Went back and looked, didn't see a discussion for this already.
So maybe this was common knowledge among bigger hockey fans than I am, but while I kinda peripherally assumed a lot of hockey teams were full of the worst kinds of machismo and hazing, it's very different seeing it confirmed in graphic detail. I remember ESPN bringing the accusations against Bill Peters to the fore last year, and then he resigned, and you had Toronto and Babcock which got some discussion around here, but it didn't look like some sort of broader cultural change was in the offing. Well, now I might have to reconsider that:
Former NHL enforcer Dan Carcillo is trying to change this by being a twitter-based abuse hotline, getting lots of stories privately, offering support, and sometimes sharing them publicly. Sometimes he gets called out for his own past shitty behavior, and posts that and recognizes it as a dick move. Washington Post did a great article about it last week, which I'm just getting to now:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/02/19/hockey-dan-carcillo-abuse-twitter/
A sampling:
The whole article is both shocking and not-shocking for different reasons, and seems to be some very good journalism about culture shifts rather than just a "look at the knuckle-draggers!" hit piece. Perhaps Carcillo will actually make a difference, alongside hundreds of others of similar mind.
So maybe this was common knowledge among bigger hockey fans than I am, but while I kinda peripherally assumed a lot of hockey teams were full of the worst kinds of machismo and hazing, it's very different seeing it confirmed in graphic detail. I remember ESPN bringing the accusations against Bill Peters to the fore last year, and then he resigned, and you had Toronto and Babcock which got some discussion around here, but it didn't look like some sort of broader cultural change was in the offing. Well, now I might have to reconsider that:
Former NHL enforcer Dan Carcillo is trying to change this by being a twitter-based abuse hotline, getting lots of stories privately, offering support, and sometimes sharing them publicly. Sometimes he gets called out for his own past shitty behavior, and posts that and recognizes it as a dick move. Washington Post did a great article about it last week, which I'm just getting to now:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/02/19/hockey-dan-carcillo-abuse-twitter/
A sampling:
...because of course he didn't see a cause to move forward.In 2002, Carcillo landed with the Sarnia Sting, a Canadian Hockey League club that treated extreme hazing as cherished tradition, according to Carcillo and teammates. When he was 17, Carcillo was beaten with a sawed-off goalie stick and stuffed in a bathroom with other rookies while teammates spit tobacco juice on them, he says. He was also subjected to the “shower train,” he says, in which he and other rookies were seated on a shower floor while veterans spit and urinated on them.
The next year, Carcillo was playing for Team Canada’s under-18 club. At a team dinner, he talked about the beatings and the shower train and the bus bathrooms. “Their jaws hit the floor,” Carcillo says.
It had never occurred to him to complain to the league. But Team Canada’s coach, Brad McCrimmon, alerted David Branch, who was president of the CHL and commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League, where Sarnia plays. Branch came to Sarnia to inquire but took no action.
“In speaking to certain people in charge of the club and a couple of players, I did not see a cause to move forward with an actual investigation,” Branch said in an interview.
The whole article is both shocking and not-shocking for different reasons, and seems to be some very good journalism about culture shifts rather than just a "look at the knuckle-draggers!" hit piece. Perhaps Carcillo will actually make a difference, alongside hundreds of others of similar mind.
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