Tanner Glass called Danny Briere the dirtiest player in the league! What an outrage!
No, okay. Let’s talk about this for a minute. Glass, who plays for the Penguins, talked to Randy Miller of the Courier Post today in Pittsburgh. Here’s the quote from Glass in its entirety:
“I think so. For being a guy who is known as a skill guy, an offensive player, if you look back at some of his clips, his play in the past … there’s some dirty plays. He’ll give you a stick in the …”
And via the CP, here’s Glass talking in another interview on Pittsburgh radio:
For sure Briere, he’s a shifty character out there. I think he’s one of the dirtiest players in the league, to be honest. He’s undercover dirty. … You go back on his resume, things he’s been penalized for and suspensions and things like that, and you’d be surprised how many things you’d find on him.”
A summation of Glass’ quotes: Why yes, reporter asking me an extremely leading question, Briere’s dirty. Probably one of the dirtiest in the league. He’s been suspended a lot and he’s sneaky with his stick.
Is this anything we don’t already know? Briere has been suspended three times for dirty plays in his career. He’s missed nine games due to suspension and has lost over $250,000, according to Mike Halford of ProHockeyTalk. Beyond that, we all know how many stick fouls Danny takes in a season. He’s done this:
Danny Briere is not a lovable hockey player, as Miller and the Courier Post so objectively put it. He’s a tiny dude and he hacks with his stick and he jabs at people behind the play and he’s a dirty hockey player. Some might argue he’s just doing what he has to do to get by because he’s three feet tall, and that’s not a bad argument. But he’s not a saint.
Of course, Danny isn’t the dirtiest in the league either. But when you’re a hockey player asked by both a radio host and a reporter from a rival city who you think the dirtiest player on the opposing team might be, wouldn’t you have a little fun too?
Let’s hate the Penguins for being dirty themselves. Let’s hate them for every single reason we discussed in this story a few months ago. Let’s hate them because they’re Pittsburgh. We don’t need to make up stupid controversies to make this rivalry more fun.
