Chicago Blackhawks forward, Andrew Shaw, is the latest victim of this "watchdog." Shaw, according to a clip, says, "Fuck you, you fucking faggot." It's not audible but you can make out the words pretty clearly.
CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw has been suspended one game and ordered to undergo sensitivity training after uttering an anti-gay slur from the penalty box to someone on the ice in Chicago's Game 4 loss at home to the St. Louis Blues.
Shaw was also fined $5,000 for "directing an inappropriate gesture" at the on-ice officials. He will miss Game 5 in St. Louis on Thursday when the Blues, who are up 3-1 in the series, will try to knock the defending Stanley Cup champions out of the playoffs.
"While Mr. Shaw was apologetic and remorseful for both the offensive comments and the inappropriate gesture directed at the on-ice officials, he must be held accountable for his actions," NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell said in a statement. "The emotion of the moment cannot and will not be a mitigating factor for the conduct that is expected of an NHL player.""He must be held accountable for his actions." Wow. Apparently issuing a public apology and being find $5, 000 is a little much. All of a sudden the PC moral police are out in full force in professional sports.
Shaw was sent off for interference at 17 minutes, 56 seconds of the third period, hurting Chicago's chance for a comeback in what ended up being a 4-3 loss. While sitting in the box, Shaw pounded on the glass with his stick and then yelled at someone on the ice. As video of the incident spread online, the You Can Play project, a group supporting inclusiveness in athletics, swiftly tweeted that it was planning to contact the NHL.
After the game, Shaw was asked twice about what happened and said he didn't remember.
"Being like I just said -- I'll repeat myself for you -- emotions are high,'' he said. "I don't know what was said. Obviously I was upset with the call. I wasn't happy with the call."Anyone who has played sports in a halfway decent league knows that there's tension and players get pissed at one another and at the referee. The players, and coaches, say things out of anger. It's clear that Shaw's outburst was out of frustration and not geared towards the LGBT community. It wasn't even geared to a player with the suspicion of him not being straight.
A day later, Shaw said he saw the video after he returned home from the arena and said he was "sincerely sorry for the insensitive remarks that I made."
"I apologize to many people, including the gay and lesbian community, the Chicago Blackhawks organization, Blackhawks fans and anyone else I may have offended," he said. "I know my words were hurtful, and I will learn from my mistake."
The team said it was "extremely disappointed" by the incident. Shaw scored a goal in the second period and had two assists in the loss, which left the defending Stanley Cup champions on the brink of elimination.Extremely disappointed. Huh. Interesting. What's more interesting is what follows.
The team recently highlighted its partnership with You Can Play, which lobbies for equal and respectful treatment of all athletes without regard to sexual orientation. Defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson and goaltender Scott Darling participated in a video supporting the group's mission.
"Our team pledges to support all our coaches, teammates and fans," Darling says in the video. "We believe that athletes should be judged by their character, work ethic and talent, not their sexual orientation or gender identity."True about being judged by work ethic, character and talent, but it's a rather insidious move on You Can Play's part. It's a play on one's psyche to begin with. By making sexuality trivial on the field, as it should be, it also greatly helps in being non-thinking when it comes to supposed "rights."
You Can Play issued a statement after the suspension was announced.
"All of us at You Can Play were saddened and offended to see Andrew Shaw's use of homophobic slurs during an NHL game. We wholeheartedly support the NHL's decision to discipline Mr. Shaw," it read. "After four years of working with You Can Play, NHL players can no longer use ignorance as an excuse for not understanding the power of their words and the effect they have on their teammates, fans, and the LGBT community.
We look forward to continuing our partnership with the NHL, the Blackhawks, and Mr. Shaw as we work to finally eradicate homophobia in hockey culture."So here's the watchdog: You Can Play. It's not just a watchdog but it has dictated the rhetoric of players on and off the ice.
A national television audience heard former NBA star Kobe Bryant shout the same slur in 2011 at a referee he thought had made a bad call during a basketball game. Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah yelled it at a Miami Heat basketball fan who had been antagonizing him during a game a month later. Both quickly apologized, and the NBA hit them with large fines: Bryant was fined $100,000, and Noah was fined $50,000.
