Enough with Dave Hodge and The Hacks

Tim Thomas is still taking his lumps for not visiting the White House the other day.

Here's Billy Courtice trying to keep the non-story alive: While Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas set off a firestorm on Monday for refusing the White House’s invitation to visit, the team was not surprised by his absence...."[Expletive] selfish [expletive],” the source told the Globe.

It took me a while to figure out what [Expletive] selfish [expletive] could mean. Hint: if you end with jerkoff or asshat, you'll have an easier time of it.

Over-the-hill hockey commentator Dave Hodge decided he'd throw in his two cents by Tweeting: Don't know if it's fair to point this out, but Tim Thomas has three children named Kiley, Kelsey and Keegan.

What a simple, old hack. You don't know if it's fair to point out that you think Tim Thomas named his kids after the KKK? Then again, it's been so long since anyone cared what Dave Hodge thought about hockey, that's it's probably good to see him wander off into linguistics and race baiting.

But let's be fair to old Hodge. Here's what he had to say in his own defense, as quoted by the CBC: The tweet — and what some saw as a reference to KKK — drew plenty of social media attention and Hodge subsequently tweeted: "To clarify, yesterday's tweet was simply a satirical, tongue-in-cheek observation meant to be humorous and not intended to be offensive."

C'mon. What else could he have possibly meant?

I was watching Pardon the Interruption last night, where two of sports' mature broadcasters reside. Tony Kornheiser thought Tim Thomas should have gone to the White House, while Mike Wilbon didn't care one way or the other. They both said that goalies are like place kickers: they're off in their own world and they're probably a little weird or crazy. Then Wilbon went on to point out just how many people have skipped going to the White House, such as Manny Ramirez, James Harrison, and Larry Bird - Manny because he probably didn't know there was a President or a White House, and Bird because, as Bird himself said, "If the president wants to see me, he knows where to find me."

I have to figure that this story is big only because Tim Thomas is a hard righty who wears Tea Party stuff on his helmet, and therefore he's an easy target for the lefties that tried to make it in journalism, failed, and somehow wound up at the sports desk.

Letter to Dave Hodge: can you and your buddies get over it and get back to reading final scores? Thanks.