Pic via (@JoshYohe_Trib)

This made me smile.

While owners and players are pissing on each other (and the great sport of hockey) this holiday season, one fan, a Flyers fan, decided to take matters into his own hands. Jaymes Hall, 41, of Lancaster, is in New York visiting family this weekend and, yesterday, he took his sons to the league’s headquarters, where Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr held separate press conferences to discuss not progress in lockout negotiations.

Hall chimed in during Bettman’s scrum, shouting suggestions and things like, “the fans are angry!”

Gary Bettman fired back: [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Bettman, who has overseen three labor stoppages in less than 20 years on the job, then addressed the fan. “Excuse me one second,” Bettman said. “I’m in the middle of a media scrum. I’d be happy to talk to you when we’re done. You’re not credentialed media. I think it’s unfortunate and unfair to these people.”

Hall responded: “I’m a fan!”

Snapped Bettman: “I know you’re a fan. I’d be happy to talk with you.”

 

Which he did. As transcribed by the NY Daily News:

HALL: “Put the money (in dispute) aside so nobody touches it and let the people get back to playing hockey. Eventually that pot’s going to build. But the guy who makes money selling parking spots – let him get back to making a living.”

BETTMAN: “The impact that this is having on everybody associated with the league is not lost on us. Believe me. But the fact of the matter is, when you’re dealing with a union and they’re really not trying to negotiate any deal that you can live with for the long-term health of this game, there isn’t much else you can do. And we’re hoping that with the passage of time, the players’ association will come to realize that what we have proposed is more than fair. And the fact that we’re keeping this proposal on the table, when it was contingent upon an 82-game schedule, should be evidence of our desire to get this done the right way.”

HALL: “The $18 million a day you’re losing. There’s got to be a smarter way.”

BETTMAN: “It makes no sense (meaning it makes no sense continuing to lose that money each day). But thank you for being a fan.”

HALL: “I appreciate it, and I apologize for raising my voice.”

BETTMAN: “No, no, no. Happy Thanksgiving.”

HALL: “Thanks for your time.”

 

Know Jaymes? Are you Jaymes? We want to hear from you.

via Puck Daddy