{"id":372105,"date":"2025-12-24T01:44:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T01:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/372105\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T01:44:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T01:44:31","slug":"sporting-heroes-and-villains-came-in-all-kinds-of-shapes-suits-and-sizes-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/372105\/","title":{"rendered":"Sporting heroes and villains came in all kinds of shapes, suits and sizes in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Viktor E. Ratt, the Florida Panthers’ mascot, provided tremendous atmosphere during the NHL playoffs this year, as the team he represents went about winning its second consecutive Stanley Cup.Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

My overall favourite moment this year happened during the NHL<\/a> playoffs. I was in Florida, where they do a bit during games called \u2018Heroes Among Us\u2019. <\/p>\n

They bring out a veteran of foreign wars and fete them. The veteran \u2013 who is usually of advanced age \u2013 then salutes through the national anthems.<\/p>\n

One night, the angle caught the Panthers mascot \u2013 a human-sized rodent called Viktor E. Ratt \u2013 saluting behind him. I\u2019m talking the sort of salute a Marine could be proud of. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strange time in our corner of the world. The villains seem to overwhelming the heroes. But when I think about the state of things, I prefer to think that most of us are like that beautiful, civic-minded rat, even if he is on the wrong side. He gives me hope.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, more or less so. <\/p>\n

Heroes<\/p>\n

Booers \u2013 When America decided to sneak up on us in January and trip us from behind, there wasn\u2019t a whole lot Canada could do about it. <\/p>\n

Right-thinking Americans (though I am losing faith that such a thing exists) rushed in to soothe us, which was another way of shushing us. Don\u2019t worry. Don\u2019t worry. It\u2019s just four years. You can start filling in the smouldering hole where your manufacturing sector used to be then. <\/p>\n

But for the first time maybe ever, Canada wasn\u2019t willing to sit quietly and wait for redress. That was thanks to the arena booers. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Canada’s best players and crowd stood up against the U.S. despite 4 Nations loss<\/a><\/p>\n

It started in Ottawa, and spread contagiously across the country. For about two weeks there, peaking at the 4 Nations Face-Off, the U.S. anthem would not go un-booed. More than any politician, sports fans delivered our riposte. <\/p>\n

Then, just as it was starting to get stale, they stopped. Perfect message; perfect timing. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler dominated the world of golf in 2025, but didn’t lose sight of the fact that he is paid a lot of money to play a game and that there are bigger things in the world than that.Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler \u2013 I refuse to believe anybody who plays sports for a living has actually convinced themselves that it matters. It\u2019s a great living and all, but you\u2019re not saving lives. <\/p>\n

Only Scottie Scheffler, the best golfer in the world, is willing to say that out loud. He did so before this year\u2019s Open in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a fulfilling life,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cIt\u2019s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it\u2019s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he won the tournament<\/a>. I cannot imagine a more satisfying linkage of praxis and action. <\/p>\n

Alejandro Kirk \u2013 A lot of Blue Jays got better press during the World Series, but Kirk remained the kindred spirit of all those who were on board before October began. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s listed at 5-foot-8, 245 pounds and I don\u2019t believe either number. Kirk is proof that it\u2019s what\u2019s under the hood that matters. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Alejandro Kirk’s grand sense of occasion gives Blue Jays license to soar<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much any of us can learn from a typical pro, but Kirk is like the rest of us \u2013 he didn\u2019t get where he is because people smoothed his path. I doubt he\u2019s ever met a scout with whom he didn\u2019t start at a disadvantage. For overcoming aesthetic prejudice alone, Kirk is the most inspiring athlete in Canada. <\/p>\n

Gianni Infantino \u2013 The FIFA boss is proof of how far you can get with a bit of smarts, a lot of moral flexibility and the self-confidence of a golden-age Hollywood star.<\/p>\n

