12 Years Ago Mark Messier Proved To Be A Clown

"Show me a person who has heroes and I'll show you someone still in the sixth grade."
- Bert Sugar in Boxing's Greatest Fighters

That statement may have some validity to it.

I can tell you the exact day I looked at sports more cynically and that was July 28, 1997.

All season long I heard Mark Messier say that he would not be leaving the Rangers, yet on that day - exactly 12 years ago today - Messier signed a lucrative deal with the Vancouver Canucks.

I'm not saying that 1994 wasn't great for Rangers fans and that the night Messier's #11 was raised to the Madison Square Garden rafters wasn't special, although Messier's crying was a bit much to watch and take seriously; if he loved it here so much why did he leave?

Big money from a stupid Vancouver Canucks management team, that's why.

Messier took the money and ran, which is fine, but why didn't the guy just say he wanted money and security instead of saying over and over that money wasn't an issue and that he was willing to take a backseat. Oh and ask Vancouver fans how much of a "messiah" he was for them. They loathe him up in Vancouver.

Messier was offered the same deal that Wayne Gretzky was getting and called it "insulting." Yeah, I'd love to be insulted by nearly $6 million a year. I heard the same "insulting" charges out of Joe Torre. Whatever.

Today, there is not one pro athlete I look up to! Not one. There are many I greatly admire, but never again will I follow someone the way I did Mark Messier. Talk to me about sports and you'll quickly see that I'm not one of those people that blindly follows and I guess I partly have the "great" Messier to thank for that.