A 4th Grader's Letter to Gary Bettman

I know that I haven't said a lot about hockey- mainly because there is no NHL this season, but also because only Playoff hockey is interesting anyway.

Imagine my surprise when my (totally real) little brother, a 4th Grader, wrote a letter to Gary Bettman for a class project. I thought it was thoughtful and pretty funny coming from him so I wanted to post it here as a monument to the worthlessness of the NHL, and why it is consistently the worst sports league in the United States (you're on notice MLS).

I took the liberty to spell all the words correctly, otherwise I have left as initially conceived. Here it is:

Dear Mr. Bettman,

My name is (Name Redacted) and I am a 4^th Grader at (Name Redacted), and I live in Washington D.C. My dad is a huge Washington Capitals fan. I am a huge Washington Capitals fan too.

I liked hockey for the first time two years ago when the Capitals went to the playoffs but then lost. I went to all of the games. I remember that everyone was really mad, but I didn’t know why. My dad said that the Capitals were supposed to win, but then didn’t. So everyone got really mad.

Then last year the Capitals were supposed to be good too. But then they lost in the playoffs again. My dad and the other people weren’t as mad. I was mad. I wanted them to win but they didn’t.

This year, Mr. Bettman, there is no hockey. My dad told me that you were the commissioner and that I should write a letter to you to tell you how much I think this stinks. I really like hockey and everyone else does too. I wish you would let them play this year.

My dad said there was something wrong with the collective bargaining agreement (horribly misspelled in the original), and that you didn’t want to pay the players money. Do you not have enough money already? Back when there was hockey me and my dad went to a lot of games and we bought hot dogs and soda at the games too. I think we gave you a lot of our money. I can tell my dad to pay you more if that will help? He buys a lot of things no one uses anyway.

My dad said the players and the owners of the teams have been arguing over money and neither wants the other to have any. Why don’t the owners and players just share the money? My mom gets mad at me when I don’t share my things with my little brother. It gets really annoying but I do it because I don’t like it when she gets mad. Do people get mad at you?

My dad said that hockey missed a season a couple of years ago and everyone was really mad. Aren’t you afraid that the players won’t want to play with you anymore? You aren’t going to let the players play another time. My dad thinks they are all going to play in Europe or Canada and the hockey league here is going to go away. He says that no one is going to want to play for you because you are unfair.

Since you are in charge of hockey don’t you like it? Don’t you want to see the players play it? I think this lockout is unfair. The players can’t play and the fans can’t watch. Hockey is my favorite sport and I am going to be very sad if there is no hockey this year. I hate watching basketball and the Wizards stink.

Sincerely,

(Name Redacted)