There is no reason that Infantino \u2013 a Swiss lawyer who cut his way up through the ranks of football administration \u2013 should be the most powerful sports figure in the world, other than that he wanted to be. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump was presented with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize by FIFA president Gianni Infantino during the World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center earlier this month.Evan Vucci\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s there, Infantino is determined to hog every spotlight and lick every boot<\/a>. Most of us hide our innate grasper. It\u2019s kind of amazing to watch so much human aspiration contained in such an otherwise bland person. <\/p>\n

For me, Infantino is the emblematic early-21st century man \u2013 talks a bunch of nonsense about progress and peace, but would do absolutely anything to get a seat on the private plane. It\u2019s not heroic, but just you watch. In 40 years, they\u2019ll be building statues to this guy. He\u2019s that good. <\/p>\n

Villains <\/p>\n

Wayne Gretzky \u2013 He\u2019s created a whole new category of celebrity \u2013 least popular\/most famous Canadian. At this point, talking about why seems like rubbing it in. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: How Canada’s 50-year romance with Wayne Gretzky came to an end<\/a><\/p>\n

Gretzky\u2019s performance at the World Cup draw \u2013 calling Macedonia \u201cMackadonia\u201d and Cura\u00e7ao \u201cCurrako\u201d<\/a> \u2013 was an affront to dumb jocks. The rest of them know they have to practice before the big game. <\/p>\n

Bill Belichick \u2013 Deep inside every visionary sports genius, there is a total doorknob trying to get out. This is their inner teenager, the one who never got to come out because they were too busy striving. <\/p>\n

I suppose Scotty Bowman could\u2019ve bought a place in Vegas and started hosting pool parties. Phil Jackson could have plugged all his money into crypto and hooked up with a Kardashian. But they didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Bill Belichick didn\u2019t learn this lesson<\/a>. Maybe he spent too much time around Tom Brady post-divorce and thought, \u2018Why not me? I\u2019m a swingin\u2019 72-year-old who knows the difference between what\u2019s fire and what\u2019s cringe. It\u2019s fire, right? That\u2019s what they say now?\u2019<\/p>\n

Belichick got himself the college exacta \u2013 a college-aged girlfriend and a college job. He didn\u2019t navigate either one particularly well. Now 73 and only employed because firing him would cost too much, he is just another former star intent on disproving Neil Young\u2019s maxim about fading away. Except far too old to be making this young man\u2019s mistake. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Bev Priestman, right, resurfaced in New Zealand this year, after she was ousted from Soccer Canada’s program in the wake of its Olympic drone scandal last year.YUXIN LIU\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s women\u2019s soccer team \u2013 A year after humiliating this country at the Olympics, the lead soccer cheaters were still trying to paint themselves the victims. <\/p>\n

Head coach Bev Priestman decamped to New Zealand, telling stories about a \u201cmedia frenzy.\u201d There aren\u2019t enough fully employed media in this country to mount a decent frenzy. A small flurry, maybe. Possibly a swirl. But definitely not a frenzy. <\/p>\n

Her subordinate, Jasmine Mander, wrote a very long essay in the Players\u2019 Tribune (remember that blast from the past?) that was positively Nixonian in its attempts to dodge. <\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the end of the world. We\u2019re all over it. But that doesn\u2019t mean that the authors of it should be redeemed just because they\u2019d prefer it that way. That\u2019s something sports people never seem to get \u2013 no one is owed a job in sports.<\/p>\n

Gambling ads \u2013 A continuing national embarrassment, propped up by some of the best players in the world, none of whom are so hard up that they need to stoop to this. It\u2019s like watching Angela Merkel come out of retirement to try and convince people that dropping acid enhances the voting experience. <\/p>\n

In the end, gambling may not be the end of professional sport as we know it. But I\u2019d bet good money that it will be one of the causes<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Viktor E. Ratt, the Florida Panthers’ mascot, provided tremendous atmosphere during the NHL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,4,1929,63,1376],"class_list":{"0":"post-372105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-noastack","14":"tag-panthers","15":"tag-topstory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115772015482870265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}