Hockey Players As Human Beings

Nothingman writes "As fans, we always seem to view celebrities, sports stars, historical figures and our idols as larger than life, as a personification of perfection. Perhaps if anything good will come of the Dan Snyder tragedy (and lets hope at some point we can find some positives) its that we as fans and well-wishers can see that hockey players like the rest of us are merely human beings, capable of mistakes and sometimes prone to bouts of imperfection.

As a law student (an Australian one mind you so I don't know the full degree of your murder by auto and vehicular manslaughter rules) I can honestly say that I think Dany Heatley should be given jail time, because BUT FOR (the important test) his reckless and illegal driving Dan Snyder might still be here. However when one weighs up the comparative ideas of contributory negligence and consent (Snyder potentially egging Heatley on at speed and probably not wearing a seatbelt) it appears that the whole incident should be considered one big accident.

There are frequented arguments in the aftermath that Heatley going to jail would accomplish very little, and these certainly do have merit. Heatley's career may very well be over, and mentally and emotionally he may never be the same again. As far as penalties go, options such as suspended sentence and community service to help the less fortunate with regards to hockey and motor awareness are options I find certainly advantageous.

The bottom line is Dany Heatley is a young man, many will contend with too much money and maybe even spare time on his hands. But any male over the age of 18 will know what its like to be in his position, young, world at your feet with a need for speed. Granted we dont all have millions of dollars, but that does nothing to change his mindset.

Education is certainly an issue here for me. I think the Heatley's of the world are entitled to buy their big Ferrari Modena's and what not, but how to handle fame, how to handle the money and responsibility and the like that comes with a pro hockey career is certainly something I would like to see better equipped for the young players today.

Heatley's career (at least in the promising terms it was pre-accident) is in jeopardy and a young and promising player and more importantly individual has been tragically lost in this mess.

Roman Lyashenko also died last year (though the suspicious cir*****stances of which are still unclear), but if we are to go by the facts we have, perhaps the pressures of life and the expectations of everything were too much for young Roman, we just don't know.

People such as Heatley, for all the glamour we associate them with, are human, they make mistakes and they too feel the pressures and expectations of life, and in the cases of people such as Heatley and Lyashenko, they're still only very young, and raising awareness and decreasing powerful expectations is as important as any education we can give them on best confronting their potentially prosperous careers.

It's tragic that Dan Snyder has been lost in all of this, and my heart goes out to his family and to Heatley and his family as well.

But prevention is better than cure, and there are people out there who CAN work towards avoiding these types of messes involving our young players...it's not enough that we see something like this happen and just chalk it up to mistake and accident.

Ross Byrnes (Nothingman)
Vice Admin of Wowhockey "


Baseball Trade Rumors	Hockey Trade Rumors	Football Trade Rumors	Basketball Trade Rumors