Simon The Barbarian Role Model

The stupidity of humanity continues to amaze me, even after years in media.

There are eight games remaining in Chris Simon's 30 game sentence after his latest indescretion, trying to slice Jarkko Ruutu's achillies with his skate blade.

So what has Simon the Barbarian been up to, you may wonder? Well let me tell you!

He has been talking to kids. That's right, the guy who is seeing league-mandated, mandatory counciling is going out and giving his knowledge to children. Apparently, the Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Phil Fontaine invited Simon, a "aboriginal role model" to deliver a speech at the Manitoba Youth Centre in Winnipeg.

Gordon Sinclair Jr., a columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press, wrote a piece on it here - a must-read. Sinclair asks you to "suspend your judgement" while you read his account of the trip by Simon.

Sinclair sums things up thusly:

I don't know what you think of Chris Simon now.

But I'll tell you what I think.

He flew all the way from New York to be with some kids and share his triumphs and painful struggles.

Kids a lot of Winnipeggers wouldn't walk across the street to talk to.

Ok, so that means that Simon, in his attempt to salvage some iota of his image, went on a PR run for the Islanders, and is a good guy to talk to the young aboriginals because the people of Winnipeg are racists.

Oh yeah, what a good guy. He can come on over, date my sister and kiss my kids (if I had any of either). Are you kidding me? While I applaud his ability to remain sober, that just means that he doesn't have an excuse for his actions other than the fact that he is just insane.

Supporters may say that Simon made the trip willingly (as Sinclair did), but the Islanders immediately put the link on their site here, titled "The Chris Simon We All Know" and had it on the front page.

Oh really? So the Chris Simon who did this and this isn't the real Chris Simon? Yeah, ok. I subscribe to the dictum to not judge a book by its cover, but once you look inside that book and read the story, you really should have a good idea.

So here it is, tell me if there is something redeeming here (barrowed partially from Fanhouse):

December '08 - 30 games for Kicking
March '07 - 25 games for a Stick attack against Ryan Hollweg
March '04 - 2 games for Kneeing
Jan. '04 - 2 games for Cross-checking
April '01 - 2 games for Elbowing
April '00 - 1 game for Cross-checking (playoffs)
Nov. '97 - 3 games for Alleged racial remarks against Mike Grier.

The Isles, who have struggled mightily to get bodies in the Mausoleum, have to justify having a criminal return to their lineup (on Feb. 20 vs Washington) so they resort to that pathetic spin. It's understandable, but I wouldn't hang my hat on people actually believing this garbage.

Then again, as I said before, the stupidity of humanity continues to amaze me so who knows ... ?