Blackhawks hero - and video game legend - Jeremy Roenick calls it quits after 20 seasons

I'm really not much of a video gamer anymore. Haven't been for years. I don't have the patience for a game like Grand Theft Auto or the time to get good at Halo. And, as someone who writes multiple sports blogs, I'm clearly way too cool for anything that involves wizards, trolls, or dexterity.

But I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for sports games. Madden, Tiger, T-Hawk, NBA 2k....all usually very good. Yet, when it comes to sports video games, hockey has to take the cake. It never fails.

While the latest installments of hockey games are still sweet, none of them will ever top NHL '94.

I feel like movie directors, bands, ect. occassionally make something so perfect that they'll never make anything better. Just as Outkast won't ever top 'Hey Ya' and Christopher Nolan won't ever top 'The Dark Knight', video game developers won't ever make a hockey game better than NHL '94. I'm sure NHL '10 will have tons of new bells and whistles - and most of them will rock - but it just can't live up to '94. That's the way it is.

What I'm trying to say here is that Jeremy Roenick is set to announce his retirement today.


No one will ever be on par with MJ, but as far as non-bat corking, steroid abusing 90's Chicago sports stars go, JR ranks up there with Frank Thomas, Mark Grace, and, um, Curtis Conway? God, I hate Dave Wannstedt.

Roenick was a powerhouse for the 'Hawks in the 90's. He was a top ten draft pick who became a nine-time All-Star. He topped 100 points three times in Chicago, and 50 goals twice. He even led the 'Hawks to their last Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 1992, but Jordan was so busy shrugging off the Blazers that I doubt anyone noticed.

You can't talk about Roenick, of course, without talking about NHL '94. JR wasn't just good, he was historically good. A video game legend, if you will.

In its list of the top ten video game athletes of all-time, IGN placed Roenick fourth. The three ahead of him? Michael Vick in Madden '04, Bo Jackson in Techmo Bowl, and Mike Tyson in Tyson's Punchout. To say that's elite company would be a gross understatement. It's more like royal company, or holy company, or some combination of the two. It's like being in the same company as Gordon Beckham, Jay Cutler, and Derrick Rose, only slightly less cool. You get the idea.

Vince Vaughn summed up the powers of virtual JR the best in 'Swingers'.

"It's not so much me as it's Roenick. He's good."

Long live JR, both real and virtual. May Wayne Gretzky's head never stop bleeding.