Dear IOC, I may drink a beer after this game. Feel free to "investigate what happened"

Published 11:50 am Friday, February 26, 2010

I’m back at Canada Hockey Place for the men’s semifinal between the U.S. and Finland.

But before we can get to that game, I feel we must first discuss what went on here yesterday evening, and the stupid fallout it created.

In case you hadn’t heard, long after the game had ended and the arena had cleared out of fans, a bunch of the Canadian women’s team, fresh off winning the gold medal game, came back on the ice to celebrate with beers, champagne and cigars. It was a great scene, a bunch of athletes—who were under a tremendous amount of pressure during these Olympics, by the way—letting loose on the playing surface where they had just won gold.

Now, the IOC is actually saying they will “investigate what happened.”

Um… let me help you with that IOC. They won a gold medal and, deservedly so, had a good time afterwards. That’s what happened.

By late Thursday night, everyone was talking about the IOC’s “investigation.” No one up here could quite fathom how it’s a big deal that hockey players decided to celebrate by drinking. Or, for that matter, how it is a bid deal that a group of Canadians decided to celebrate by drinking.

The IOC seems to have a problem with the celebration happening in public, as opposed to in the locker room. But how is celebrating in an empty arena more public than celebrating in a locker room with T.V. cameras rolling, which we see in sports all the time.

There have been a lot of problems at these Olympics, a team celebrating with a few beers and some champagne is not one of them.

OK, rant over.

So, yeah, there’s a hockey game starting in a few minutes.

I’ll post a few updates here, and you can also follow along on twitter.