Tony DeAngelo
Mitchell Miller
Mike Babcock
The first guy listed here dropped several racial slurs in junior against teammates and opponents and was suspended multiple times. Despite this he was still drafted to the NHL, continued to be a problem there and ultimately he was traded twice early in his career because of behaviour issues. Most recently he was a prominent Trump supporter pushing election fraud and covid-denying garbage for months on social media, including creating a burner account to chirp back at fans. He was finally kicked off the team for getting in a fight with teammate Alexandar Georgiev, with the Rangers indicating they were fine with his social media activity still.
The second guy listed was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes this past fall despite years of bullying and racially abusing a kid at his school, one who was developmentally challenged, and frankly some of the details are absolutely sickening as listed here:
The third guy listed was one of the most prominent coaches in the entire hockey world and yet has been a manipulative jerk for years now, as detailed by his former player Johan Franzen and the way Babcock ridiculed his concussion and mental health issues. Add on the story of Babcock making a then-rookie Mitch Marner create a list ranking the players effort defensively on the team and then shared said list with the entire team. This is a guy who's made a career out of being an absolute asshole.
And yet here we are folks!
Countless articles, interviews, social media posts and more in the past few months dedicated to rehabilitating the image of these three men who don't deserve a second chance. Heck Mike Babcock was just hired as the Head Coach of the University of Saskatchewan! The question remains: why is hockey media so fixated on giving these people a second chance?
Words and actions have consequences, being good at a sport does not just give you free pass to do and say whatever you want, and it seems like a whole part of the hockey media or "old school" hockey culture just can't seem to grasp that concept. And yet I look at a guy like Josh Ho-Sang, the kid slept through his alarm in his first rookie camp with the Islanders, was sent home and has been labelled a problem kid and never given a second chance since. If you aren't paying attention to the double standards here then you aren't aware of what's going on.
The bottom line to me is this; the media coddling and making these abusers seem like the victim has to stop. NOW.
END OF RANT
Joel Forman - The Forman Faceoff
