Grapes and Wrath
From 1943 to 2005, the NHL enforced the ‘Two line pass rule’ in order to prevent players from ‘cherry picking’. Cherry picking in hockey was deemed to be a lazy way for an attacking player to get a jump on the defence. Cherry picking is also a derogatory term for picking and choosing items that are most advantageous to your position. This past Remembrance Day, Don Cherry got reverse cherry picked and was summarily fired from Coach’s Corner, a position he co-hosted for 38 seasons.
To be absolutely clear, Sportsnet definitely had the right to fire Don Cherry’s ass. It was reported that the network received an unprecedented amount of complaints about the now infamous segment. One little inconvenient item that came up in the Rebel News interview was that Coach’s Corner ran numerous times that night. Ron MacLean gave it a ‘thumbs up’ and the show’s producers had zero issues and not a peep was said to Cherry about blowback from his remarks. But the complaints came in the next day, blood was on the ice, and everyone piled on.
As Don has said since the firing, he is disappointed that he did not get a chance to clarify his statements and he would have liked to finish the season. But he understood the decision and is prepared to live with it.
Time will tell whether or not Sportsnet’s actions will adversely hurt their bottom line.
So, let us take a quick, dispassionate look at the actual transcript of what got some people so riled up:
“You know, I was talking to a veteran. I said ‘I’m not going to run the poppy thing anymore because what’s the sense? I live in Mississauga, nobody wears — very few people wear a poppy. Downtown Toronto, forget it! Downtown Toronto, nobody wears a poppy.’
He says, ‘Wait a minute, how about running it for the people that buy them?’
Now you go to the small cities, the rows on rows.
You people love — that come here, whatever it is — you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey. At least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy. These guys paid for your way of life, the life you enjoy in Canada. These guys paid the biggest price.
Anyhow, I’m going to run it again for you great people and good Canadians that bought a poppy.”
So for anyone familiar with Coach’s Corner, this is typical Don Cherry getting on a roll. It is no secret that he adores and supports the members of the Canadian Armed Forces. It is no secret that at times he is not the most eloquent of speakers and does not mince words. In fact, there is very little middle ground regarding the man, people either love or hate him.
On the hate side of the column, Ron MacLean’s apology seemed to hurt Don the most. Don says that he understands why Ron did what he did and hopes they can still be friends.
Many others were less charitable about the long time TV personality’s choice of words. Numerous media figures and politicians slammed Cherry. For example, Peter Mansbridge conflated Cherry’s commentary with ‘The notion that they were all white is not only dangerously wrong, it’s an insult to those thousands who lie in the ground in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and so many other places.’ One might be confused about that leap of logic when you read the transcript.
From the world of Facebook, a Lana Ray, a former employee of the Ontario Native Womens Association wrote a very long piece opining that support for Don Cherry is ‘institutional gas lighting’ and ‘Through his comments, Mr. Cherry reinforces a master narrative of white supremacy and settler colonialism.’ That’s quite the stretch pass to infer that all the woes of Canada’s Indigenous peoples can be encapsulated in a rant about getting people to wear more poppies.
Many people that I have spoken with about this incident have had a visceral reaction to Don Cherry’s remarks. In their eyes, he is a straight up racist, misogynistic boor with no redeeming qualities and should have been de-platformed ages ago. The use of the phrase ‘You people’ was described as the trigger determining the racism charge.
In fact, the deeply offending phrase was discussed today by Cynthia Loyst, a co-host of CTV’s The Social. She was speaking about the ‘grandfathers and weird uncles’ in your life who talk about ‘those people’. Supposedly, ‘those people’ being referred to ‘always have a certain type of skin colour’. Obviously, although Cherry did not say immigrants or New Canadians of colour, the insinuation is that he is an old school racist along with all the rest of the old, white, male Canadians. Ironically, Ms. Loyst, only a short time later says ‘you people, who are into sports’. Somebody, some would say the virtue-signally left, likes shifting the goal posts.
This is the crux of the arguments in favour of the firing of Don Cherry. People are selectively choosing some out of context remarks and are uncharitably projecting their worst case ideas of what he meant. Don has repeatedly said since the firing that his intent was to say ‘Everybody’ should be wearing poppies. This was corroborated by one of the few sports columnists who is actually sticking up for the man. Toronto Sun columnist, Joe Warmington during a CTV interview, said that he already knew what Cherry was going to say on Coach’s Corner because he had interviewed him the evening before. Don’s intent was to scold ‘Everybody’ who was not wearing a poppy.
Don has a habit of saying ‘you people’, ‘you kids’, and ‘you this and that’. It is nomenclature that can be used to indicate a group of people, for example, those Canadians who were not wearing poppies this year. Don Cherry is not the only person who uses this term.
So if he meant ‘Everybody’ should be wearing poppies, what exactly is the outrage about? Are his detractors for people to wear less poppies and to devalue Remembrance Day and veterans? Who are the real bigots and racists in this lopsided rink?
Ah, but numerous articles and people pointed out Cherry’s history of misogynistic and insensitive attitudes towards women, Natives, climate alarmists, etc. But a lot of other people would say, he was just stating opinions shared by many other Canadians and that he was not the most politically correct while stating said opinions. Let it never be said that along with enjoying hockey, Canadians are ever tired of airing their opinions.
From the beginning, Don Cherry was hired for Coach’s Corner to be an entertainer. Being flashy and somewhat controversial was part of the gig. But in the end, Sportsnet decided it was time to pull the goalie.
For all Canadians, lovers or haters of Don Cherry, I would suggest that you read through his Wikipedia entry. As mentioned, he spent close to four decades co-hosting Coach’s Corner. His accolades and charitable work are quite impressive and he ranked #7 on CBC’s The Greatest Canadians series. It was a sad day for Canada when this man was summarily terminated with zero attempt made to let him explain himself.
Of course, what really drove the knife home and has pissed off his supporters was the coup de grâce occurred on Remembrance Day. For those offended by Cherry’s words, maybe you should think about that cruel act. Do a few missteps here and there through the course of an illustrious career really warrant the lopping off of his head just because the mob demands it? Are his critics so perfect that they will always be onside no matter the issue? Grapes was a Rock’em Sock’em type of guy, not afraid to take an opponent into the boards. I guess that is offensive to people who are more comfortable playing from the bench.
Whichever side of the play sheet you fall on regarding the man, Don Cherry was a true man of integrity. In typical selfless fashion to the troops, Grapes was more concerned about his firing interfering with the day for the veterans then for his own well-being.
Remembrance Day was sad for an extra reason this year.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.