Maybe it’s already spread around the Boltosphere and hockey blogosphere far and wide, but Erik Erlendsson’s interview with free-agent-to-be Brad Richards, the Dallas Stars center and former Tampa Bay Lightning member, certainly had a remark worth noting:
“If you get the right owner, a general manager like Steve Yzerman, people who know how to do things, it’s great. I think we just needed the right kind of owner to come in here. Um, maybe I shouldn’t say ‘we,’ right?”
I got a real chuckle out of this. Not exactly a confidence chuckle, as the obvious slip up. Before people go goo-goo over the idea of the Bradmaster (my apologies to former NFL QB Brad Johnson, I stole your nickname ages ago and applied it to Richards) returning to Tampa Bay.
Read the full context of the interview. Take it for what it was – Brad’s remarks were prefaced with his discussion of attending 2011 NHL Playoff games in Tampa as a fan and seeing the crowd and being part of it; being outside the bubble of playoff hockey that he experienced in Tampa in 2004:
“It was pretty cool to see the town like that, the way it was before,” Richards said. “When I played with the Lightning (in 2004), I was in a bubble. This time, I could see how people react to the team. It’s a good thing going on.
So, hopes may be raised by slipping up on “we”, or the reader (yeah, you) can take it as the dilemma that all writers (bloggers, fans, journalists) have when talking about a team they care about: “We” is taboo. You’re not a member of the roster, or organization. You just support them.
I’m glad to see Brad cares, but I’ll leave it at that.
