all I care. But let's be real. Hockey is the ugly step child of the four major North American sports. All of the hogwash you're reading about how it's a glorious tradition for Stanley Cup champs to visit the White House is a load.

We're not talking baseball here. Hockey's only been doing it since 1991, or four presidents ago, including Obama. Two of those presidents, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, screwed up the names of the team captains so badly that they've become highlight fodder for every hockey blooper reel ever since (Bill Clinton massacred Steve Yzerman's name, and George Bush asked Mario Lemiuex who he was. Mario Lemiuex, for chrissake).

Here's your story: a hockey goalie didn't go to the White House. Then he wrote something on Facebook. Outrageous!

Here's the video. Fast forward to 2:55 for the part where the Presidents show how happy they are to meet people they've never heard of: