On Friday, Chara publicly stated he was going to donate $1,000 to his charity, Right To Play. Soon after, the five other shooters – Sheldon Souray, Mike Komisarek, Vinny Lecavalier, Shea Weber and Mark Streit – offered to do the same. Additionally, each of the players’ respective teams – Boston, Edmonton, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Nashville and the New York Islanders – put up $1,000 each. The NHL and NHLPA matched the players’ pot with $6,000 each to bring the total to $24,000 for Chara’s chosen charity.
These are all players and organizations who make between a few million and a few hundred million dollars every year. And the most any of them can offer to a charity is $1000? I hope I’m not the only one who finds that really pathetic. I’m glad the money is going there at all, but I’m not gonna pretend these guys don’t piss me off.
You’d think that they would realize the negative perception they were creating.
I guess people are so completely in love with celebrities that they don’t care. Afterall, O.J. got away with murder for the same reason(well sort of, there was the race factor), and Michael Jackson got away with child molestation.
Giving something is still better than giving nothing. Sure, they can give more relative to what they make, but isn’t the fact that they’re giving something better than them not giving anything? I’m sure there are some pro-athletes out there that make millions upon millions but don’t donate any of it.
Is it though? If I donated $20 to Right To Play I’d be sacrificing a lot more of what I have than Lecavalier did. These are guys who shit gold and live in luxury. I already said I’m glad they did what they did, but they’re being glorified more for having the money than for actually giving anything.
what you just want us to give all our money to the fucking poor you fucking commie? god made those bums poor for a reason he hates them.being rich and strong like a football player is his blessing its proved fact that poor people are just less moral
So, would you be as pissed off if they didn’t give anything at all? The thing is, when athletes give money, it draws attention to themselves (unless they can surreptitiously give it). They are then criticized for not giving enough if they give “only” $1000 or whatever. However, if they hadn’t given anything at all, there would be no anger directed solely at them for not giving anything at all.
No, I wouldn’t. If you’re gonna be selfish, at least be selfish without trying to look like someone who’s not. These are guys who want to look like saints. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t have heard about their donations at all. Even though I’d be less pissed if they donated a lot more, my problem isn’t the money. It’s the fact that these guys can make themselves look good by throwing the equivalent of pennies at a charity, when if they really wanted to help, they’d be doing a lot more with the excess millions they have. Their gesture is for popularity. That’s why I’m angry.
Those bastards must have had ulterior motives. The next time they seek to do something for all but impossibly altruistic reasons, I hope they think again and don’t give away a dime of their dirty money.
So, and I am just trying to reason out what you’re thinking, if they were going to give only $1000, you would have preferred they did it without anyone knowing? So it doesn’t look like they’re giving a lot when, relatively, they’re not?
Pretty much 984. And even then, I’d have to wonder why they’re only giving 1000. But I’d be wondering in a much less angry way. A lot of big name players probably do have a long list of charities they give to.
This more or less sums up how I feel about it as well. If you’re going to give money for the sake of it, great, just don’t make a big deal about it, but if you’re doing it for publicity or so as to not look cheap compared to a colleague, at least have the decency of giving something a bit more significant than what you probably spend every day before noon.
Yes, let’s all spread the wealth out evenly, then we can see the perfect world (hint: you’ll still end up with rich and poor before very long).
This makes me think no more or less of them. They’re just people, they just want a little respect for being not complete shits. Seeing as I give nothing to charity being an student and all, and thinking that charities are pretty shit for the most part, I think there are better uses they could find for their money. Like opening a business to employ some of the people those charities would support. Oh well.
On the one hand, the kids benefiting from these $1000 don’t really care why and how they were given, so that’s that. On the other hand, $1000 got them some cheap publicity and certainly they don’t warrant an “OMG-generous!” reaction.