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Oh (yeah!) Canada

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Posted: Saturday January 08, 2000 08:55 AM

Today I would like to declare my undying love for lawyers and all things Canadian.

It is lawyers, Canadian lawyers after all, who in an Ottawa courtroom earlier this week struck a mighty blow for sports fans everywhere.

In the Superior Court of Ontario, Justice Michel Charbonneau, himself a lawyer and a Canadian, declared that a $27.5 million lawsuit brought by fans against the Ottawa Senators' Alexei Yashin may indeed, in the name of justice, go forth.

Keeping up with the Joneses Dearest Flem Filers, the mailbag is on hiatus this week -- so there won't be any of the typical warm and fuzzy thoughts you're used to from around the globe. Bygones. So how about an uplifting update on James Jones? Here goes. Before Thanksgiving, Flem Filers were the first to hear about the struggles of Son-Ja Jones, the wife of Detroit defensive tackle James Jones. Son-Ja suffers from the advanced stages of diabetes and had been waiting back home in Iowa for a kidney and pancreas transplant. Meanwhile, her husband had quietly endured this trauma while having a major impact on the Lions' improved defense. Jones had made it clear to the Lions that he would leave the team the minute his wife got the call from the hospital and the Lions, in turn, not only agreed to let him go but had a private jet ready to whisk him away to the hospital in Madison, Wisc. "It was a great feeling for James to get that call," said coach Bobby Ross. "It's been wearing on him a little bit. I mean, what a tough burden to handle and he's done such a tremendous job." Well, on Tuesday morning the beeper that Jones carried with him at all times finally went off and displayed the secret code from Son-Ja that signaled their prayers had been answered. Jones grabbed a game-plan book and was driven to the airport by a member of the Lions' front office. The surgery was a success and now, barring complications, Jones could decide to play in Saturday's game against the Redskins. Coach Ross, who went through a similar situation a few years ago when one of his grandchildren needed a heart transplant, told me it would be entirely up to Jones if he wanted to play. Regardless if Jones plays or if the Lions win on Saturday, the playoffs have already been a success for the Jones family.

Canadians first perfected beer and hockey and now they're paving the way for sanity in professional sports by showing the normally wishy-washy fan lobby that they do indeed have both a voice and some power.

Oh Canada, I stand on guard for thee!

Yashin, you will recall, signed his name to a $3.6 million contract and then decided to sit out of the final year of that contract when the Senators would not bump him up by, oh, $5 million. I struggle with math like the Jets struggle with coaching changes, but my calculations tell me this demand is slightly more than the 5% raise the rest of us slobs hope for each year -- if we're lucky.

Apparently, after holding his breath didn't work, Yashin went back to Switzerland and the loving arms of his girlfriend, Carol Alt. (If we could pause my righteous indignation for just a moment I'd like to explore his decision-making process: Let's see, noodle crushed against the boards nightly, stinky equipment and egregiously low wages, or a relaxing winter spent with Carol Alt ... Hmmmm, contract-shmontract. When's the next plane leave?)

The team suspended Yashin on Nov. 9 and then the fans, spearheaded by season ticket holder Len Potechin and his attorney Arthur Cogan, brought a class-action suit against Yashin that said the player and his agent had broken a consumer contract with the fans to provide a certain level of entertainment.

The judge declared that the suit move forward, but admitted that this kind of action is relatively undeveloped. Well, I say, what the hell are we waiting for? Let's develop it.

I'll never understand why the rest of the world must honor contracts, but in sports a signature, a handshake and even a 50-page notarized service agreement with a dozen witnesses is honored less often than the Florida State curfew.

The fans in Ottawa say Yashin has acted out of "self enrichment" (good lord is that an understatement for today's professional athlete) and they want $27.5 million in return, which is, what, $1.72 in American currency? (Hey, I'm allowed at least one Canadian joke.) By the way, if Ottawa fans deserve 30 mill, Bengals supporters should ask for at least 10 times that.

Please, Ottawa fans, fax us your paperwork, and the next time a Joey Galloway decides to just sit out because he's feeling cramped in his 8,000 square-foot mansion, us dimwits down here in the U-S-of-A will follow your lead and sue the pants off the guy.

Yashin now has until Jan. 18 to file a defense. I'm guessing they'll go with the kicking-and-screaming defense ( Awwwww, but I'm an aaaaaaathlete, contracts and rules and laws don't apply to meeeeeeeee ... ) or they may just parade Carol Alt around to distract the jurors. Or perhaps he'll just sign a few hockey sweaters and score a few goals and fans will forgive and forget everything. That's usually the way these things are ironed out.

Doesn't matter. Fans have already won their day in court. At the very least Cogan & Co. can break new ground just by making one athlete accountable to the fans for his selfish actions, and in turn, make athletes everywhere realize that maybe the day will come when they can no longer just do whatever the hell it is they want.

"I think the case will get interesting when they're examined under oath," said Cogan. "That's when you see the color of their eyes."

Oh, I already know the color of Yashin's eyes. Green. They're a deep, rich shade of green. Or whatever the color of money is in Canada.

Sports Illustrated staff writer David Fleming explores the sometimes weird and wacky side of sports every Thursday. Click here to send an e-mail to Flem, or address it yourself: flemfile@aol.com.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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