My guess is Ovechkin really believes this stuff, and that he does so even knowing that the current political climate in the United States gives an element of risk to what he’s done. Ovechkin spent much of the post-election cycle attempting to maintain a public non-stance on matters related to U.S. politics and continued assertions of Russian interference. Alas, that veneer has been dropped. I don’t know who Ovechkin is an ally or enemy of in the culture war in which we are now engaged – and that’s what it is, folks, an out and out culture war where we all need to pick sides or have them picked for us – but I have a pretty good guess.

He’s still a helluva player, though, and on most nights very much worth the entertainment dollar. Look: I know for a fact there are popular – hugely popular – athletes in this city who voted for Donald Trump. Truth is, there are a lot of people who make a crap-load of money who voted with their pocketbook, and in case you haven’t noticed, an an awful lot of NFL players haven’t hitched their wagon to Colin Kaepernick’s cause and as far as I can tell few if any Major League players took up with Bruce Maxwell or NHL players J.T. Brown.

I hate to tell you this, but it’s possible that your favourite athlete is a misogynist or a homophobe or racist even if he doesn’t put it on a t-shirt. More to the point: I can guarantee that even if you’d cross the street to avoid a Trump supporter, you’ve gone crazy and cried for and died with a player who voted for Trump and that you’ll do it again next season and the season after and that you’d do it even if you knew he gave money to Trump.

Because you’re a fan and unless you are gullible enough to still believe there’s some sort of moral or spiritual underpinning to professional sports, some sort of life-changing intrinsic goodness to be found in it, you understand the meal satisfies your need without knowing each individual ingredient.

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