If you're still feeling sorry for Kris Humphries, it's time to let that ship sail. So he won't be getting a copy of the Kardashian Christmas Card this year. His short-lived marriage to Kim Kardashian could be the one thing that saves his sports career!
Despite the end of the NBA lockout, the New Jersey Nets haven't bothered to re-sign the 26-year-old free agent. That could have meant watching his former brother-in-law Lamar Odom and the rest of his basketball playing colleagues from a spot on his couch. But the folks behind a minor league hockey team in upstate New York are having none of it.
The Syracuse Crunch, a team in the American Hockey League, have told Humphries he can have his pick of jobs in their organization -- right out on the ice as a player or sitting pretty in the front office. If he takes the offer, they'd give him a trainer and full rights to work out in their facility. It's a little kooky, but they might be onto something. Kris actually excelled in swimming before he become a basketball star, and his dad, William, was a University of Minnesota football player. It's feasible to imagine him picking up another sport.
What are the chances that would have happened with Kim in his life? I'm betting without his scandal-plagued romance, Kris could just be another out-of-work basketball player watching the game and hoping his former teammate, Brooks Lopez, can convince management at the Nets to take him back. Instead he's getting offers that could keep him from heading back to Minnesota to work at one of his dad's Five Guys franchises for the rest of his life.
The folks at the Crunch are claiming this is all for Kris' well-being, but even they can't deny the Kardashian connection is on their minds. Said their general manager:
We would welcome Kris Humphries to Syracuse, where unlike Hollywood there are no paparazzi within hundreds of miles and he could reclaim his privacy and self-esteem.
Hey, that's what Khloe is doing down in Dallas with Lamar. Why can't it work for Kris?
Do you think Kris is still getting extra special treatment because of his connection to Kim?
Image via Getty Images/Donald Bowers