I apologize in advance, but I need to rant for a moment here. The Ottawa Sun has posted the following as the front page for this mornings edition of their newspaper:

You’ll notice the large, in-colour picture of Lars Eller, injured, bleeding profusely and about to be carried off the Bell Centre ice on a stretcher. Eller reportedly suffered facial fractures, a broken nose, a concussion, and broken teeth. He was clearly lying unconscious on the ice for several seconds before Habs staff rushed onto the ice.

The injury occurred on a hit by Eric Gryba. Already the debate as to whether the hit was clean or not has started, and look, I don’t care here. Whatever my feelings are on the hit, they are irrelevant to the issue at hand, and that is the Ottawa Sun celebrating an injury to Lars Eller, and one that sounds like its pretty serious. I don’t know about anyone else, but I hear the word “Concussion”, which is really just another word for Brain Injury, and I take that injury pretty seriously. I see a player hauled off the ice on a stretcher, rushed to the hospital, and held overnight for observation and I know there is some degree of seriousness.

Yes, Ottawa Sun, your team won game 1. You want to celebrate that victory in the morning paper, go right ahead. But celebrating a victory is one thing. This is a disgusting act and seems to be celebrating the injury of a player. We’re all human beings, and this is a poor display, and a sickening choice made by the editorial department at the Sun. Hockey does not transcend human dignity.

Again, this has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. If the Sun wanted to show a celebrating Senator after a goal, and come up with some other clever headline about winning game 1, there would be no issue. However the graphic nature of the photo and the glee with which the headline reads, are just too much and cross a line that compassionate human beings just shouldn’t even approach. You don’t celebrate another person’s injury, pain, and suffering; its barbaric and it’s not what sports should be about.

Sun Media…. you’ve crossed the line, and I’m calling you out. I believe that the Ottawa Sun should retract the cover and issue an apology to Lars Eller. And that’s the Last Word.

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photo credit: bridgetds via photopin cc