Column:

Even in Bonds’ Shadow, Athletes Seek Competitive Edge
By Alexander Eule

April 5, 2006 -- National Hockey League rookie phenom Alexander Ovechkin is the anti-Barry Bonds, a garrulous athlete increasingly loved by fans. In one short year, he has become an ambassador for his sport, embraced by a league eager to take advantage of his star power.

Yet, on the same day baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced a comprehensive investigation to explore steroids’ impact on his sport, Ovechkin demonstrated the very same desire that has ruined Bonds’ legacy: the never-ending search for a competitive edge.

Last Thursday in Montreal, Ovechkin debuted a mirrored visor while playing for the Washington Capitals in their game against the Canadiens. In addition to making a fashion statement – fans describe the visor as a cross between RoboCop and a fighter pilot – the new equipment provided Ovechkin with a distinct advantage:  “Players can't see [my] eyes,” Ovechkin unabashedly told the Washington Post. “On a breakaway, the goaltender can't watch [my] eyes.”  According to league and industry sources, Ovechkin is the first NHL player to wear a mirrored visor.

Ovechkin had two assists for the Capitals Thursday night, extending his rookie scoring lead over the Penguins Sidney Crosby. Ovechkin is a virtual lock to be the NHL’s Rookie of the Year. The Capitals player is third overall in scoring and is also a legitimate contender for the league’s Most Valuable Player award.

Ovechkin is an unquestionable talent and, in his first season, the Russian-born player has drawn comparisons to Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.  Here’s the problem: Ovechkin himself admits his new equipment offers an unnatural edge over opponents.  How many goals would Gretzky have scored with a mirrored visor? Gretzky’s innate skills were nearly inhuman absent such equipment. Given the ability to shield his eyes from defenders, Gretzky might have finished 1986 with 300 points instead of his record 215.

Ovechkin may very well popularize the mirrored visor in the NHL to the point where it’s standard equipment and no longer advantageous. But what about last Thursday’s game? Should Ovechkin’s two points be erased from the record books because the rookie had an unfair equipment advantage over the playing field? It might sound petty, but it’s an important question in the context of baseball’s historic investigation into steroids and the inevitable question of how Bonds’ records should be handled. 

The NHL says there is nothing to stop Ovechkin from wearing the space-age visor. “If it’s not in the rulebook, then it’s not a rule,” said Julie Young, a league spokesperson. Such logic sounds oddly familiar to baseball’s refusal to test for steroids in the 1990s. Young said no one in the league had raised any questions or concerns about Ovechkin’s new visor, which is manufactured by Oakley.  “The player has complete control with any visor or face mask,” she said.

The National Football League, meanwhile, takes a harsher stance on similar visors, according to Blake Jones, a game operations assistant for the league. “Any player that wears a tinted visor in our league has to have some type of medical justification,” he said. The NFL fined Clinton Portis last November for his unlicensed visor and prohibited the Washington Redskins running back from using it in future games.

Officially, Jones said the rule is in place to allow injured players to be examined on the field without removing the helmet, but competitive balance has to be an equal consideration. San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson is known for his black visor, and defenders say the inability to see Tomlinson’s eyes makes the talented running back even harder to stop. (Apparently Tomlinson got a note from his doctor.)

Now, surely, there’s a difference between injecting harmful substances into your body and wearing a protective visor.  Many baseball players were forced to make a choice between competing and their health. That’s why steroids is such a problem and why baseball had an obligation to step in much sooner than it did.

Like the steroids mess, though, the NHL’s indifference to Ovechkin’s visor is a similar sacrifice of style over substance. It’s not a coincidence that the new visor was worn by a star player. The NHL hopes Ovechkin is the anecdote to years of league-wide pain, punctuated by last year’s work stoppage.  On Friday, CCM, the world’s largest manufacturer of hockey equipment, announced that it had signed Ovechkin to star in the company’s global advertising campaign for a new line of skates and sticks.  While CCM is the exclusive distributor of Oakley hockey visors, Yan Martin, director of marketing for CCM, said Ovechkin’s new eyewear was not timed to coincide with the launch of his the ad campaign “Most hockey manufacturers are based in Montreal,” Martin said. “That’s when they introduce new products to the players.”  

The new products are just one more example of players looking for an edge and third parties seeking to profit from such desires. At CCM’s press conference Friday, a company official promised the new Vector 10.0 skate would offer significant advantages: “What it means for player on the ice is that he can be faster. He gets the edge, and that’s what makes the difference for the superheroes versus the regular hockey players.”