Games take back seat in fight for social justice
The whole thing had to seem like such a surprise to Alain Vigneault. The Flyers coach, on a mandated, game-day Zoom session with some NHL media types Thursday afternoon, had to know what was coming.
Protest talk.
“I’m disappointing you a little bit again with my answer,” Vigneault said, repeating the thread from the prior night when he essentially had little to say about the move by NBA players to boycott playoff games as a form of protest connected to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin Sunday night.
“Ever since we eliminated Montreal, the only thing that’s been open in my room is my computer to hockey games,” Vigneault said. “I’m trying to prepare my team the best way we can. We played yesterday ... I really have no idea what’s going on in the outside world.
“We’re in this bubble right now, and we’re invested 24/7 on our team. I’m working 20 hours
a day going through video comparing our group. I don’t do Twitter. I haven’t read a sports article in I don’t know how long and I haven’t read any kind of article in I don’t know how long. I guess I’m a hockey nerd and that’s what I’m doing right now.”
Just like he was forced to answer a question, Vigneault would be forced to brush up on current events before the day was out.
Or at least forced to go to another website.
For more news on canceled games and protests, he could have sought out the league websites of any of the other major sports, as games were canceled in major league baseball and the NBA, practice sessions were called off at several NFL camps, and the WNBA and MLS also haven’t played.
As for when everything is deemed appropriate to resume ... that largely hasn’t been decided. The NHL only said games wouldn’t resume until Saturday, with no set starting times as of yet.
The NFL will train on, but that NBA bubble down in Orlando? It’s anybody’s guess whether or not that will eventually yield an NBA champion.
To that end, Phillies manager Joe Girardi seemed to have a handle as to why it all matters.
“The thing with being a professional athlete is you have a voice, and that voice can be heard all over the country and all over the world,” Girardi said Thursday.
“And what they want is change. Every time that we have some of these occurrences, it seems (we) take a step back. There are a lot of people with heavy hearts out there and lot of people that don’t necessarily have to deal with what others have to deal with.”
Girardi, who was uncertain when his team’s scheduled series closer Thursday in Washington was going to be rescheduled, and also didn’t know if this weekend’s home series with the Braves would go on as scheduled, said one voice that had struck his heart was one he heard on TV – that of adopted Philadelphia son Charles Barkley.
“He said he was exhausted for having to answer questions about social injustice,” Girardi said of Barkley. “That’s not something that comes across my plate every day, but it does for some others.”
While the Eagles carried on with practice Thursday, nine NFL teams did not. But players at NovaCare Center were ready, willing and eager to talk about the situation.
“There’s so many layers to this. it’s hard to really put your finger on, ‘OK, this is how you can express change?’” Carson Wentz said. “We want to see real change. The NBA and everyone is using their platform to create change. And some fans might not like it. But at the end of the day there’s a hurting community and we want to reach out and respond to that hurt.”
Stinging from criticism Wednesday in playing two scheduled playoff games inside the Toronto “bubble” at Scotiabank Arena, the NHL postponed two games Thursday night, including Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Flyers and the New York Islanders.
The move stemmed from meetings that players had as groups representing the teams still alive in the playoffs.
The criticism, in part, stemmed from social media posts while the Flyers and Islanders were playing Game 2 Wednesday night, and was expounded by prominent players of color such as San Jose’s Evander Kane and former Flyer Wayne Simmonds, members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
Kane tweeted, “We strongly feel this sends a clear message that human rights take priority over sports.”
And so started the conversation among players in the hockey bubble, who perhaps weren’t as tuned into the devastating sight of Blake being shot from behind with four of seven bullets fired by Kenosha patrolman Rusten Sheskey, leaving Blake at least temporarily paralyzed.
This just months after the shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and the death George Floyd in Minneapolis caused outrage and protests that were marked by violent episodes.
The same happened in Kenosha Tuesday night, when a so-called group of vigilantes carried with them 17-year-old Illinois resident Kyle Rittenhouse, who fired an AR-15 at protesters two different times and wound up killing two people and severely injuring another. He was charged with two counts of homicide Thursday.
Sometimes justice takes time.
“With the other leagues sitting out, we felt that we took our time, processed this as a whole and we’ll speak as players,” Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “Today unified us as a group, to realize that any Black player in this league, any Black player who as a kid grew up playing hockey, can have a voice, and the NHL and the sport itself is a safe place. Obviously in a predominantly white sport they feel alienated, but they have the support of every single one of us.”
Shattenkirk was speaking in a Zoom session Thursday featuring one representative of the four surviving Eastern Conference teams. Player representative James van Riemsdyk spoke for the Flyers, and said he had consulted with the Phantoms’ Chris Stewart, also a member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
“I think we’re trying to do the right thing,” van Riemsdyk said. “We’re looking for things we can do to show support, and kind of to be a part of this. That was the reason why a few of us reached out to (Stewart).”
The NHL drew some criticism Wednesday for going forward with its two games while the NBA was pushing for cancellations. Some of the critiques came from the playing ranks, as Kane and others let their disappointment with the league be known on social media.
“We understand that the tragedies involving Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others require us to recognize this moment,” an NHL league statement read. “We pledge to work to use our sport to influence positive change in society.”
They aren’t alone in recognizing this moment, which not unlike everything else that happened this year, is really an unprecedented moment in our society.
“There’s two things you can’t live without,” Girardi said, “and it has nothing to do with food and water. It’s love and hope. And I don’t think we’re doing a good job in our country with giving that to everyone. That needs to be the focus here.”