Héros ou bouc émissaire ?
Yet another chapter in the long dramatic history of the French-language Montreal sporting press neatly wrote itself this morning, when La Presse’s Stéphane Laporte posted a blog entry entitled “Daniel Brière a refusé d’être un héros”: in English, “Daniel Briere refused to be a hero.”
You see, Briere, French-speaking native of Gatineau, Quebec, and former co-captain of the Buffalo Sabres, had the audacity to sign a free-agent contract with a team that wasn’t the hallowed Club de hockey Canadien. For this sin against the pur laine, Laporte proceeded to all but insult Briere’s manhood in a screed bemoaning the recent lack of Quebecois stars on the Habs’ roster.
But why, Daniel, why?
“At the end of the line, I asked myself where I’d be the happiest, where I could best develop myself…”
You could have been happy in Montreal, Daniel. You could have developed yourself. Maurice Richard developed himself in Montreal. Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur and Patrick Roy too. They also became heroes of a people, something you can never be in the United States. […]
The pride of playing for your gang, for the people that speak your language, didn’t play into it. Nor the challenge. Nor the great hopes. Is there a great Quebecois player left who wants to raise these passions, not just to live a quiet life in the Philadelphia suburbs?
What Laporte doesn’t seem to understand is that it’s precisely this attitude, and those like it, that keep smart French-speaking stars like Briere from signing in Montreal.
2 July 2007 / 0 Comments / Tags: hockey, french, quebec