5 minutes for stupidity

It’s the same old story. Local boy makes good, becomes sports star, makes lots of money, returns to hometown, gets in fight with cab driver over 20 cents, and gets arrested.

Okay so it’s not quite the same old story….but it’s a good one. When South Buffalo’s Patrick Kane became the number one pick in the NHL draft two years ago, we knew he’d make lots of headlines. We just didn’t expect one of them to be on a police blotter.

We’re not always surprised when a professional athlete gets arrested. Some of them are scuzbags, and when they get busted we get all high and mighty and say “I knew that was coming.” But this one was about as surprising as learning that Marshawn Lynch was teaching a safe driving course.

According to police, Kane and a cousin got a cab on Chippewa Street (naturally, that’s where athletes go to get stupid) and when the cabbie dropped them off, they punched him because when he told them he didn’t have 20 cents in change for them. 20 CENTS.

Kane actually spent a couple hours in jail before his arraignment. JAIL. That’s a lot different than the penalty box.

Look, hockey players are supposed to fight. But on the ice. And with other hockey players. Not with some cabbie who’s old enough to be his grandfather.

In case you’re wondering, Kane made $875,000 last year….so 20 cents is…..okay, you figure out the percentage yourself…but it’s really really really small. And this incident was really really really stupid.