Grapes Crushed - Cherry out from Coach's Corner

MiracleOfO2704

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This may be threadworthy on its own, but I'm going to start here just in case it doesn't garner a response.

That said, Don Cherry REALLY stepped in it last night.

Remembrance Day is Tuesday, and most Canadians will donate some pocket change to the Legion to wear a plastic poppy for a few days before the ceremonies. Well, in his fervor to help donations, Don may have gone full Bernier and implied immigrants don't care about the military. I would post the whole Coach's Corner for context, but Sportsnet has scrubbed it from the internet for the time being. If you have NHL.tv, you can probably find it on all three early HNIC games (Flyers-Leafs, Kings-Habs, Hurricanes-Senators) during the 1st intermission, so in its stead, I'm relying on a clip played by a Canadian vlogger I just found in my search for the clip:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abkAnBwoqz0


For full context, the only part missing from the clip at the beginning is how Don was talking to a Legion member in Mississauga that decided he wasn't going to run the poppy campaign this year due to low donations. That's it.

I think a sign of how bad this one has gone is Sportsnet scrubbing the segment from wherever it could, but I did find the original video link in a google search. That link just went to their generic video section, so...yeah. I've said for a while that Don's become Canada's cranky grandfather (probably great-grandfather for a lot of people), and while some of us are just used to his rambling, for him to go full xenophobe on the heels of an election that had immigration as a core contentious issue, this doesn't help matters. I'm not the best person to ask, since I thought Coach's Corner needed to be recast or scrapped years ago, but maybe this will change some minds at Sportsnet. We'll see.
 

tonyandpals

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I saw it. On a Don Cherry batshit scale of 1 to 10, this is a 10. It is conceivable he won't survive this.
It's crazy if he does survive it. That apology by MacLean made me cringe, not by any fault of his own, but just the fact that HE had to do it. Apologizing for not catching it in the moment, letting it persist, and taking it all on himself. That was real stand-up stuff. Put Cherry back on screen and let him 'apologize.' He probably couldn't even do if he read it from the prompted. He'd likely call out some more of "those people" he has issues with and bury himself even further.
 

mauidano

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Don't let the door hit you on.... actually, I hope it does. See ya.
Ron MacLean needs some time off to think about it. His apology is accepted I would assume but damn; nodding and giving the thumbs up is condoning it. Fuck these guys.
 

ifmanis5

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Wow. It's the right call but wow, the end of an era. They should have pulled him years ago to avoid this black eye.
Interesting to read the comments to the official statement tweet, most are defending Cherry and attacking SportsNet for being soft. Lots of whataboutism with Trudeau, too. Weird times we are in. #DonCherryIsRight is trending and people are signing petitions. He's such a huge figure in Canada, this is going to escalate.
 
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mauidano

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Like it or not, Don Cherry has been doing coach's corner for 40 years and is a big deal. Sportsnet had to be a little respectful with how they handled this.

Even so, they are still going to face backlash for firing him.
The comments on Twitter are predominantly in favor of Don, unfortunately. Crazy but not surprised in this day and age. This is not Don's first controversial moment; he's had a few others but this obviously was the last straw.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/don-cherry-s-history-of-controversial-comments-1.4680505
 

MiracleOfO2704

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I think the writing was on the wall when Sportsnet went through the pain of digitally scrubbing the other night's Coach's Corner. A business that normally pumps that segment out within minutes of airing it doesn't go that far unless they really feel like they have to get rid of it.

I would guess the ideal scenario for Sportsnet would have been for him to make a statement where he gave a sincere seeming apology and announced he was retiring/stepping down.
Yeah, that's probably exactly what they wanted, but Don was going down with that ship. I'd imagine they'd give him the rest of the season, too. Let's not forget that Ron was replaced as the main HNiC host in 2014 by George Stroumboulopoulos, but angry fans demanded Ron come back, so Rogers definitely hears the loudest voices out there. Speaking of...

The comments on Twitter are predominantly in favor of Don, unfortunately.
Just change that to "the Internet". The CBC PEI Facebook page put a link to the story up, and the replies are just a spew of "but did he REALLY say anything wrong?" sprinkled with a few "he was just misunderstood"s and the odd "good riddance". One guy even went so far as to say he was cancelling his "Rodgers" cell phone. And with all those comments comes the reminder that Don does, indeed, have a Charter right to free speech. But the RCMP didn't knock down his door, so people can really stop with that line of argument.

