"being a fan of a losing team is, at its core, romantic" yes, but there is nothing romantic about a 19 year old who should be in school, cramming for midterms, being forced to take the fall for his team's loss publicly on national television and wiping away his still falling tears from his face. there is nothing romantic about a 21 year old who should also be in college, celebrating his 21st birthday at some run down bar, instead disassociating on the bench in front of his family and God and everybody before his coach tells the media he didn't do enough to earn time on the ice.
have they not given up everything for this sport? leaving their families behind in early high school to go to chicago and michigan and wherever else to live with complete strangers or teammates? dropping out of college and traveling to the other side of the continent to play this game, for this team?
there cannot be anything romantic about how the sharks (a 1.5 billion dollar franchise) and the NHL use willmack as a brand and a marketing tool every single day, lauding Macklin celebrini and will smith as the next faces of hockey while behind the scenes telling them they aren't enough and don't work hard enough.
I don't think this is just a willmack issue, but I think they represent a much larger conversation about how we raise children with impossibly high standards and blame them when they don't measure up, and let that be their burden to bear