Also in the NBA, Sacramento Kings point guard Rajon Rondo was suspended one game in December for using the slur as he berated official Bill Kennedy, who subsequently came out as gay. Major League Baseball in 2014 suspended Yunel Escobar, then a shortstop with the Toronto Blue Jays, for stenciling the word, in Spanish, onto his eye black.The LGBT has become the beloved protected class, competing against blacks for the "Biggest Victim" winner.
Like MLB, the NHL has never had an openly gay player on an active roster. The founder of You Can Play, Patrick Burke, works in the NHL's player safety office. He has championed the LGBT cause and said earlier this year that he has met gay players through the years who have been on active NHL rosters.Unless there has been noted violence and blackballing towards non-straight professional athletes Burke's motivation to police and fine speech that is deemed anti-LGBT is highly ironic. Then again The Left is highly contradictory and non-thinking. Here's Burke's bio -
So he's doing this for his late brother. How touching. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.Patrick currently attends law school at New England Law of Boston while residing in the city. The 2010 Co-Sportsperson of the Year for Outsports.com, Patrick’s advocacy is done as an on-going tribute to his late brother Brendan, who was one of the first people associated with the National Hockey League to come out as openly gay. Brendan also served as the student manager for the Miami University ice hockey team, and the love and acceptance shown by his teammates and family is an on-going inspiration for the sports world.
The site that hosts his bio, Changing the Game (let's not make it so obvious now), is a pro-LGBT sports site dedicated to sensitizing players that being part of the LGBT community is A-OKAY. Now, as I said, if there were constant reported incidents where LGBT athletes have been met with violence and blackballing then I can see where they're coming from, but this is just an indignant movement. The founder of the site, Pat Griffin, is a lesbian who was a collegiate athlete who later competed in the Gay Games IV & V. The fact that Griffin goes around the country to speak on behalf of her sexuality isn't proof of the bigotry of professional sports, let alone sports, but of her own insecurity.
In a game where grown men are allowed to repeatedly punch each other in which the game is temporarily suspended, it's amusing that players can't express frustration - at least frustration that was never intended to malign.
The comments were rather refreshing for a change, but there were people who have bought into the "those are bad words and bad thoughts" mentality. Take for instance Peter Nygaard said -
I just wonder how many of the people commenting about the NHL going soft would be saying the same things if he'd been suspended for using the N-word.Doug Roberts who responded to another saying that gay/faggot, though slurs, aren't on the same level of the n_gger -
Are any of these people religious? Such a puritan lot. So clean and proper. Victorian, even.Nah, I doubt it was as well. But the point of the whole thing is to understand that the word is similarly offensive and that we ought to try to get it out of our day-to-day vocabulary.
Davor Danvenski writes -
Given that LGBT "rights" aren't the focus of the ESPN article it's safe to say that this is the knee-jerk reaction to anyone that supports LGBT "rights." It's purely an emotional thing, a of course I'm for LGBT rights, I mean, they're just like you and me! He then goes on, like every good Ally, that there is a "long ways to go" until true equality and diversity is achieved. The scary thing is is that it's not just in policy that the Danvenskis of the world want. It's thought as well. It's the changing of social norms. It's the changing of institutions. It's the implementation that "LGBT is good" on every societal level and in every mind in America. It's a purge. It's a quiet revolution.I am absolutely for LGBT rights. We still have a long ways to go until the LGBT community get treated fairly, as everyone else, but if Shaw gets one game for a slur, then Bellemare should get more than one game for his intentional hit on Orlov. That hit could have easily ended Orlov's career. It could have easily ended with Orlov being paralyzed. Just my view.
Davenski didn't articulate what he meant by "long ways to go until the LGBT community get treated fairly," but since he expressed such thoughts I will put it against him and his kind that they are Cultural Marxists. Obergefell v Hodges wasn't enough. It didn't satiate his hunger. It's as if Hitler has risen and has a goal to achieve.
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