They’ve got Brian Burke. Wonder if he is the replacement.
Don't laugh, they might be considering it. Though, if I had to guess, they'll trot Ron out there by himself this weekend to take the slings and arrows on the slot, put together a few highlights of the segment over the decades, and quietly scrap it in favour of showing highlights of early games and the other 7:00 PM ET 1st periods.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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Also, how the hell is Brian Burke a full two decades YOUNGER than Don? Granted, I wasn't around for his playing days, but he's looked old for a few years.
 

cshea

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Burkie is an opinionated old school hockey guy, but pretty harmless as far as I know. I don’t think he’d completely fly off the handle like Cherry. Leafs fans probably hate him though. He’d be able to dole out the entertaining but dumb takes no problem. Get rid of the nerds, bring me moar grit and truculence! Also being mad at the Hurricanes for their celebrations. Probably wouldn’t be able to get him to change the tie undone look though.
 

MiracleOfO2704

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If they are going to keep it, a Burke-led CC probably makes the undone look his thing. I can see people coming around if he offers similar opinions, but asking him to wear some of Cherry's suits would probably be way over the line.

As far as his likeliness to say outrageously horrible things, considering his late son's history, I'd like to think he can avoid that fairly easily.
 

wiffleballhero

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You sort of knew that short of dying, this was the way Cherry was going to go out. For probably 20 years he has been a stupid blowhard in need of being sent away, and on the edge of something like this. If anything it is surprising this did not come sooner. Good riddance.
 

The Napkin

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https://theathletic.com/1369550/2019/11/11/basu-don-cherry-was-always-a-problem-why-it-took-canada-so-long-to-see-it/?source=dailyemail
[O]ne thing you want as a new Canadian is to feel Canadian, and there have been times over the course of my life – not many, but some – where you feel just a little less Canadian than others. This is the beauty of hockey in Canada; it provides an open road to feeling Canadian for those who don’t have many other roads available to them.
But then Cherry would come across my television screen spouting off on French Canadians, Russians, other Europeans, and it was impossible for me not to think, ‘Well, if he feels that way about them, I can only imagine what he thinks of me.’
Cherry was a roadblock to feeling Canadian for those who felt a little less Canadian than others. It was his emphasis on the others. On ‘you people.’ I have no time for that in my life, so I cut Cherry out of it, and I was better for it.
Now, Cherry has been cut out of the collective lives of all Canadians. I can’t help but feel we will be better for it.


https://theathletic.com/1369329/2019/11/12/mcindoe-i-grew-up-on-coachs-corner-don-cherrys-fall-has-been-hard-to-watch/
Whether his fans want to admit it or not, Saturday’s poppy rant was vintage Cherry. Bigoted and bullying, maybe without even realizing it, or maybe just without caring. Love him or hate him, you can’t say that he changed for the worse. The rest of us did, for the better. Or at least enough of us did that it finally tilted the scales toward the side that plenty of Canadians had been on all along, waiting for the rest of us to catch up. We’ll say that he finally crossed the line, but the truth is the line finally moved beneath him, far enough that he couldn’t get away with it anymore. For all the reasons laid out by Sunaya Sapurji, this was finally the moment where it had to end.

https://theathletic.com/1366564/2019/11/11/its-time-to-say-goodbye-to-don-cherry-and-his-xenophobic-ways/
Many immigrants — like me — are very grateful to be Canadian, to live here and contribute. My grandmother became a Montreal Canadiens fan and would watch the French broadcasts despite not knowing the language. As a child, hockey was my gateway to Canada. And watching “Hockey Night In Canada” was a catalyst for my lifelong love of the sport.
But the truth is, I haven’t watched “Coach’s Corner” in ages.
...
Will this be the end of his Canadian-everyman schtick? Not if we look at his history. Cherry has been espousing offensive views on “Hockey Night In Canada” for decades, and nothing has changed. He’s been an equal opportunity offender to Russians, Europeans and French Canadians. Concussion spotters are “dumb-dumbs.” People who ride bicycles are “pinkos.”
In 2011, he called former enforcers Chris Nilan, Stu Grimson and Jim Thompson “pukes” after they spoke out about the dangers of drugs and alcohol following the deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak.
He even attacked the former players involved in the NHL’s concussion settlement, calling it a “money grab.” This coming from a man who profited from selling their pain in his “Rock’Em Sock’Em” videos.
This week, immigrants are the target. Next week? Who knows.
 

reggiecleveland

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There have been so many things he said. Hockey violence in many ways is to Canada what gun are to the USA, with the views seeming incomprehensible to the outside world. After Savard was injured by Cooke Cherry went after Cooke, but when Cooke went on the ice and fought against the Bruins, he "faced the music" and handled it "the right way."

