Living in a city like Boston, you meet a lot of people that live their lives valuing superficial things (money, status, what frat you're in) over just being happy.
It's frankly pretty sickening in my view to watch people value others for superficial things that aren't really in their control, but more in line with what they're born into. America, being a capitalistic society, is one that tends to value money over happiness in a lot of cases, possibly reasonably so, seeing how one can't reasonably be happy without at least some money. On the other hand, once you have a decent amount of money, enough to reasonably be able to retire and live a decent life, most choose to do so, not worrying about anything in the past, being completely willing to just go off into the sunset.
Maple Leafs (?) forward Joffrey Lupul isn't one of those people, at least apparently. For those who aren't familiar with Lupul, which is admittedly most, he is currently in the news because he failed his physical with his NHL team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. This was something that wasn't totally unexpected, given how he hadn't been playing the last year or so with Toronto, and has a long injury history. It effectively meant at the time that Toronto would put him on Long Term Injury Reserve, meaning they don't have his salary on the books, while still paying him a cool 5.5 million for this year as his contract asks. Lupul has made a lot of money over his career, more than most, yet what makes his case interesting is his comments afterwards, implying that he in fact is healthy enough to play. It has led to an incredibly awkward situation, which the Leafs indoubtedly didn't think they'd have to deal with:
Of course, as Don Cherry said, it is an easy case to be made that Lupul should just chill out on the beach and "collect the dough", yet there's something to be said for wanting to do what you love. Lou Lamoriello, Leafs GM, is somebody with a sketchy history of dealing with people who may or may not be injured in the past, yet, in this case, obviously there really isn't a loser. Lupul immediately retracted his statements, trying to put it to bed. While he is being investigated by the NHL, the Leafs are a team that tends to get preferential treatment from the NHL, so they'll likely be ok. Yet, it sucks to look at Lupul, as rich as he is, and see how this team may be preventing him from doing what he is paid to do, what he loves to do, and something he by all accounts should be doing. Get it right NHL.
