Yaroslav Lokomotiv

If you were to try to remember the last time a sports team suffered a catastrophic tragedy, the 1970 Marshall football team pops immediately into your head. Everyone was killed in a plane crash, except the players that were not scheduled to play in the game. Very recently, it happened again. Nearly the entire Jaroslav Lokomotiv hockey team was killed when their Yakovlev-42 passenger plane crashed shortly after takeoff. The flight engineer and one player, Alexander Golimov, were the only survivors. Both, obviously, are in extremely critical condition.

This disaster, unfortunately, has claimed the lives of three Detroit Red Wings. Former defenseman Ruslan Salei, coach and past player Brad McCrimmon, and Red Wings goaltender prospect Stephan Liv. As if that weren't bad enough, the hockey world also lost Pavol Demetra, Alexander Karpotsev, Igor Korolev, and Karlis Skrastins. It should be noted that there are, at this time, conflicting reports about Ruslan Salei. However, it is being reported in Russia that he is among the deceased.

The town of Yaroslavl has been shaken to its foundations. Hell, the WORLD is in shock. There were moments of silence all over the world. In Russia, the only game that was being played has been canceled. In
Czechoslovakia, a huge (and growing)
memorial to the three Czech players killed
has been erected. And in 43 household
across the globe, there is now a missing
dad, brother, uncle or son.

As if the hockey world needed more trial
and tribulation following the deaths of Derek
Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak.

And that's all I have to say about that...

Why not just stick with HOCKEYTOWN?

I don't feel good. In fact, I skipped dinner because there were roughly even odds that I wouldn't be keeping it down. Even so, I may still lose whats left of my lunch.

To be clear, I was just fine up to a few hours ago, and now I just want to go to bed and stare at the darkness. The Detroit Red Wings, MY Red Wings, YOUR Red Wings....have...have...well just look at the picture. I feel soiled posting it, but you all must know that this is just sick.

Now I am not saying that the Wings sold out, like many others, MY big issue is that the Winged Wheel, wherever it is displayed, will look like this picture. How many other hockey teams have this? I'm pretty sure it is zero. Look, I couldn't give a flying f*ck at a rolling donut about who sponsors whom, but do we really need to put a corporate logo on the Wings logo. I mean, the posters with Krogers on them were bad enough. Now we all get to look at this shit everywhere the Winged Wheel is posted, which is nearly everywhere in Detroit.

Why? Why can't we just stick with the HOCKEYTOWN logo? Or is that the next thing to be sullied with the Amway crest? What next? Maybe a little Amway logo on the helmet? Amway Arena? Rookies have to sell Amway? This crap is out of control. Whoever is responsible for talking Mike Illitch into this should be smothered in brown gravy and bacon fat and slowly lowered into a pit of hungry wolverines. Word has it that it was Tom Wilson, president of Olympia Entertainment.

When I think about the Red Wings, I feel good. They are the best hockey team in the NHL over the past two decades, and nobody hesitates to claim to be a die-hard fan. There are no closet Wings fans (except maybe in Colorado), and no matter where the Red Wings go, you can spot more than a few Winged Wheels in the stands. When I think of Amway, well...read above. This sponsorship isn't going to change who I am as a fan, but if you think about it, does Amway really have to put their company logo all over the place? What purpose does this serve? There isn't a single person that hasn't heard of Amway, and most will get a look on their face like they just swallowed a bug when you mention them.

I think the fans will take care of this themselves. How much you want to be that every instance of the "new" logo will have the "presented by Amway" part of it "corrected" by the fans? Spray paint, Sharpie, stickers, it wont matter. The fans that are forced to be exposed to this will react accordingly, and strongly. The downside to this is that there will be a rise in graffiti in Detroit, if that is even possible.

Red Wings, be sponsored by whoever you want, just leave the Winged Wheel alone.