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Q&A with John Davidson Posted: Thursday March 20, 2003 12:14 PM
SI: Has the NHL expanded too much? Davidson: The reason I can say no is that we have a game that features talent from all over the world. We've tapped into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and you're soon going to see players from places like Switzerland and even Japan. You're also going to see more U.S-born players because all these kids who are playing now will eventually be old enough to compete in this league. I think the talent pool is deep enough to expand the way the NHL did, but the thing the league has to do is get spending in check because some of it is out of whack. And that's not the players' fault; they don't sign the checks. SI: You've worked for ABC, NBC, Fox, ESPN, TBS, Prime Sports, CBS and MSG. Why not PBS or MTV? Davidson: Yeah -- have jacket, will travel. And have jacket, will change patch. SI: Is it too early to pick a Stanley Cup winner? Davidson: I think it is. But look at the West, with the defending champs in Detroit plus Dallas, Vancouver, St. Louis, Colorado. You have five really good teams. In the East, Ottawa is the best team -- and then you drop a notch. I think the winner will come from the West, but at this point you just don't know what's going to happen. SI: You used to sit next to Wayne Gretzky on the Rangers' charter flights. What was your favorite thing to talk to him about? Davidson: Anything about hockey. The man is an encyclopedia. We used to try to outdo each other with the scoops around the league, and he was tough to beat. Given who he is, he has a passion for the sport at all levels that is really intriguing. SI: You played for Herb Brooks as a pro. How many times did he mention his Miracle on Ice team to you guys? Davidson: You know, he didn't. Actually, we used to kind of zing him because Karl Malden played him in the movie. SI: Hayley Wickenheiser recently signed with a Division II team in Finland and will finish the season there. Can you see a day when a woman will play in the NHL? Davidson: Well, if it ever happened it would be astonishing to me. The reason I say that is I have two daughters and they play field hockey and soccer and I want them to have as good a chance to do well in sports as anyone else. But I think the male-female thing at the NHL level is too big a gap. The NHL is mean, and it's big. There are 250-pound players who want to knock your head into next week, and I just don't see it happening simply because of that. Wickenheiser is very good at what she does and she's proving a point that she needs to play with competition that suits her as the best female player in the world. But if you ever put the best female in the world in the NHL, I don't think it would be beneficial to her health. SI: You've been very honest about your playing career. I read a quote in which you said you were never as good as you should have been? Why? Davidson: I probably work harder now than I did then. I enjoyed life. I really enjoyed the offseason, and when the injuries start to happen -- I ended up having 14 knee operations and two back operations -- you have to protect your body more so than I did. My feeling is that I had a second chance to stay in the game through television, and I decided a long time ago to take care of it. I just wish I would have had the chance to start the whole thing over again because the actual raw talent I had was as good as anybody's. SI: You've covered the last four Olympic tournaments. Why can't the NHL be as exciting as Olympic hockey? Davidson: Olympic hockey is short term. When you have All-Star teams going at each other for two weeks, then you can understand how it builds. I would like to think there have been a ton of seven-game series in the playoffs that have been as exciting as anything else. It's apples and oranges. They're both fruit. But it's different fruit in the fruit basket. SI: In hindsight, how silly was Fox's glowing-puck experiment? Davidson: I don't think it was silly at all, and here's why I say that: A lot of people needed the glowing puck to figure out where it was and how to follow the flow of the play. The unique thing is that it was a technological marvel. It was remarkable. If they could have figured out a way you could push a button on your remote to have or not have it, that would have been perfect. I can't tell you how many people didn't like it, but I can tell you how many people loved it. The ironic thing is that Fox didn't even use it the last three years; people thought they used it the whole time. SI: What player did you fear most on a breakaway? Davidson: Rick Middleton. The shooters didn't bother me. It was the deker who did; he was like a slithering slinky. He could go left and right and you would be all twisted up and laying on the ice. He was a pain in the butt. SI: How much hockey does one have to know in order to co-author Hockey for Dummies? Davidson: That was a unique book because you have to include some stuff so the hardcore junkies can get into it a little bit, but you also have to be able to explain things for the average Joe on the street. It's kind of like, to a degree, doing hockey for network television. When you do ABC, you have the core fan there but you're also hoping to get a number of new fans who are trying to learn the game. SI: How can hockey get better television ratings? Davidson: My opinion is that it's going to happen because if you look around the country there are a lot of kids playing the game, a lot more than what used to be. Hockey has gone into Texas and California and Florida and there are all kinds of youth programs. We in the world of television and in the world of the NHL want hockey to be a top-rated sport tomorrow. That's not going to happen. It's going to take a generation. These kids are all going to grow up and know the game -- and I think they'll watch it. SI: You're an avid golfer and you often play with Bryant Gumbel. How good a golfer is he? Davidson: He can be very good. But he can also have those days where I get to push the cash register and say, "Thanks, Bryant, it looks like Chinese food at home for the kids tonight." SI: Have you ever been mistaken for the other John Davidson? Davidson: Well, over the years I've actually received a lot of his fan mail. And I once heard him say on a talk show that he keeps getting some other guy's mail, a hockey guy's.
Issue date: March 24, 2003
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