Cherry, ex-players slam Blackhawk’s homophobic slur,
“I have no excuses for anything. I want to apologize.” ANDREW SHAW ONE DAY AFTER SPOUTING AN ANTI-GAY SLUR FROM THE PENALTY BOX
Some former players — and hockey’s biggest personality, Don Cherry — were unified in condemning Chicago Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw for using a homophobic slur caught on camera in a heated moment of a playoff game Tuesday night.
Shaw, who originally claimed he didn’t remember the comments he made during a penalty box tirade against referees at the tail end of a Game 4 loss to the Blues, apologized Wednesday afternoon.
Later, the NHL suspended Shaw one game — he’ll miss Game 5 on Thursday in St. Louis — and fined him $5,000. Chicago trails three games to one, so Shaw’s season is over if the Blackhawks lose.
The veteran forward was sent off for interference late in the third period with the Hawks down by a goal. In the end, Shaw was assessed two minor penalties and a game misconduct after a tirade that also included obscene hand gestures directed at the referees. When he sat down in the penalty box, cameras also caught him making the slur.
“In the penalty box there, (Shaw) goes over the edge,” Cherry said in an interview. “He apologized and he should apologize. He realizes what he did and he should realize it, and everyone should, and all the rest of the players should realize it, too . . . it can’t be done.”
On Twitter, some fans were quick to condemn Shaw’s actions.
Others dismissed it as something said in the heat of the moment. Shaw issued a written apology, and an accompanying release from the Blackhawks said his actions in no way reflect their policies and beliefs.
“I wanted to apologize for my actions,” an emotional Shaw told reporters later. “I have no excuses for anything. I want to apologize to the gay and lesbian community. That’s not the type of guy I am. This is hard for me. I saw the video (Tuesday night) and I had a tough time sleeping. What’s gotten to me is, I let my emotions get the better of me. I want to apologize to the organization, the NHL, my teammates, my family and my friends. Obviously I’m sorry. It’s a tough time for me right now.”
In 2012, the NHL formed a partnership with You Can Play, an organization that supports LGBT athletes and fans and has offered to help in this case. The league did not have that relationship when Sean Avery, then with the New York Rangers, accused Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds of directing an anti-gay slur at him in 2011. Simmonds wasn’t sus- pended, with the league stating there wasn’t enough evidence to prove it.
The issue has come up in other sports: MLB: The Blue Jays and Major League Baseball suspended Yunel Escobar three games after an incident in September, 2012, in which the shortstop wrote a Spanish phrase in his eye black that could be interpreted as a homophobic slur. While the phrase is known to have other meanings in Latin culture, there was general support for suspending Escobar. NBA: In 2011, Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 for using a gay slur after disputing a ref’s call. And last December, Sacramento guard Rajon Rondo was suspended one game for making a slur toward a referee who publicly declared soon after that he is gay.
Former NHL enforcer Georges Laraque watched the Hawks-Blues game but didn’t know about all of what Shaw had done until Wednesday.
“The NHL has to take a stand about it,” Laraque said in a phone interview from Montreal. “The league took a stand about racial slurs, which is good. I was glad when they took action on Chris Simon (for a racial slur) against Mike Grier. But if you do take a stand there but do nothing (about an anti-gay slur) . . . it’s showing disrespect. It’s disrespecting all people who care about equality.
“Equality is not just about race. It’s about sexual orientation too. It’s about all people. . . . What Andrew did is the same as using the N-word. To me it is.”
Laraque, who racked up1,126 penalty minutes in 695 NHL games, said it doesn’t matter if the offending words are spoken in the heat of the moment.
“If someone calls me the N-word in the heat of the moment, is that OK?” he said. “It’s not, and this is not, either.”
Colin Campbell, the NHL’s executive vice-president of hockey operations, said in a statement that Shaw must be held “accountable” regardless of “the emotion of the moment.”
Former Leaf and Ranger Nick Kypreos, now a Sportsnet hockey commentator, agreed that Shaw’s actions deserved a suspension.
“We can’t, as a league, be supportive of all the things that are available to us today — You Can Play and others — and have players speak about it publicly, then (not punish a player when) something happens like this,” he said.
“Yes, you do lose your head. There is a heat of the moment. But Andrew is amongst 20,000 people (in the arena). He’s got at least the first couple of rows of people who can hear him, not to mention the penalty box keepers and scorers and whoever else they have down there. When you are in front of people like that, and you are showing the game to millions of people in North America and worldwide, you cannot speak like that.”