Washington Capitals

No, I don't Rock the Red. I could give a damn about Ovechkin. But Donald Brashear, one the few black men playing in the NHL, is both allegory and metaphor for so many, many more compelling & interesting things. Mike Wise surveyed the troubled territory that is Brashear in the Washington Post. Read, and discuss. Ironic that this most complex player has been suspended for 6 games, for doing the thing he hates the most, fighting. He's no thug. He has the skills, the hands, the eye. There's never been debate on that trust. But ownership in all the teams of his career love him in this other role, and ironically-- there he draws upon a deep well of wrath.

I'm happy that fans in the Nation's Capital have found a hook, a rally point. There doesn't seem to be an argosy of such things for suburban white folks in this region as of late. But amid all the red and beer and soujourns on the Metro to the games, flooding the town with cheery pale faces other than the less rube-ish gentrifiers, I don't hear much talk about the deepth of this troubled yet celebrated man,. This black man with a stick, scouring the ice at his feet...