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Tim Thomas wrong to skip White House trip

On Hockey

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 24, 2012|By Kevin Paul Dupont

Citing his rights as a citizen, Tim Thomas did not make a stop at the White… (Joel Auerbach/Getty Images )

Tim Thomas separated himself from his Bruins’ teammates yesterday afternoon when he refused to join them at the White House, a day meant to celebrate their 2011 Stanley Cup championship.

The two-time Vezina Trophy winner later in the day issued a statement, released by NHL.com and on Thomas’s Facebook page just after 6 p.m., noting his disillusionment with the United States government and offering that as his reason not to stand with his team.

“I believe the federal government has grown out of control,’’ he stated, “threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people.’’

We must all celebrate that Thomas, born in Flint, Mich., nearly 38 years ago, has the right to say all of that and more, and we’ve grown accustomed to hearing near-identical dogma from the right wing/conservative/Tea Party end of our political spectrum for the last 2-3 years. He is a free man, living in a free country, and he can sing that blatherall from his hotel room, his crease, and the corner of Causeway and Staniford if he so chooses.

As a country, we’re not yet so deep in the handbasket that any of us has been denied that right. Thankfully.

But yesterday was not about politics and government until Thomas made it about politics and government. The day, long set on the calendar, was a day when the Boston Bruins were asked to visit Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate what they did as a team last season. It was their day in the national spotlight, until Thomas didn’t show, and then the focal point became, much the way it would be in a hockey game, on the guy who was no longer standing in goal.

Shabby. Immature. Unprofessional. Self-centered. Bush league. Need I go on? All that and more applies to what Thomas did, on a day when Cup teammates Mark Recchi (now retired), Shane Hnidy (a radio guy these days in Winnipeg), and Tomas Kaberle (a member of some Original Six team in Canada), all gladly joined the red-white-blue-black-and-gold hugfest at the White House.

Thomas needed to be there in solidarity, and celebration, with his team. It was the same government yesterday, and will be today, that protected his country, his security, his family, and his right to make $5 million a year, all last season. In his absence, he stole his teammates’ spotlight. Win as a team. Lose as a team. And when asked to stand up and take a bow, then stand up there and suffer if need be, even if you don’t like the setting, the host, or any of the political trappings and tenets that come with it.