Jeremy Roenick says he wasn't misquoted when he went on a rant about hockey fans last weekend. But the Philadelphia Flyers forwards says his comments were taken out of context.
"Before I went into my rant, I was talking about the game of hockey, about getting it back on the ice, about what we have to do for the fans and telling people it's not about who wins or loses, it's about the game," Roenick tells the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"But the media picked out the negative stuff. Don't show snippets of the interview; show the whole interview, the whole message. My message during the interview was: How do we make the game more appealing to the fans?"
Roenick says what set him off was a question about the NHL lockout being the fault of the players.
"That got my gall," he said. "We gave more back to the owners in this deal than any other sport has done. Before that question, I was talking about the game, how it was important to make it up to the fans and do something for them, and then that question came."
TSN was one of few media outlets which carried the bulk of Roenick's comments before his "kiss my ass" comments, which garnered the majority of air time on many of the major U.S. networks.
Roenick says he left several messages with ESPN asking why they didn't show more of his comments prior to his rant.