Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Russian Hockey Tragedy is Just That
Wednesday, a team plane carrying the Russian hockey club Lokomotiv of the Kontinental Hockey League crashed in Central Russia near the city of Yaroslavl. Sources say that at least 43 people were killed, most of them being members of the team. The cause is not yet known, but the plane that the team was on was notably old and aging, as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated that the government has been trying to put these old Soviet planes out of commision for a while now. Numerous players had National Hockey League ties, and I can easily identify some of the names as i have watched them plenty of times. As a hockey player and a fan, this is an extremely sad day. Tragedy is the only word that fits. These were professional athletes and personnel who their fans loved to watch play, bought their jerseys and cheered them on. They played the game they love and brought joy to others. Anybody who loves sports should be remorseful today. This should be the number one headline on all sports networks, especially ESPN. Sadly, it will not get the coverage that it should, just for the fact that it is not American athletes. If ESPN is the real worldwide leader in sports, then they will do their due dilligence and pay respect to these athletes as much as possible. This is not only a tragedy in Russia, but also in the sports world as a whole.
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Such terrible news to find today. I do not know hockey to well, however i do enjoy to watch it. This is a very upsetting story and i agree with you that ESPN should show some respect and really get the word out to the public that don't know much about these athletes that died. I cannot believe that the Russians have yet to upgrade the planes and it shocks me that professional athletes would dare to go on an older plane, i would expect them to have first class treatment, it must be something with the government. It would be scary to think this incident was planned, and i hope that is not what they find it to be. Great post, really something that needs to be noticed by more.
ReplyDeleteI was stunned when I heard the news of the crash! It's sad that the President knew that the plane was old and did nothing to upgrade the plane for the team. By having a family member that is a flight attendant, I hear all the time about how smaller planes crash due to errors or just bad weather. But to entrust any people let alone an entire hockey team in the hands of an outdating plane was just plain ignorance and asking for trouble. I agree that this should have been the top headline in the news, but the story barely got any coverage. It's upsetting that the press conference of Sidney Crosby got a way greater amount of press. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the players!
ReplyDeleteOnce I heard about this tragedy, I was absolutely shocked. Ask soon as I heard about this... I had to post a blog about it. When I posted the blog about it, the sources I found said they had no idea how the plane went down; But ten minutes later after I posted my blog, SportCenter came on with breaking news on how the plane went down. After I heard that i was like "WOW!!"
ReplyDeleteR.I.P Lokomotiv Players
I'm not a huge hockey fan either, even though I do watch the Pens from time to time, but the loss of an entire team is a tragedy; reminds me of the Marshall plane crash years ago. I heard that a player and a coach are the only two survivors and are in critical condition, so my prayers go out to them both in hopes of a recovery as well as to friends, family, and hockey nation as to the loss of a team.
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