Hockey coach’s ban on protests raises hard questions
The words were strong, even coarse. They were not the kind of words you might hear in a locker room. They WERE the words you heard in a locker room.
It was the first day of the Danbury Hat Tricks’ camp a few weeks ago and assistant coach John Krupinsky had a message for the players before they took the ice.
“We’re not women’s soccer,” Krupinsky said. “We’re not the NFL. If there’s anybody here who is going to be disrespectful to either the American or the Canadian national anthem, grab your gear and get the f*** out now because you’ll never see the ice in this arena.
“We don’t have that problem in hockey. We’re better than that, but there was no sense in wasting anybody’s time if that s*** was going to happen. I don’t believe it would happen here. We’re the most patriotic sport that they have out there.”
No players walked out. Krupinsky posted a video clip of his locker room speech on Facebook on June 30. It went viral and has been viewed by millions. He went on “Fox & Friends” and was celebrated. He went on “The Todd Starnes Radio Show” and was celebrated. Krupinsky said “I love Sean Hannity and to have him talk about it (on the radio), that’s the Holy Grail for me.”
“That’s what we call a Make America Great Again Truth Bomb — on ice,” Starnes wrote in an opinion piece.
Let’s just hope no one is hurt from the shrapnel of that truth bomb’s symbolic patriotism.
“John is a sergeant on the Danbury police force, president of the Connecticut of the Fraternal Order of Police, he’s a large part of taking care of the city of Danbury and for the families of the fallen officers throughout the state,” said Herm Sorcher, part of the Hat Tricks’ ownership group. “He gives back to the community he loves by working with us.
“We never said, hey, this is our policy, this is our procedure. That’s really something he did, but we support that position and are proud to have him with our organization.”
True, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s J.T. Brown raising his fist during the anthem in 2017 in a show of solidarity for those protesting police brutality and racial inequality was the
extent of the public protest in the NHL. Yet when Krupinsky said hockey is the most patriotic sport and is “better than that,” my question is who decides the precise definition of patriotism?
Military, firemen, police, emergency personnel: There are so many heroes among us and, of course, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice deserve our ultimate respect. Yet one needn’t carry a gun to become a hero. You want to know an incredible patriot? Julie K. Brown, investigative journalist for the Miami Herald, whose reporting broke open a cold case that led to the arrest of wealthy financier/sexual deviant Jeffrey Epstein and a disgusting plea deal that Friday led to the resignation of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. A free press makes America great, too.
I’ve argued Megan Rapinoe was patriotic when she argued on behalf of equal rights and equal pay under the harshest of lights and was heroic — in athletic terms — in leading the Americans to the World Cup. Krupinsky said Friday that Rapinoe, not Kaepernick, was the catalyst for his speech. He told Starnes that Rapinoe, who took a knee in support of Kaepernick in 2016 and said there was no way she’d go to the White House, could have been America’s sweetheart and that some of the U.S. players are getting a bad rap for the actions of a few. He told me Friday he feels strongly that Rapinoe missed a golden opportunity to talk to President Trump at the White House.
Here’s my biggest concern. At its heart, the NFL protest revolved around police action involving African Americans. Police unions have spoken out vociferously against Kaepernick. Krupinsky is a police officer in a racially diverse city. Isn’t this dicey? Can a man speak solely as an assistant coach on a minor league team when his profession is with the city’s police department? Is there some level of conflict of interest, or spillover if something unforeseen happens?
“No,” Krupinsky said. “I’m pretty safe in my community. I’m a guy at Christmastime who drove to Philadelphia, picked up 650 Christmas presents through the FOP and delivered them to the housing projects. These aren’t kids who wouldn’t have gotten an extra gift. These are kids who wouldn’t have had a Christmas at all.”
This is a police officer who was approached recently with a petition to fix a basketball rim at a housing project. He threw the petition away, drove to Sports Authority, bought a hoop and put it up for the kids.
“There are idiots who’d say, ‘Oh you’re a racist,’ ” Krupinsky said. “This has nothing to do with race. My community knows me very well.”
Still, I wonder. For instance, there is a tragic number of unsolved murders among Native American women. What if a Native American player finds his sister was murdered, someone in authority was covering it up and the player decided to protest in some manner?
Or what if a local police officer did something wrong to a Hat Tricks player and teammates wanted to show solidarity during the anthem?
I’m not saying it is going to happen. I’m just saying it could happen.
“Look, we believe in the respect for the national anthem, the flag and what John said,” Sorcher said. “Were the words he chose perfect? No. The common sense of our organization is if we ever had a player who had a belief and position, 100 percent we would speak and listen to them and help them in any way we could. There is no question of that. Of course, we’d support our players.
“Again, do we want all our players to stand to respect the anthems? A hundred percent we want that. Anytime someone reached out, we’d also have an open mind.”
The more nuanced duality of Sorcher’s point doesn’t make him weak. It makes his organization strong.
In the meantime, Sorcher said the Hat Tricks’ email response from all over the country has run 8020 in strong favor of Krupinsky’s message. People are ordering merchandise and buying tickets and donating to community organizations in his name.
My own views aren’t absolute, nor will they ever be on this issue. When Manhattanville basketball player Toni Smith turned her back on the flag during the national anthem in 2003, I was critical of her. I argued you’ve got to be better than showing your butt to the flag. When Kaepernick first took a knee in 2016, I thought he was vague in his protest and a little too reckless in style. Athletes like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony were already making vital contributions in a specific area of police relations with young black men. Kapernick’s overarching protests back to slavery seemed illformed and unnecessarily divisive. As he better honed his points on police and America’s treatment of people of color — no, it didn’t make me want to kneel for the anthem. It did help me understand why he and others would.
“The flag, I’ve unfortunately seen it covering too many coffins, and I think we can take time out to give two minutes of respect to our soldiers, our firemen, to our policemen,” Krupinsky told “Fox & Friends.”
On Friday, he said: “I’m not against protests. Not at all. I discussed this with my boss again today.They can take the team bus to one. We’re saying when they’re playing the Canadian and American national anthems as employers we expect you to be respectful for the flag. And it’s not just taking a knee. I don’t want to see guys laughing and joking during the anthem.”
Me? I’ll always stand for the anthem.
I’ll also pray we give every American a reason to stand, too.