One poor choice after another
Auston Matthews had already stumbled and fumbled through his vague statement of contrition when his coach came out to speak. Mike Babcock talked with Matthews in Arizona this summer, again, to clear the air between them. Babcock has said it was a great meeting; Matthews has said they don’t always agree, but, “Moving forward I think I made it clear what I want to see out of him and what he wants to see out of me, and like I said, we’re on the same page, and moving forward.”
They’re not on the same page every time, though. Matthews was the centre of attention at Leafs practice Wednesday because it had been revealed he was facing a disorderly conduct charge in Arizona over an incident the night of May 26.
He and his buddies were drunk, and it is alleged that Matthews or one of his friends tried to break into the locked car of a female security guard at his building complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., at 2 a.m. When she emerged and yelled at the young men, Matthews kept saying he thought it would be funny to see how she reacted. Then he walked away and dropped his pants and grabbed his underpants-clad butt and then walked to the elevator, which was caught by a security camera.
None of the allegations have been proven in court. But they are in court.
Putting aside the specifics of the allegations for a moment — and at the heart of it was a woman who felt menaced and was genuinely upset, which matters — Matthews had to know he had done something wrong.
His buddies tried to convince the security guard not to tell anybody. He has hired a highpowered Arizona lawyer. Yes, Matthews was 21 at the time, still young.
But he is an adult who knows how famous he is, and the responsibility he carries. He is the centrepiece of a team that exists under klieg lights, and which is facing another season of incredible pressure. And he didn’t even tell his bosses.
“Well, yesterday,” Babcock said when he was asked when he found out. “Obviously, you’re always disappointed. I mean, as the Toronto Maple Leafs, we really pride ourselves in doing things right on the ice, off the ice, and treating people (well). And so it’s an unfortunate situation.”
Babcock found out Tuesday? That means the organization didn’t know until the charges became public, which means Matthews didn’t tell them. Maybe Matthews was rightly embarrassed, and thought he could handle it himself. Maybe he thought it would go away. Maybe he was waiting until the organization named him captain.
Within the realm of this hockey team, this is a little like Salutegate, a Leafs mini-scandal from another era, when the Phil Kessel-era Leafs decided not to perform a regular ceremonial salute to the crowd after games. It wasn’t that the salute itself was meaningful; it was that under pressure, the team’s core players demonstrated bad decision-making. They couldn’t handle it like adults.
Matthews hasn’t, either. From the time he did this thoughtless, entitled, drunken thing — from the time he made a woman feel unsafe for his own amusement, without ever thinking for a second how she might see it — he had decisions to make about how to proceed. He’s fumbled it all.
Does that mean, within the hockey part of this conversation, that he can’t be captain? Well, Matthews was publicly supported by his coach and his teammates Wednesday. Lots of things happen in sports that don’t make the front pages, and are explained away.
“I don’t think so,” said centre John Tavares, when asked if this hurt Matthews’ ability to be a leader.
“You know, it’s easy to cast judgment and want to make assumptions. But I think you just let the process carry out. And everything he’s shown since I’ve been here, and certainly talking to guys and being around this group, the way he’s kind of grown over the years and what he’s meant to this team and the type of person he is, we have full belief in him as a player and what he brings to our locker room.”
“I mean, you know, he’s taking it very seriously,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said. “I mean, we understand that these issues are serious. And, you know, it’s not something that we take lightly. So that’s how he’s approaching it. He understands what the situation is. And as teammates, we’re gonna support him.”
Asked the same question about whether Matthews’ team leadership would be hurt by this, Babcock said, “No, I don’t think so at all.”
Maybe he will be captain. It will just mean handing the official leadership keys to a young man who displayed judgment this poor, whose apology was clumsy at best, who didn’t tell the team, and whose reputation has been tarnished. Being a leader in pro sports isn’t treated like being a leader in the real world, but in both ways, Tavares would be a fine choice; Rielly, too. The Leafs don’t have to make Matthews captain.
Every woman knows what it feels like to feel unsafe at night. If the Leafs have the highest standards — if they truly pride themselves in doing things right on the ice, off the ice, and treating people well — that should probably matter.
They either endorse this with talk of how it’s not him and he can grow, or they don’t. Whatever the Leafs decide, this will hang over it, a little or a lot. And it should.