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I miss the fun, I know some of you do too

May 25, 2023, 5:52 PM ET [12 Comments]
Jeremy Laura
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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yesterday’s post touched on some issues to do with streaming, revenue loss, sponsorship issues and all the things that lead to arguments. (Well, not all of them).

I am very grateful for the input so many of you give. I will give a special shoutout to Blueline enforcer for a well put together breakdown on many of the issues at hand.

I can honestly say that part of me feels that the world changed forever around the early 2000s. As some of us (me included) held our breath at 11:59pm on the last day of 1999 only to find out Y2K was not Armageddon, I thought life would go back to normal. Keep in mind I’d been married in August of 1999, and my step dad passed 2 days before Christmas 1999. Not a fun year (and a close relative ended up in prison after the wedding reception and i didn’t find out til December).

In 1999, Dallas spoiled Detroit’s 3 peat but 2001-2002 would be an epic season. That eventually led to a lockout, the “Shanahan Summit”, a salary cap, other labor issues, etc. Detroit did manage to grab a cup in the cap era in 2008 so that was good. But, right around then I was with a CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier i.e. phone company) and the news of the IPhone was hitting in the upper management meetings then to the general public. I thought that was great. Then Twitter was announced and I thought, “who on earth wants to tell the world two sentences about themselves multiple times a day”. Apparently a lot. Camera phones became video and camera phones and the shock of 9/11 created a hunger for 24/7 news coverage that could cause PTSD.

Don’t get me wrong, there were always “jabs” growing up regarding politics or religion. But they weren’t recorded and reposted. Sports was the place where whoever was most interested (dad, my brothers, friends that came over) told everyone to be quiet and enjoy the game. And we did. And then we’d go out and pretend to be someone. I wanted to be Lance Parrish and friends wanted to be Kirk Gibson (I was born in 76 to well aware in 84). “Bless you boys” was everywhere. Then we had the “bad boy” pistons later and then the Wings. So much fun. There was a giant Marlboro man on I-94 and a seemingly blissful ignorance of serious health issues that were heading our way.

Now, everything has something attached to it. I can’t escape it, you can’t escape it either. Last year a relative in hospice wrote half the family out of the will if they disagreed politically or socially and had an argument. They wouldn’t even take phone calls from someone who opposed them at any time in the past few years. Or texts or emails. That was awful.

It’s too short. There are too many good things that get ignored for click bait. I’ve tried to cover issues that I feel relevant, but I’m sure it comes off as click bait. I don’t know exactly what to do. I try not to touch on most of the boycotts (and there are plenty) and high octane headlines with low octane retractions.

I’m going to try and get back to building next year’s “step forward” as much as possible. The broadcast situation will still come up because I want you to be able to watch the games. As long as the new bill doesn’t pass, maybe it is time to let the legal VPNs be talked about. Everyone seems to be looking to save. Instead of paying for all the insane services so you can watch during “blackout restrictions” based on zip code, I guess we’ll hit that box when we get there.

Tomorrow’s headline is going to be fun. Favorite moment as a Wing’s fan. Cup wins? Fedorov returns and wins a game for the team? Parades? Let’s have some fun before the weekend.
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