More of chewing the fat of the sumo goalie idea
It's hardly an original thought, this idea of transforming a sumo wrestler into an NHL goalie, as we put forth in Sunday's Daily News column that focused on the new book by Todd Gallagher called "Andy Roddick Beat Me With a Frying Pan." Suiting up a college goalie with foam padding, Gallagher tried to see what would happen if he made a morbedly obese man play goalie (see above) against an NHL team (in this case, it was members of the Washington Capitals during a practice). He also had sumo wrestlers take part in drills with the L.A. Avengers of the Arena Football League to see if they had a future as an offensive lineman.
As for sumos as NHL goalies, we recall an episode of “West Wing” back in 2001, where Sam (Rob Lowe) was blathering on to Josh (Bradley Whitford) after watching the Washington Capitals lose that “if I owned a hockey team . . . I’d hire a sumo wrestler. I’d give him a uniform, transportation, 500 bucks a week to sit in the goal, eat a ham sandwich, and enjoy the game. My team would never get scored on.”
That’s right about the time Charles Wang bought the New York Islanders. Wang, who moved to Queens in New York from Beijing when he was 8, suggested to then team-general manager Mike Milbury upon buying the team in 2000 that he look into finding a sumo to play goalie. Milbury’s response was to take 6-foot-1, 210-pound Rick DiPietro with the first pick of the ’00 NHL draft and eventually sign him to a $67.5 million contract that takes him through – seriously – 2021.
When we asked around to some of our hockey people around town their thoughs on whether a sumo could make it as a goalie, the reaction was predictably sour. Most said they thought it would affect the integrity of the game.
Bob Miller, the Kings' Hall of Fame play-by-play announcer, is one who's open minded about it.
"Perhaps you've hit on a wonderful idea for the Kings' problems in goal," he wrote back in an email. "I agree, I don't know why a team doesnt just put someone the size of a sumo wrestler in front of the net and tell him to stay put....don't leave that net to play the puck. Talk about having nowhere to shoot."
We'll give Gallagher the last word. Again.
"Some sumo wrestlers are incredibly quick," he said. "But no matter how big a person is, you're probably still better off with someone smaller and quicker."
Then again, with all the sumo scandals going in Japan these days ... read about it yourself.