In many ways hockey in Canada has left him behind. Canadian kids are taught to cycle the puck, possess the puck, gain possession, not blast people for intimidation. Don's brand of dump and chase, smack em, hockey is not popular, or effective. Concussion protocols are getting rid of enforcers in junior hockey.
 

cshea

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Wasn’t he big on putting stop signs on the back of youth hockey helmets/jersey’s? Did they ever do that?
 

joe dokes

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In many ways hockey in Canada has left him behind. Canadian kids are taught to cycle the puck, possess the puck, gain possession, not blast people for intimidation. Don's brand of dump and chase, smack em, hockey is not popular, or effective. Concussion protocols are getting rid of enforcers in junior hockey.
More like top-flight Soviet hockey in the 70s.
 

Haunted

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There have been so many things he said. Hockey violence in many ways is to Canada what gun are to the USA, with the views seeming incomprehensible to the outside world. After Savard was injured by Cooke Cherry went after Cooke, but when Cooke went on the ice and fought against the Bruins, he "faced the music" and handled it "the right way."
My memory of that incident was quite different so I looked it up:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2LlShM0Bt0


Not sure he faced any music whatsoever. He took a few shots, fell and turtled.
 

ColdSoxPack

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Hiring Brian Burke would be exactly the wrong thing to do, imho. They need a different look from the angry old white guy and Brian Burke is exactly that, and American as pointed out already. The second intermission show is informed and measured. Why not do that after the first period and do highlights during the second intermission?
 

cshea

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I only mentioned Burke because he’s already on the Rogers payroll and has the kind of personality that would fit in a segment like Coach’s Corner.

I think they end up scrapping the segment and filling with highlights or more Headlines with Friedman.
 

MuzzyField

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Brian Burke is already an employee. Beaten by cshea...

He's currently doing an "opinion" segment on the set with David Amber during the late HNIC game. It way be a warming in the pen situation to have a replacement in waiting, but more between period roundtable hockey talk also works for me.
 

reggiecleveland

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More like top-flight Soviet hockey in the 70s.
After the 2010 Olympics (sorry USA fans) I watched the 72 summit series DVDs, all 8 games. It was amazing how the Canadians and Russians had switched styles. The recent Russian Olympic and World Junior teams are insanely talented, maybe the most individual stars, that attack the goal by carrying the puck, one exciting drive and shot, all on and done. That was Canada in 72. The Soviets in 72 were keeping the puck looking for both shooters in the high and low slot, passing the puck behind the net, etc. By 2010 Ovie and Geno were carrying the puck with like Espo and Bobby Clark in 72. Canada still tends to be the dirtiest in both eras though.

As to a replacement I can't think of too many options other than scrapping the segment all together. Maybe somebody with the status of Scotty Bowman, (who is not available) could do the coaches corner. In Canada Cherry was such an icon it would take Orr, Gretzky, level celebrity to step into the spot.
 
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lexrageorge

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Cherry never bothered me; in fact, I can see why he was entertaining. But it was long past time for him to dump his anti-foreigner shtick. He didn't, so he's now retired.

In comparison, Mike Millbury is a much worse person and offers absolutely zero insight, but for some reason he is kept around.
 

The Napkin

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"When I said 'you people' I meant everyone"

Bullshit. Wanna know how I know you're lying? Because you also said "come here and enjoy our milk and honey". Bye Felicia.
 

reggiecleveland

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That Bobby Orr watches Tucker Carlson is maybe the worst thing I have heard. Well David Ortiz welcome to the #1 spot on my favorite athletes of all time list.
 

lexrageorge

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That Bobby Orr watches Tucker Carlson is maybe the worst thing I have heard. Well David Ortiz welcome to the #1 spot on my favorite athletes of all time list.
Does he actually watch it? Or did he just put it on last night so he could hear Cherry's interview? There is a difference.