Looking at the Bigger Picture: Life is Bigger than the Game

In the totem pole of journalism, sports ranks fairly low in importance. Let me explain why I chose the route of sports journalism. I'll be honest, I find news depressing. Everyday there are murders, defecits, scandals, etc. I just couldn't find myself immersed in that world every day. Whenever I needed an escape, I would turn to sports, it's a great distraction. That's why I decided to follow this path, to give people an escape when they need it.

But then there are times like this morning where a gunman or gunmen shot in three different locations in Ottawa, including killing a soldier. It's times like these that out things into perspective.

During the Boston Marathon bombing, I was still just an intern at TSN and that was one day I will never forget. One of my fellow interns was subclipping the Boston marathon (which was on tape delay), when our producer told him to "look out for explosions." Obviously, we were both confused, why would there be explosions? So we Googled "Boston Marathon explosions" and Twitter pictures popped up showing people with legs literally blown right off. After showing the producer, maybe about 30 seconds after, the whole back of the newsroom was taken over by feeds of CNN, CTV, CBC. That day SportsCentre looked more like CTV. Death and destruction should never lead a sports newscast, because sports is an escape from those terrible things.

All the journalism degrees in the world can't prepare you for something like what happened today. It's absolutely disgusting. Ottawa is a beautiful city, I have been there many times. I extend all my condolences to everyone effected in Ottawa right now. After all this is done, after everyone is detained I urge all Canadians to NOT change what they do day to day. Don't let those who incite fear win, keep going to those games, keep walking out on the streets at night.

The Ottawa Senators next home game is this Saturday against the New Jersey Devils. Everyone in Canada should be cheering for the Senators this weekend. When that national anthem starts, sing it loud and sing it proud! You've got a whole nation behind you.