Voracek's outburst a product of our pandemic reality

TORONTO — In the pandemic world of sports coverage, where there are no private face-to-face conversations, you get outbursts like Jakub Voracek's verbal attack Friday night on Philadelphia columnist Mike Sielski, followed by all the silly people on social media rubbing their hands with glee. Oh look, confrontation. Isn't that fun?

Time was, when dressing rooms were open and reporters and athletes talked daily, there would be all kinds of these situations. That's often the give-and-take between athletes and especially with opinionated columnists.

But it has rarely been public or, in this case, sensationalized by Voracek's words, and that's part of our new virtual world.

I've had no shortage of confrontations with athletes and coaches and general managers over the years. Most people doing their job well in this industry have had them, also.

One time I walked into the Maple Leafs dressing room and Doug Gilmour yelled to Tie Domi: “He's here.” Turns out Domi was upset that I had scrambled the letters of his name and come up with a new moniker that he didn't appreciate. We talked, quite heatedly at first, and after about 15 minutes it was clear he understood me and I understood him. All these years later, we still communicate. That's what usually gets lost in displays on social media without context. Had this conversation between Voracek and Sielski, two reasonable men, happened in a dressing room, it probably would have disappeared without notice. That used to happen all the time. It was called doing ours jobs.