First let me apologize, I am not a writer and I have never written a blog post in my life so this may not be up to par with the usual NM posts lol J

There has been a lot of debate about the biting incident in game 1 between Alex Burrows and Patrice Bergeron.  I am not going to continue the debate in this post or say whether I think Burrows' actions were right or wrong, I merely wanted to provide some thoughts I had while reading the debate about the incident. 

There are those that will say that when someone sticks their finger in your mouth in that type of aggressive situation, your natural instinct is to bite down.  For many people this is probably true, our natural instinct is to do something about the finger in our mouth.  There are others that will say that no matter what the circumstances are, biting in the NHL is never ok and the player should ignore the instinct to bite and rise above the situation.  It is debatable whether most people would be able to rise above their instincts in that situation.  Some people are better than others at using their "filters" to temper their words or actions and ignore their instincts.  There is a wide range for this, some people seem to have no filter at all and others seem to never step out of line under any circumstances and most of us fall somewhere in the middle of the scale. 

Just like the rest of us, hockey players seem to have varying degrees, some never seem to step out of line and others seem to always step out of line.  But there is a difference for hockey players, they are held to a higher standard than the rest of us.  Perhaps rightfully so given that they are seen as role models to some.  Fair or not, they are expected as celebrities in the public eye, to always be able to rise above the situation.  Or are they?  We expect them to fight when frustrated, to agitate other players and follow a lot of those basic instincts in an aggressive game - just not in ways that are unacceptable, those instincts they should ignore regardless of the situation. 

But we also forget that even though these players are held to a higher standard than the rest of us, they are still only human.  They are going to make the same kinds of mistakes that we all make, but theirs will be broadcast for everyone to see and comment on.  Certainly not an enviable situation but that is one of the prices they pay (perhaps gladly) to play on the biggest stage in the world. 

Regardless of how you or I feel about what Burrows did last night, I guess he is still only human and is prone to making the same kinds of mistakes as the rest of us.