In a scene ripped straight out of the supervillain’s handbook, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris ordered a private helicopter to pick him up at the conclusion of the Devils’ game against the Vancouver Canucks, with the agreed-upon meeting spot to be the soccer field at St. Benedict’s Prep in nearby Newark. That pickup conflicted with a youth soccer game, however. Guess who got their way.
The landing was part of a standing agreement between the headmaster at St. Benedict’s and a private helicopter company, whose primary client is Harris. The Devils-Canucks game went to overtime, and no one from Harris’ party told the copter service, which idled in the middle of the field with a youth soccer game waiting to play and no word on when they could. Eventually, the coaches gave up on waiting in the cold and canceled the game. From the soccer players’ side of things, somebody’s helicopter just plopped down in the middle of the field as the game was about to start, and simply never left. That’s uncool.
Harris is one of the most reticent team owners in American sports, rarely if ever giving public statements, and one shouldn’t expect that to change in the wake of one of the most cliched entitled-rich-person-screwing-over-the-little-guy scenarios we’ve seen in recent memories. He’s probably learned from Jerry Jones that when you do something that alienates people, the less said about it, the better.
(Via Deadspin)
