Tim Thomas: You Goofed....Big time

I'm not sure when it became part of Championship sports in America, but the trip made by a winning team to the White House, in good times and bad times, during prosperous times and recessions, peace and war, has hardly ever been turned down by a member of one of those Champion teams. From what I have read, he is not the first player who has turned down the invite.

The first athlete to turn down the invitation was Larry Bird in 1984. He was always a country bumpkin (which seems to ring true of a few people on this list) and he simply said that if the President wanted to meet him, he could always come to his place instead. WOW! Basketball Jesus he may have been but a rocket scientist he will never be....

The next player to do the exact same thing was Michael Jordan who did so in 1991 after winning the first of his 6 Championships (he would end up attending on the other 5 occasions). He was widely criticized, even by his own teammates (namely Horace Grant who went off saying that there was always a "double standard" with regards to Jordan) for his actions. He defended himself by saying he choose to spend his time with his family (as if his entire off-season regiment would have been put off by going to see then-President George Bush Sr.)


Former Green Bay Packers Tight End Mark Chmura declined his invite in 1997 after the Packer won the Super Bowl. He had already committed to attending a charity golf tournament for a former NFL player who had been paralysed from an injury sustained in a game (Mike Utley) but later admitted he regretted not going and felt he was immature about the way he acted.

Another Brainiac, Pittsburgh Steeler Linebacker James Harrison (he of the multiple fines for repeated illegal hits to his opponents), has the dubious distinction of having declined the White House invite twice, once in 2006 and again in 2009. His reason? If they really wanted to meet him, they would invite the team to the White House after a season in which they didn't win the Super Bowl. And that explains, in even more detail, why you act the way you do; Big muscles....TINY BRAIN!!!

After the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007, Manny Ramirez was a no-show at their White House invite. The reaction? Just Manny being Manny. He never explained why he didn't go.

The most interesting one happened in 2011. The 1986 Chicago Bears never were able to make their visit to the White House after winning the Super Bowl. The week they were supposed to go, the Challenger disaster occurred and, for whatever reason, the team never was granted their opportunity to go. President Obama is a Chicago native. He rectified the situation by extending the offer to the 1986 Bears except that Dan Hampton, one of the Hall of Fame members of the team refused to go saying that it should not have taken 25 years for the team to get the chance to go (and he was right).

Now we come to Tim Thomas. Granted, politics in general in the US has been pathetic since President Obama took office (it's almost as if the Republicans decided that even if they did lose the election, they were not going to let Obama do anything easily and have basically created political gridlock), his stance has been the only one that was (as much as he says it wasn't) politically motivated.

When you say something like you feel that Washington is "Broken", you are making a political statement with your actions. When you refuse to show the proper respect to the office of the President, regardless of whether you agree with the politics of the man who currently sits in that seat, you are making a political statement. When you subject your teammates and team to a barrage of negative publicity and make them have to answer questions about you and your political beliefs (including the fact that you actually think that the science behind global warming is flawed, particularly when you have a member of your team who is close personal friends with David Suzuki), then refuse to answer any questions from the media about your declining the invite, you have made a political statement with your actions that has shown you to be a selfish, pompous, egomaniac who cared more about snubbing the White House then how your actions would be preceived by others and how it would effect your team.

You have made what should have been a nice, feel good moment for you and your teammates into a firestorm in which you are the center of attention, the exact opposite of what any good hockey player would ever want to do. You are not bigger then the Boston Bruins and yet you seem to think you are with your actions and, if I were the owner of the team, having been personally embarrassed as he is rumoured to be by what you did, I would take the first chance I had to get rid of you off my team. Yes you won the Cup last year. Great. If you don't repeat, you are gone. Even if you do, I would still get rid of you because clearly you are not a team player. That and Tuuka Rask is ready to take over the job at a fraction of the pay...

So have fun in the spotlight this weekend in Ottawa at the All-Star game. I hope you enjoy the onslaught of media that you will have all over you this weekend as you highjack that as well. Here's some free advice
 for you; If Prime Minister Stephen Harper walks into the locker room (as he well might since he is a massive Hockey fan and historian, who is writing a book about hockey's history in Western Canada), it might be a good idea to just smile and nod if he tries to shake your hand. You may be permanently kicked out of Hockey if you don't (If Harper has anything to say about it)...just sayin' (I'm just kidding, he will just have to undergo an intense Conservative Brainwashing program instead.....hahahaha)

It was the wrong move Tim, and you really do owe your team and everyone associated with it, an apology for being so selfish.