Masking Stupidity

Ottawa Senators goaltender Ray Emery will be unveiling his new mask tonight vs. the Boston Bruins. As even casual fans are aware, NHL goalies often decorate their masks as a personal statement. The artwork can run from the inspirational Scottish lion Canucks' goalie Kirk MacLean wore during the team's 1994 playoff run, to the witty stitches the Bruins' Gerry Cheevers painted on his mask to represent what his face would like if he never wore it.

In Emery's case, he's chosen to express his love for another sport (boxing) by having the image of Mike Tyson painted on his mask. It's one thing to give the NHL another reminder of hockey's inadvertent pugilism, it's quite another to honour an ear-biting, beauty queen-raping moron whose name became synonymous with why boxing isn't taken seriously by sports fans anymore.

If Emery was really a boxing fan, and he wanted an image to make a personal statement, might this page suggest using the image of the The Greatest of All Time, the man who threw his Olympic Gold Medal into a river to protest segregation, the man who defiantly went to prison as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the Personal Statement: Muhammad Ali.