Overreacting

The Denver Post throws in its two cents on what it thinks should happen to Todd Bertuzzi:

"The league should ban Bertuzzi for life from any association with professional hockey, much as Major League Baseball did with Pete Rose for gambling, a far less serious offence."

I agree that Bertuzzi should be banned for the rest of this season, but this editorial loses all perspective. How is it that betting on baseball in a premeditated way, when you are a coach in a position to make sure that your bets pay off, is worse than losing one's temper in the heat of the moment and hurting another player?

It's no wonder that Todd Bertuzzi threw himself on the mercy of the court of public opinion in a public statement last night. He will soon find that the NHL is pandering to Americans like that Denver Post editorialist who have no love of the spot and don't understand it.

We can't expect the land where pucks glowed blue on TV broadcasts to understand that hockey can be violent, but NHL players are punished appropriately when they go overboard, just like in other sports. Will the Post call for a *lifetime ban* on baseball, NFL or NBA players who use their fists to hurt another player? Hardly. Readers would point out that these sports punish these sorts of things appropriately with fines and suspensions when they do occur and laugh at the paper's folly.