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CHICAGO…. When crossing over from Soup town to Duluth on Friday, I noticed a ship wintering to the right of me, docked at the elevator next to the Altec Company. The name of the ship (to my lousy eyesight) appeared to be the “American Integrity”. Of course my cynical, jaded political mind had a mental response to that in a millisecond in that I thought, yeah, that is appropriate since American Integrity has been docked for a long time now, if we ever were in possession of any. Saturday though I headed for the Windy City and when I got there one of the first things I saw was one of those electronic billboards, which are basically giant big screen TV’s.

Upon it were the words “In Loving Memory”. On the right side was one of the greatest, most brilliant, colorful pictures I have ever seen of the late Chicago Cubs great Ernie Banks, who passed away last week at the age of 83. He had on his trademark smile, and to the left of him the sign said; Mr. Cub-Ernie Banks. And below that, the chronological span of his life 1931-2015. It was a splendid sign and tribute to a great baseball player and an even better person. More then 24 hours have passed and I can still see the image in my minds eye, and that brings a smile to me….

MAR-TAN BRODEUR HAS announced his retirement. In a press conference last Thursday in St. Louis no less, his last team, the Blues, and he had a quick 15-20 minute press ceremony and that was that. He was involved in the ceremonial face-off that night against the Nashville Predators and I have got to say that a lot of serious fans of the game and of the NHL are going what-in-the-H-E-double hockey sticks kind of bizarre deal is this? This was a surreal kind of a day that had Twilight Zone written all over it.

As you may know, Brodeur spent 21 seasons with the New Jersey Devils, winning 3 Stanley Cups during his tenure. He holds several league and Devil records and is considered by many to be the greatest goalie of all time. He is also considered by many to be the best puck handling goalie of all time as well and his style engaged the league to make a rules change as to how and where a goaltender may handle the puck. His skill behind the goal line pushed the league to add a trapezoid shaped zone behind the net, and that is the only space whereby a net minder may handle the puck. This is often referred to as “The Brodeur Rule”. As a person who has seen him play many times, yes, he was that good, it was like having an extra ‘D’ man back there helping out your skaters.

I would also say that in my observations of him, I could see his skill set changing 3 or 4 years back due to age and how that changes a player. The team played their hearts out to get to the SC Final in 2012 versus the LA Kings, and I couldn’t help but think that if that was a 10 year younger Brodeur between the pipes that the Devils would have won another Cup. But, that happens to all athletes in time and when I saw him play in the outdoor game against the Rangers last season in the NHL Stadium Series I thought he looked poor that day. Certainly outdoor ice and indoor ice are two different animals, but I thought Marty’s reaction times were slow at best. He was yanked. Even though he and Corey Schneider split games last year, it was clear that he was the lesser of the two.

The club didn’t offer him a contract over the summer and when training camps opened he was without a team. The Blues eventually did when Brian Elliott suffered an injury and he came in and played in 7 games going 3-3 with very average stats. In the end I believe the Devils didn’t have it in them to tell him his time was up, and I don’t believe his own pride would allow him to say it either until last week when after the All Star break one of the first stories that broke was that he was calling it a day. So, it is done and I can only hope that he and the Dev’s can get together so he can hold a non-bizarro world press conference with the people surrounding him that should have been there last week. Mar-tan was not a Blue, he was a Devil, probably the best ever. It would only be fitting…

MARSHAWN LYNCH IS A fairly talented football player. He also seems to be a very independent, rebellious type of guy. Believe me, I can identify. However, with his team, the Seattle Seahawks, in the big bowl today, he has to know that there will be media responsibilities coming along with this whole circus. There is no rule that says you have to like it. But Lynch went out of his way to be a knucklehead about it anyway. On the first media day he answered 29 questions the same way with a repeat the next day. The 29 answers “I’m only here because I have to be” and the next day’s “you know why I’m here” were a pathetic display by an alleged professional to say the least. So, it would be easy to write a column and just tear this guy the new one he so justly deserves.

But then I thought, if I knew how this clown was going to work the media that day I would have brought a psychiatrist and a psychologist with me to observe this guy during the entire event. He was there 10 minutes on day one and 5 minutes on day 2. You know, there may be some deep rooted internal reasons for his behavior and the medical pro’s could have rooted them out perhaps. If that were the case you could write a compassionate column on the guy and appeal to him to get help. Or they could find out the guy is just a first class dink, another overpaid athletic man-child and then you could write that ripper column that would seem to be so much verbal festival.  

I mean, I’m trying to be the concerned observer, maybe he has mental health issues, but that ripper column? That could be some fun…. PEACE

Marc Elliott is a sports opinion writer who splits his time between his hometown in Illinois and Minnesota