Wake up, Canada: Wayne Gretzky is MAGA

Why should I give a shit about Wayne Gretzky? It's not like he's done anything positive for science, technology or society as a whole.

The guy is known for hitting a chunk or rubber around with a stick. Whoopdy-fucking-doo.

People in Edmonton have been literally shitting on his statue. We know about the traitor.

We know. He is a dickhead. His "whiskey" is shit, his "wine" tastes like his "whiskey" (also shit) and he is shit.

Ya, we already knew about the traitor.

Elbows up, our defense doesn't care whether he's a star player or not.
The not so great one
- The Great Once
Seriously this is really old news.

He was at the inauguration, we know.

Gretzky has always been that way. I'm not sure why anyone respects him anymore.

You're like 2 years late

Americans don't know that Canada already knows

I have a groundbreaking theory about prolonged playing of contact sports, traumatic brain injury, and far right politics... You generally don't hear these headlines about tennis/soccer players, or nearly as often about basketball/baseball players.

As someone who enjoys American football and hockey, it's a damn shame that we still paint athletes as role models.

I know it's funny to insinuate that brain damage caused people to become conservatives, but I think we should accept that the culture around aggressive, full-contact sports tends to be conservative to start with. Surround yourself with that culture day-in, day-out, and before long you find yourself ingrained in more than just their favorite sports.
But I mean, that doesn't mean it's not the brain damage. A thing can be more than one thing.
- Just look at Fetterman. Had a stroke, and he’s now conservative.
- That's true, it's a combination of factors. A big part is the insular nature of the team and coaching as you go higher up the ladder. If you're not thanking God in your post-win interview you're a "locker room problem"; if you want a coaching job after you retire you've gotta be on good terms with the good ol' boys network.
  I do think that the brain damage does compound heavily though. I know Mormons who get out and become well adjusted people later in life; the semi-pro football players I know get more irrational and violent as the CTE sets in.
Football (soccer as you call it) is so underrated in this respect it's not even funny, heading the ball is extremely dangerous for the brain in the long term. Not to mention head clashes in challenges etc. Granted, most injuries are in the lower limbs but still.
- Footballers have a much high chance of developing and dying from ALS.
- Basketball as well. Elbows inside are real and thumping opponents is normal.
As opposed to victims of the never ending human thirst for blood sports

We know.

Oh we all know about the Great Once.

Why does it matter? He chose america willingly and they welcomed him a long time ago. They say never meet your heroes but the internet makes that almost impossible.

Do some people still doubt this?

We know. Not that it matters. He moved to the US decades ago, anyway...so they can keep him.

and they can keep his shitty grape juice and industrial solvent whisky.

He was Canadian when he was Great... now he is garbage and became MAGA

That's the guy that ripped off the Michael Scott with the quote "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

One of my best friends is from Brantford, huge hockey nut and a big Gretzky fan and man this must sting her so bad and it's understandable. Gotta be so frustrating.

As one of the "Lemieux is the GOAT" crowd... LOL

Brantford is the most MAGA place in Canada outside of Alberta. Worst drunk driving and domestic violence rates in Southern Ontario.
Lemieux still isn't the goat. Gretzky sucks hot ass, fuck the guy thoroughly and completely. But you can't take his stats away. There's plenty of athletes who have done impressive feats of athleticism and are still total pieces of shit.

CTE is a hell of a series of traumatic brain injuries yes

I'll spam this fact wherever I see comments on CTE.
CTE is not correlated with the number of concussions. It's correlated with years of exposure to repetitive minor hits. It's a very important distinction because the NFL (and every other professional sport with blows to the head) is trying to push the narrative that concussion is the boogeyman, so that if they can reduce concussion (and they can), they can declare their hands clean from CTE. The only way to reduce CTE is drastic changes to the game.
- While I have no doubt they'd skin their grandmother's alive to save a buck, reducing concussions and head injuries is straight up just a good thing. Having concussion protocols etc and taking these decisions out of the hands of people motivated to win at all costs and into the hands of medical professionals is a good if incomplete step
- We know this from military deployments. Even office staff near bombed regions get TBI, and certainly civilians will get brain damage from forces traveling through them.
  NFL players die 25 years younger than national average, a combination of brain injury and long term effects of steroids.

Jarome Iginla was always my hero.

And this is news?

Make Apathetic Gretzky American.

I think Walter would be ashamed, I knew him personally from his charity work and he was a good man, a true Canadian and pretty opinionated in his own quiet way. I'm glad he didn't live to see his son involved in and downplaying this shit. I can't imagine how he would've felt good about it. Money and celebrity (and as someone else suggested, maybe CTE too) corrupts some people. It seems Wayne is one of those.

Is dumb piece of shit.

Traitor to the core. Orr, too.

Lol @ anyone who thinks wealthy people are on our side.

At least he doesn’t own a coffee shop chain

Stan Mikita Donuts?
- I hear they've got excellent munchables.
- Party time. Excellent.

There is a significant percentage of Canadians who wish to be American. I’ve known several. I don’t understand it. I’m expat American.

Wait, so, this was where the puck was going?

Yeah, I've started getting (more) annoyed at the people that say "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Mostly because fuck anyone who is MAGA. But I've also always found it to be a stupid quote. Gretzky was more of a set up player than a goal scorer. In the hockey world, idiots quote him as an excuse for making a pass.

Despite being "a set up player," he was still the highest scoring player of all time until April of this year.
- Sure, but Greyzky had twice as many assists as goals.
  Ovechkin has almost twice as many goals as assists.
  I'm not saying Gretzky didn't score, but he wasn't shooting 100% of the time. He wasn't even shooting most of the time.