BUFFALO, N.Y.-

Initially you’re going to be shaking your head and asking yourself, “Why?” Why would he do something like that, it makes no sense at all. That’s exactly what I thought too. But the good news is I looked into it and his reasoning makes total sense to me now, which I will explain at the end.

First, this is what happened: A 20 year old NHL (National Hockey League) player and his 21 year old cousin were in Buffalo, NY where they caught a cab at about 4am from a downtown nightclub area. At the conclusion of the ride the bill was $13.80 and they gave the driver $15. All he had was $1 to return, still owing 20 cents to the NHL player. Wanting the rest of the money back, the player and his cousin proceeded to assault the elderly cab driver by choking and punching him, leaving him with cuts  and bruises on his face, and damaged glasses.  As the cab driver said, “They went berserk.” Both young men were arrested and charged with misdemeanor and felony counts.

So here’s the deal. Like I said earlier, I know you are saying to yourself, “What the hell was he thinking?” I agree that it’s never okay to attack someone unprovoked, but I really believe there was a logical reason this horrible incident occurred, and as promised, this is what I found out.

This young NHL player only made $875,000 during the 2009 season. He’s not even a millionaire like most of his teammates and that’s less than half the average salary of his teammates. As we all know, times are tough and it’s a rough economy. He’s probably having a really hard time living on his meager salary, again, totally understandable. Ya gotta try and save every penny, no matter what it takes. Next time though, maybe he could say something like this, “Hey Mr. Taxi driver, thanks a lot for the ride and all the hard work, you really keep this city moving. You know, 20 cents is a lot of money, man, I really need it. Anyway, could you please check again and see if you have it in your pocket somewhere? Oh, and I’m really sorry I can’t tip you tonight, but you know how things are.”

The moral of the story: It’s never okay to beat someone up, however, when you only make $875K a year it’s totally understandable how it could happen.

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