Are We Stooping Down? My Reaction to Cowardly Crosby News Cover

The cover of the Wednesday edition of the Philadelphia Daily News depicts Pittsburgh Penguin Sidney Crosby as the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz.  As most people in the Philadelphia region know, Sidney Crosby was a big topic of discussion after Sunday's playoff game (See my last post for more details).  Crosby was instigating a lot of fights in an immature way but always backed off when someone actually stood up to him.  This is what prompted the Daily News.

Now, I'm all for making fun of Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.  After they played the last few games, I would even say they deserve most of the verbal abuse that is going on.  However, I really don't like the idea of photoshopping Crosby on a lion for a joke, especially on the cover of a newspaper.  

In 2010, when the Flyers were in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Chicago Tribune made a similar decision in making fun of Chris Pronger (for no real reason, he was playing well and physically dominating the Blackhawks (now that I think about it, he got knocked down once by Dustin Byfuglien, ooooh)).

Clearly, people from Chicago (Chicagoans?) don't like Pronger.  Because of a couple games they thought he was a joke and fraud because he had a bad +/-.  

The bashing of Sidney Crosby has similar roots.  This series, he's played like a little child.  However, this is how he usually plays, hiding behind the refs when someone looks at him wrong, and slashing everyone when no one looks.  That being said though, I was really annoyed when the Tribune posted this picture and I am annoyed by the Daily News.  

I understand making fun of Crosby.  In fact, I've done it quite a bit the past few days.  But to me, this cover seems petty.  It really feels like we are stooping down to what Chicago did, something very immature (like Crosby) in an official media setting.  We've been in this situation before and it certainly wouldn't make us look good if Crosby has a good game or if they win any games.

So far this series, the Flyers have taken the high road when it comes to the Penguins antics.  With this cover, I feel like we are just throwing maturity out the window. Not cool.

That being said, LETS GO FLYERS!! TIME TO BUST OUT THE BROOMS!!

Game 4 will take place tonight, April 18th at 7:30 on the NBC Sports Network (Formerly VS.)

In other news, Happy Birthday to Scott Hartnell! Hopefully he'll have a good game on his 30th birthday.  Follow Scott on Twitter @Hartsy19