In what might be one of the last extraordinarily insulting interviews given by a member of the Atlanta Spirit to local press, Rutherford Seydel spoke with 11 Alive news to answer some questions about whether or not the deal is done (no shock - no comment from the peanut gallery). No one really expected him to give anyone a straight answer, because no one has given any Thrasher fans a straight answer throughout this ordeal.
Seydel did, however, manage to insult an entire fanbase's intelligence, which was impressive.
"I can't really comment on where we stand," Seydel said. "I can just say that I'm proud of my partners for working hard to keep the Thrashers and paying a lot of money, all of us, to keep the team in town for longer than anybody else has thus far.
"Unfortunately, there are not enough of us that are passionate at this point in time to keep the team, to replenish what we need to have done."
No one's really sure what that last sentence means. Replenish what? The coffers? Atlanta Spirit's bank accounts that have more money in them than they'd like to let on? Replenish the drive for hockey in Atlanta that this group of boobs has sucked out of the community?
How he can be proud of his partners for working hard to keep the team, and how he can say that they've done something good by keeping the team here - that's the insulting part. What parallel universe is he living in where having a team drag out a slow and miserable death because the owners refuse to actually enter into any good faith negotiations with interested parties who want to keep the team in Atlanta is a GOOD THING? Does he seriously want a cookie for this?
The kicker, though, was this:
HULLINGER: "Anything else you want to say Rutherford?"
SEYDEL: "Go Thrashers. We really have had a great run and all of the fans that have been there, and the fans that are still there and passionate about it, my absolute thoughts and heart is with everybody included in that group.
Go Thrashers? Really, Rutherford? Really?
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