Red & Black Hockey
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Jack Johnson Sr goes to bat for his baby boy.
by David Lee on 05/23/09 at 08:43 AM ET
Comments (2)
On Thursday, The Hockey News ran a letter to the editor signed by Jack Johnson Sr. The letter was entitled “You Don’t Know Jack” and states that the only reason JJ refused to play or even sign for Carolina is that he wanted to pursue “his dream at his pace”. He goes on to say:
I’m simply tired of hearing him getting slammed without all the facts.
Jack wishes nothing but the best to all the Hurricanes and the organization.
I, as his father, only ask that all fans simply research the facts and respect him for being a man of principle beyond all else.
The letter doesn’t indicate why JJ was adamant about pursuing his dream of playing at University of Michigan and remained steadfast only until Carolina traded his rights to the LA Kings. He wasted little time, signing a contract and joining the Kings before his sophomore season was over.
Now that there are rumors that the Kings want to deal Jack Johnson to Tampa as part of a package for Vincent Lecavalier (story), JJ Sr has apparently decided that his son wants to play in Russia. That, of course, isn’t mentioned in the letter.
There’s this really creepy story about Jim Rutherford having dinner with Jack Johnson while the former was trying to convince the latter to forgo his college career to play for the Hurricanes. After some period of time, JJ revealed that his father was sitting in the parking lot of the restaurant, and had been out there the whole time. Rutherford, taken aback by that news, suggested that JJ bring his father in, but the Johnsons preferred to work it their own way. Their own, creepy way. Even then, Canes fans thought it was a little like Carl Lindros.
Now, this crazy man has written a letter on behalf of his 22 year old son. This is just weird. This whole thing is downright bizarre.
At the end of the day, most Hurricanes fans are happy about the trade. Carolina ended up with a very dependable (regular season, anyway) defenseman in Tim Gleason, they were able to shed some salary in Oleg Tverdovsky, and they got rid of a bad situation with JJ.
Before this letter ran, Luke Decock wrote a little about the whole JJ to Russia thing, and he ended it with this one-liner:
Meanwhile, in completely unrelated news, Gleason’s dad has been taking time off from his job to follow the Hurricanes in the playoffs.
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Comments
Isn’t your team currently involved in a playoff series or something like that?
Posted by Amy on 05/24/09 at 08:32 PM ET
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About Red & Black Hockey
David Lee is a restaurant manager with an unused degree in political science. He can be found at Carolina Hurricanes games, Scrabble tournaments and indie-rock shows. Sometimes, all in the same day.
David has contributed to CBC.ca for their Stanley Cup playoff coverage in 2006 and to the New York Times Slapshot blog for theirs in 2008. Red and Black Hockey was founded in July of 2005.
You do realize that Jack Johnson had made it clear to Jim Rutherford when he was drafted that he intended to honor his commitment to Red Berenson and play at least two seasons at Michigan? Rutherford knew Johnson’s position going in, drafted him anyway, then tried to pressure him into leaving school sooner than Johnson planned. When Johnson was steadfast about sticking to his original plan, Rutherford panicked and dealt him to Los Angeles.
Johnson didn’t immediately reverse his position and sign in LA “before his sophomore season was over,” like you claim. He played the full year, and after Michigan was eliminated in the NCAA tournament, he decided it was the right time to leave school and signed fairly quickly (which meant he’d be able to play in the last few games of the NHL season with the Kings, I believe because it let him run a year off the time until he’d reach free agency). Johnson even had Red Berenson’s blessing; Berenson said something to the effect that he knew Johnson was ready for the NHL and he’d be happy to drive Johnson to the airport himself so he could catch a plane and go play in the NHL.
The irony in your post to slam Jack Johnson and his dad is that you only validate Johnson Sr.’s frustration with fans who don’t “research the facts.”
But, hey, ad hominem attacks are a perfectly acceptable way to make yourself feel better about your GM screwing up.
Posted by Alexander Dubcek on 05/23/09 at 01:12 PM ET