“I’m back,” Gritty said in a direct callback to Michael Jordan’s 1995 fax-machine news release announcing his return to the Chicago Bul...
“I’m back,” Gritty said in a direct callback to Michael Jordan’s 1995 fax-machine news release announcing his return to the Chicago Bulls from a brief baseball-induced retirement.
But was Jordan’s news release written using the comic sans font? No, it wasn’t.
On Sunday, the NHL announced it would return with a 56-game season that starts Jan. 13, with games almost entirely played at home arenas instead of the Canadian bubbles that were used to complete last season (because of Canada’s pandemic regulations, teams based in that country may be forced to play home games in U.S. stadiums). The next day, Gritty wrote an impassioned plea to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, asking — demanding, really — that he be allowed into the Flyers’ home stadium.
“Hockey needs me, I need hockey, the world needs Gritty,” he wrote, noting that he tried and failed to penetrate last season’s NHL bubble in Canada but made it only to Ohio.
It was a pretty persuasive argument. There was a chart:
Gritty even started a change.org petition. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 12,000 have signed it. Flyers right winter Kevin Hayes tweeted his support, threatening to opt out of the season if Gritty’s brand of googly-eyed capering was not allowed back into the stadium, and our lives.
There’s no word yet about how Gritty will handle the fan-free experience. All pandemic protocols apparently will be followed:
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