Jim Kelley

Jim Kelley writes regularly on the NHL for Sportsnet.ca and can be heard on Primetime Sports on the FAN590.

I appreciate your opinions, but I get paid for mine and they are built upon a lifetime of experience. They are not meant to make everyone happy all the time.

"So this is Christmas and what have you done?

-- John Lennon

They are just 17 words, the opening lines to one of the most haunting (and at the same time inspirational) year-ending songs ever written, but like Marley's ghost, they come back to haunt me every year.

They are from John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono - and if I have to tell you who Lennon was then there really is no hope left in the world (and the popularity of mixed martial arts has me leaning that way).

Yeah that's a cheap and sarcastic shot at a so-called sport and just in case there is any confusion as to where I stand; I don't like it. I think mixed martial arts is both demeaning to its audience and degrading to its participants, the manifestation of everything civilized people once outlawed regards the rules associated with prize fighting but hey, this is a brand new year and one of my new year's resolutions is to look forward so for those of you who think I'm too negative and too sarcastic (and many of you have written to let me know that), well I thought on this, the first day of the new year, you might want to get to know me a little better.

I appreciate your opinions, but I get paid for mine and they are built upon a lifetime of experience. They are not meant to make everyone happy all the time. They are designed to get people to think, think about things and ideas and points of view that they might not see or read anywhere else.

Happy Christmas (War is Over), was written as a protest song during the Vietnam war in the early 1970s, and it has stayed with me all these years because I still believe that war was wrong and I still believe, even in the age of instant video and a near constant bombardment of useless information posing as both news and facts, that words still matter.

"And so this is Christmas

A new one just begun."

It gets me thinking every year about the state of the world and what the world of professional sports -- which has made up virtually all of my professional life -- has become. It gets me thinking about what hockey is and where it is going.

To those of you who believe I don't like fighting in hockey, well I don't. I understand it, and I recognize its historic place in the game and I'm pretty much certain nothing I write will ever get it out of the game, but I believe the issue needs to be discussed.

I believe there's nothing wrong with believing in something and caring about something and for those of you who choose to like mixed martial arts, that is your choice, but not mine and now I've stated my reasons why.

But I believe in hockey and I care about it. I believe it is the greatest game on earth and I believe it is played by the finest athletes (and I've covered most every sport).

When I was younger, I didn't mind fighting, even enjoyed more than a few and I'd be lying if I said I never participated on one.

I've also known many of the legendary fighters in the game and I've written their stories. I understand their passion for what they do. Many believe fighting belongs in the sport as much as skating and passing and shooting and defending and I get that, but some also believe that it has gotten too far out of hand and that the consequences of that -- coupled with a growth of interest in blood sports like cage fighting -- will someday lead to unintended consequences in both arenas.

It's why I often write about the consequences of actions like fighting and hitting from behind. I do it because as much as I enjoy watching and writing about all that is good in the game, I still hear those words, "and what have you done?"

I believe in words. I believe that words matter and that what happens to people like Don Sanderson (a senior league player who has now died as the result of a fight) or Patrice Bergeron (an NHL pro having always to be wary of concussion problems because of having absorbed hits from behind) matters. I believe that life is more important than sports and that these fine young men deserve to play the game without fear of dying for it.

I also believe that someone needs to say that.

What's wrong with the game needs to be talked about. It's been my experience that people in hockey, even the strong willed and the players that have gotten rich from it understand that. They want someone to counter the many voices that speak out in favour of fighting. They know the networks, because of rights-holders fees and controls that the League has over who get those rights, don't often give voice to people who disagree with what they are selling.

They also know, and many of them have told me this, that for them to speak out about it will be a professional death sentence. Historically, taking on unpopular topics has been left to people who use the written word and the power of place in the media to make their arguments. That's a part of why I write the way I do.

And good things can come from that.

By way of example, a great many broadcast outlets and far too many print (they internet barely existed back then) ignored the fact that some years back there were problems with corruption and collusion between the NHL and the NHL Players Association regards pension funds and the way ex-NHL players were treated.

Many in media ignored it in part because of the power and influence of Alan Eagleson and the NHL, but one man, Russ Conway, writing for a small newspaper, the Lawrence Eagle Tribute, changed all that. Conway listened to the stories from Bobby Orr and Carl Brewer and other ex-NHL players who felt betrayed but had no place to take their complaints. His work, Cracking the Ice, first written for readers of a tiny Massachusetts newspaper, laid the groundwork for sending Eagleson to jail, helped a legion of ex-NHL players get benefits they rightly deserved and changed the face of the National Hockey League Players Association so much that the prosecutor who sent Eagleson to jail, Paul Kelly, is now the Executive Director of the NHLPA and is charged with keeping both the PA and the NHL honest.

I think of that when people tell me that the written word doesn't matter and that taking unpopular stands is "negative" and a "betrayal" of the game from which I make my living. And then I remember that the world needs alternative voices, voices that speak for the rich and the poor ones in a world that -in that case at least-was so wrong.

So too my friends and critics, I hope you remain both readers and open minded for as the song goes:

And so this is Christmas

Without any fear

Happy New Year to all.