When you grow up in Canada, it’s absurd to think somebody wouldn’t like Sidney Crosby. At 24, he has won every elite hockey award including a Stanley Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal. To round out his trophy collection, he has a Hart Trophy, judged as most valuable to his team, an Art Ross trophy as league points leader at season’s end and a Rocket Richard Trophy as top goal scorer, all since beginning his career as the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2005; the same season he became the youngest player in NHL history to record 100 points in a season.
On top of his awards, Crosby is loved by his community for his work in it. When you live in the United States though, you see that he is not the same hero to the people here, unless of course you are from Pittsburgh.
His hatred in Michigan continued to grow when he won his first Stanley Cup in 2009 as the youngest captain in NHL history at age 21. Not only was that Stanley Cup against Michigan’s beloved Detroit Red Wings, but the final win took place in Detroit after the Red Wings had won the Stanley Cup a year ago from Crosby’s same Penguins. This hatred expanded throughout much of the United States and more so Michigan when he scored the overtime game winning goal to steal a gold medal right off the Americans’ necks in 2010.
Crosby’s media attention is mostly to blame for his hate from fans not from Canada or Pittsburgh. At seven years old, he was playing in local leagues in his Native town of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Media and local fans were in awe and started interviewing the young prodigy. In an interview at age 14, with buck teeth and a less-than-matured squeaky voice is the first time the nation started to hear about Sid the Kid. Spotlight stemmed from leading his team to a Midget AAA national championship.
Fans now get to see him on ESPN’s every highlight reel, anytime he touches the ice or even goes for a walk in the park. It has gotten old for many fans and players, especially those he has been playing against for so long and beating most of those times. Every little thing he does, whether it’s complaining to a referee about a call, (something which every hockey player has done) or scoring a highlight reel goal, it’s all glorified in the spotlight.
What fans and haters that aren’t from Pittsburgh or Canada don’t get to see every day is the effort he puts in for not only the community, but the commitment to his teammates and his family. The fans don’t get to see the heartwarming stories of Sid the Kid.
Many people say he’s arrogant and cocky in interviews, but not too many people know that he is actually calm, collected and very shy. His teammates always say they joke with him and he just kind of takes it and chuckles; slowly has gotten better at comebacks.
In 2009, during a five-game Western Canada road trip, the Penguins had back-to-back games. After the game Wednesday, the rest of his team went home to sleep and prepare for the next game. Crosby, though, was boarding a flight. A Make-A-Wish child with leukemia was hours from losing his life and wanted to meet his hockey idol. He flew to the child, just to visit with him and make sure the child got the one thing he wanted. Sidney was with him until just hours before his death, and then flew all the way back to Edmonton, Alberta to help his teammates to a win that night.
The fact of the matter seems to be that any athlete or idol in the world that is glorified in the media is normally pretty evenly split between loved and hated. Currently out of the game with a concussion that resulted from a hit eight months ago, fans abroad are hoping for Crosby to return because they say “it’s good for the game.”
Whether you hate Sid the Kid or idolize him as I do, think about how many things you do on a daily basis that people would pick apart if you were in the national spotlight 24/7. Understand that the media wants controversy and drama; negativity makes more interesting TV than heartwarming stories. It doesn’t matter if you despise him or admire him, but either way we can probably all agree that Sidney Crosby is an unbelievable hockey player.
