Bob Smizak Continues to Prove He's a Ginormous ASS!!

I would really love to know what credentials Bob Smizak has which allow him to so confidently feel he can speak freely on the subject of all sports as though he's some type of all-knowing expert and that his opinion is worth more than the dirt on my shoe?

Jack of all [sports] trades, master of none!

I believe that his primary goal as a writer is to have every Pittsburgh sports fan loathe him more with each column he writes; he has to be some kind of masochist who enjoys feeling the wrath of others.

Is he even a fan of hockey? I would gather not because any true, full-fledged hockey fan could not disagree more with Sir Smizak's most recent column discussing the need to do away with fighting in hockey, "Quit pulling punches on fighting."

Action serves no purpose and keeps the sport from growing nationally.

There is only one thing more ridiculous than the fighting that takes place in the National Hockey League, and that is the wholly illogical attempts of those in the game to justify this hooliganism.

Fighting in hockey is an absolute joke and the sooner the powers that be admit it -- they already know it -- the better off the sport will be.

As a hockey fan and with the most recent additions to the Penguins with enforcers such as Eric Godard and Paul Bissonnette, it's opinions like this that make my skin crawl! Fighting has long been a part of the game. Why do some insist on focusing on ending it?!

But Smizak doesn't stop there and comments on Eric Godard and Riley Cote's epic fight last Tuesday night which appears to me as an indirect insult to all of the current enforcers throughout the NHL.

What a sad commentary on the dazzling skills of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin that two players who don't even belong in the league can inspire the crowd to such a level.

I wonder if he'd so quickly offer up his opinion if he was having this conversation with the likes of Eric Godard and Paul Bissonnette or perhaps Daniel Brashear? It would seem so easy to submit his opinion to print behind the confines of a comfortable office, behind a cushy desk where he can safely hide behind his computer screen.

And he saves the best for last.

Meanwhile, hockey, which can be a ballet on ice, struggles for far-flung acceptance because it insists, for no good reason, to be best known as a barroom brawl on ice.

In my opinion, hockey is both a ballet and brawl on ice -- you cannot have one without the other when the game is at it's best. Perhaps it comes down to balance, but to say that it's struggling for acceptance? Have you been to the Mellon Arena lately, Sir Smizik? "Far-flung?" Maybe not, but struggling - not even close! And hockey insists on fighting - again, it comes down to that being a part of what the game is and has always been and will always be (it's not a matter of insistance)!! Smizik - you, as did the rest of us, had the opportunity to witness the biggest stage of a ballet / brawl on ice at the Stanley Cup Final last year -- hockey at it's best, so I have no idea what you're even running your pie hole about! But THANKS for the post material!!

List of titles I proudly wear as a hockey fan (thanks to Sir Smizik):

Knucklehead

Hooligan (fan of hooliganism)