Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters accused of directing racist slurs at player
The future of Bill Peters, the Calgary Flames coach, is under question while the NHL and his team investigate allegations he directed racist slurs at a Nigerian-born player in the minors 10 years ago.
Akim Aliu alleged on social media earlier this week that Peters “dropped the N bomb several times towards me in the dressing room in my rookie year because he didn’t like my choice of music.” Aliu and Peters were together during the 2009-10 season with the Chicago Blackhawks minor-league affiliate in Rockford, Illinois.
“Allegations of this nature, we take very, very seriously. This is subject matter that has no place in our organization,” said Flames general manager Brad Treliving. “Now it’s my job to find out exactly what’s taken place.”
He said he had spoken with Peters and has had two conversations with Aliu by phone. Treliving offered no timeline for the investigation and later announced Peters would coach the team against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night. Associate coach Geoff Ward will handle the coaching duties in Peters’ place.
The NHL called the alleged behavior “repugnant and unacceptable,” but held off commenting pending further investigation.
Aliu has since expanded on his allegations by telling Canada’s TSN sports cable network that Peters made the remarks in Rockford’s dressing room, calling out his choice of music with a brief tirade marked by profanities and the n-word in front of several teammates. “He then walked out like nothing ever happened,” Aliu said. “You could hear a pin drop in the room, everything went dead silent. I just sat down in my stall, didn’t say a word.” Two of Aliu’s teammates, Simon Pepin and Peter MacArthur, corroborated the story to TSN.
Aliu referred to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick as a reason he stayed quiet for so long. Kaepernick has spent the past two-plus seasons out of football since he began kneeling during the national anthem at NFL games to protest police brutality and racial injustice. “This isn’t to the degree of Kaepernick by any means, but if you play the race card, it’s most likely the end of your career,” Aliu told TSN. “This isn’t me being bitter. I sat on this a really, really long time. It broke my heart. I think it made my career go downhill before it started.”
Flames players were blindsided by the allegations against the second-year coach. Defenseman Oliver Kylington, whose mother is Eritrean and father Swedish, said Peters has always treated him fairly, and yet respected Aliu for voicing his complaints. “If he felt like those words have been said, I really respect that he’s speaking out,” Kylington said. “Words like that should never, ever be said.”
Flames captain Mark Giordano called it “a really tough situation” for the men involved and the franchise. “I think we all know there’s no place for any of that sort of stuff in society, but also you have to respect that the allegations are just that right now, and you’ve got to go through the process,” Giordano said.
Aliu’s tweet came after reports surfaced of how poorly Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock dealt with his players in Toronto before he was fired several days ago. Forward Mitch Marner confirmed that during his rookie season Babcock asked him to rank Maple Leafs players in order of hardest to leasthardest working. Babcock then shared Marner’s list with numerous players. Aliu noted Peters was Babcock’s protege.