Tim Thomas Jumped to Colorado, Media Jumps to Conclusions

CSN New England has reported that Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas "abruptly" moved his family to Colorado in the middle of the season.

I love how Joe Haggerty added the word "abruptly," which makes Thomas' move seem like he bolted in the night, having the movers tip-toe as they hauled away their furniture in covert silence.

Haggerty, and now others in the sports media, have jumped to the conclusion that Thomas decided his future in Boston wasn't going to extend past the 2011-12 season. Thomas has a no-trade clause which expires on July 1st, next year is the last on his contract, and the Bruins could use the cap space. And that's why he moved his family to Colorado.

I'm not saying that I think Thomas will be here next season. Because I don't. But I seriously doubt that his uncertain future with the Bruins was the motivation behind this move. It doesn't make sense. If he didn't think he'd be a Boston Bruin in the fall, why not wait and see what team he'd wind up with, then move there?

I think he got tired of living in Boston. The White House story set sports radio on fire. People insinuated that he was racist, some blamed him for the team struggling after that, some guy from TSN made a joke on Twitter about his three children all having names that start with K ('KKK').

His three children are 12, 7, and 6. Which means they were going to school with the sons and daughters of Bruins fans who were angry with Thomas for being a distraction. If I were a father, I'd get tired of my kids taking crap in school because someone else's parent was mad at me for not attending a White House photo op.

In Haggerty's column, he called Colorado "more politically conservative" than Massachusetts. Name me a state (apart from Vermont) that isn't more politically conservative than Massachusetts. It is impossible to move from Massachusetts and not move to a more politically conservative state.

Haggerty makes it seem as though Colorado is in the Deep South. Obama won Colorado in 2008. Both Senators from Colorado are Democrats. Three of the seven Representatives are Democrats. The Governor is a Democrat. It's a moderate state.

I think Thomas got tired of the incessant questions and aggravations he and his family dealt with in their daily lives in suburban Boston. Haggerty points out that his source mentioned Thomas might have wanted to be near Team USA's headquarters in Colorado Springs. Haggerty then dismisses this quite reasonable explanation because of that word "abrupt" I mentioned earlier. Why so quickly?

Again, how abrupt was it? Is there any way to know how long Thomas might have been planning to move and just didn't want to say anything because he was already trying not to talk about his personal life with the media?

Haggerty got a weird bit of info and jumped to the most sensational and exciting conclusion possible. He didn't bother to consider other alternatives to the conclusion he reached. He didn't even bother to look at a Wikipedia page about Colorado's Congressional Delegation. He just went with it.

Good job, Joe. Responsible journalism at its finest.

No wonder Thomas moved away from here.