Recently,  Tim Thomas, the star goalie for the Boston Bruins refused to attend a ceremony at the White House honoring the Bruins’ winning the Stanley Cup. Thomas stated that he was protesting a “government out of control.” This was followed by Patriots’ owners Robert Kraft and family inviting Rush Limbaugh to join them in the owner’s box at the Super Bowl. Kraft, who has a history of spreading political money around was not just looking to score some Oxycontin. He making a political point.

I think it’s time to get politics right out of professional team sports. Pro players sign contracts that require them to make personal appearances at the team’s request. They can be penalized for engaging in conduct detrimental to the team’s public image. Thomas was not sanctioned in any way for his dissing the president of the United States, who was engaged in a ceremonial, not political, activity. Obama was congratulating the Bruins on behalf of the entire country. It wasn’t an act of self-glorification by any means. All presidents perform this function. So, I think it is fair to say that the Bruins’ front office thinks that dissing the president doesn’t harm their image. Imagine what they would have done to Thomas had he endorsed Occupy Wall Street.

Kraft is a savvy political being. He makes lots of political donations and he gets press for his political opinions. He knew what he was doing when he invited Limbaugh into his box for high visibility at the Super Bowl. It was a political statement.

Now pro sports teams in baseball, hockey, basketball and football especially are territorial. They exploit the local geography reaping team loyalty based upon civic pride. Fans describe their local teams as “we” for this reason. And local governments fawn over these teams providing them with innumerable perks and benefits up to and including financing with tax dollars, sweetheart leases, policing services, tax breaks, loans, waivers, whatever. Virtually every team has a cozy relationship with local governments within their territories. The supposed purpose is to provide the local population with common ground, something they can all get behind. Once a team becomes a political tool, i.e. the Boston Republican Patriots or the Chicago Democratic White Sox, that purpose is nullified. The team becomes a divisive element within the community and not a unifying force.

Thus, when the Bruins permit Tim Thomas to make his political statement, they are encouraging divisiveness. They become a force for breaking apart the community. When Robert Kraft displays Rush Limbaugh in his owner’s suite, he is saying that “I am supporting the Republicans this election year.”  It is a political add, that he gets to make because he owns a team which, by the way, benefits from civic and community support that crosses party lines.

There is far too much divisiveness, meanness, bad blood in this country already without a bunch of privileged, coddled millionaire athletic idols and their billionaire “owners” exploiting their privileges or skills as puck stoppers and runners, by ratcheting up the hostility. It’s not good for sportsmen to pretend they have special expertise in politics because they can run, or catch or even have a willingness to stick their noggin in front of a 90-mile per hour slap shot. And it’s not good for the fans to idolize their sports, their teams or the players when they behave that way. When Thomas failed to show up to receive the congratulations of the country, he dissed me. When Kraft showed himself willing to sit next to a drug-addled, nasty blowhard for three hours, he was saying “fuck you” to me. So I give them both three flying forks. Back at you.