i am BEGGING everyone to be able to use their media literacy skills for this one. every media outlet LOVES to take a quote he said or one single moment and create this narrative that he is evil. that he hates his teammates. that he only cares about himself. that he is a locker room cancer. that he is selfish. that he has no fun. that he is a terrible person. everything he says is blown out of proportion or taken out of context. he misses one (1) goal at the olympics and he becomes the punchline for every h*ghes fan who wants everyone to forget their faves are problematic. every c*nn*r mcd*vid fan who wants you to forget their fave was invisible in the final few games of the olympics. i think a lot about that article of him talking about being macklin's where he says 'i was an idiot, no no, not good enough, not mature enough, not anything enough'. now think about that article where he says 'i don't want to hold onto any secrets i learned, i want to give it all away.' he doesn't want anyone to feel how he felt when he was first in the league. he doesn't want anyone to feel that shame of not being good enough. he worked hard to beat the bust allegations, to allow himself to be mentioned in the same sentence as sid, just to be called evil and that he works his team so hard that they hate him. please watch ANY one of his teammates talking about him. please listen to sid talk about him.
i thank god every day that he talks so openly about therapy. that he has a good support system in place. that he has grown from the kid he was into the person he is. show me any other player who consistently gets his name dragged through the fucking mud everyday and still continues to talk to media, who pours into his teammates and who still laces up his skates every day.
some late night natemac ramblings for the tl
