Former player accuses Flames head coach Bill Peters of using racial slur -- Peters resigns

[10pavelbure96]

1 minute ago, Down by the River said:

This is such an illogical post. 

Maybe to you it is. Because of the way the media is that guy is never going to coach again in the NHL because of a mistake he made a decade ago.

 

We have all made mistakes and things we regret in the past..how would you feel if a word you said 10 years ago derailed your career? He didn't molest anyone, hes not a criminal... it was a bigoted comment.  Akim Aliu wasnt an angel, he fought Downie at practice.  

 

If he was a good enough player he would still be in the league, Peter's isn't the reason hes not in the bigs anymore. One word 10 years ago.

 

It's a joke, society is soft, don cherry fired, a few weeks later this happens. Lol its laughable.

[Down by the River]

2 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

I don't think anything he could've said would've been sufficient. 

 

His apology was never going to be accepted. 

Probably not. But if he had any chance of the apology being accepted, he should have directed his apology to the individual impacted by it all. Instead he danced around the root of the problem to avoid liability. 

[goalie13]

So many repetitive and stupid questions from the reporters.

 

Treliving - I don't want to speculate on hypothetical situations.

Reporters - Can you comment on this hypothetical situation?

[Qwags]

2 minutes ago, Dazzle said:

Even if he apologized wholeheartedly, there was almost no way for him to keep his job. It has blown up beyond control and it has been a NHL PR disaster. Furthermore, many people would point to the apology (sincere or not) as him apologizing because he got caught.

 

2 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

I don't think anything he could've said would've been sufficient. 

 

His apology was never going to be accepted. 

Oh, I don't disagree. I'm just saying that when people point out that this happened 10 years ago, doesn't lessen the consequences. If Peters had completely changed his ways, and had since been reported as an upstanding member of the community, things would be different. 

 

But given how that hasn't happened (or at least, there's been no indication of such circumstances) he had to go.

[Down by the River]

Just now, 10pavelbure96 said:

Maybe to you it is. Because of the way the media is that guy is never going to coach again in the NHL because of a mistake he made a decade ago.

 

We have all made mistakes and things we regret in the past..how would you feel if a word you said 10 years ago derailed your career? He didn't molest anyone, hes not a criminal... it was a bigoted comment.  Akim Aliu wasnt an angel, he fought Downie at practice.  

 

If he was a good enough player he would still be in the league, Peter's isn't the reason hes not in the bigs anymore. One word 10 years ago.

 

It's a joke, society is soft, don cherry fired, a few weeks later this happens. Lol its laughable.

JFC. On the one hand you call society soft. On the other hand you are whining about a kid that tried to stand up for himself after a guy 2 years older than him knocked out 8 of his teeth. 

 

If you think that speaks against Aliu's character, then you're the one that is soft. 

 

I've never used the N-word, so I'm not worried about the precedent set against racist assholes. 

[RUPERTKBD]

45 minutes ago, Tortorella's Rant said:

And if one player is caught on camera calling another a faggot, should he be ineligible from ever playing in the NHL again? This has obviously happened before. It happens all the time on the ice if you've played hockey at any sort of level competitively. By the standard set here today that answer would be yes. 

There has to be a standard but this one infraction and you're done standard we've set is unacceptable. Basically, we're asking fallible entities to be perfect every time all the time.

Apples and Orangutans.....a player has the option of dropping his gloves and cleaning the name-caller's clock. The most it's going to cost him is 5 minutes in the Sin Bin.

 

When it's the guy who holds your professional career in his hands, a player literally has no options but to take it.

[HKSR]

18 minutes ago, Tortorella's Rant said:

He was fired over the Aliu remarks - regarding his music - not the individual. That was it. He apologized the other day. Whether or not you, they, them, whoever found it sufficient is irrelevant. Some people simply will never forgive. 

This idea he's some bigoted, racist asshole who should be fired and never work in the NHL again has no basis. But if this is the route society is starting to go, I do hope the same for you one day. What goes around comes around as they say.
 

Yes, exactly my point. Illogical. Including those in this thread: we're upset over what Peters did and he should get fired over one particular instance but Trudeau should get a free pass because even though what he did was 'much worse'  and he repeated it numerous times..

Still waiting how to hear different reactions and treatments here from the overly sensitive liberal crowd make any &^@#ing sense. 

Blame the people that live in this country and voted him back in then.  We're fortunate to live in a democratic society, but there are faults to the system as well as evidenced by the Trudeau incident. 

 

Regarding Peters, it sounds like you feel it was ok for him to throw the N word around? 

[Down by the River]

2 minutes ago, 10pavelbure96 said:

Maybe to you it is. Because of the way the media is that guy is never going to coach again in the NHL because of a mistake he made a decade ago.

 

We have all made mistakes and things we regret in the past..how would you feel if a word you said 10 years ago derailed your career? He didn't molest anyone, hes not a criminal... it was a bigoted comment.  Akim Aliu wasnt an angel, he fought Downie at practice.  

 

If he was a good enough player he would still be in the league, Peter's isn't the reason hes not in the bigs anymore. One word 10 years ago.

 

It's a joke, society is soft, don cherry fired, a few weeks later this happens. Lol its laughable.

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe Peters knew he was in the wrong and wanted to cover things up by burying Aliu in the ECHL.

 

At the end of the day, whether it directly impacted Aliu's career or not shouldn't matter. If you're supposed to be in a leadership position but you're willing to abuse players, it suggests you are not suited for that position. And by abuse, I don't mean yelling/shouting/swearing at guys. Call them racist names and punching them in the head and kicking them in the back have nothing to do with proven motivational tactics. They just speak to a guy that is ineffective.

[PhillipBlunt]

2 minutes ago, Down by the River said:

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe Peters knew he was in the wrong and wanted to cover things up by burying Aliu in the ECHL.

 

At the end of the day, whether it directly impacted Aliu's career or not shouldn't matter. If you're supposed to be in a leadership position but you're willing to abuse players, it suggests you are not suited for that position. And by abuse, I don't mean yelling/shouting/swearing at guys. Call them racist names and punching them in the head and kicking them in the back have nothing to do with proven motivational tactics. They just speak to a guy that is ineffective.

I would have liked to see Peters kick Lucic in the back just once though. I wonder how Milan would have reacted. 

[Smashian Kassian]

6 minutes ago, Down by the River said:

Probably not. But if he had any chance of the apology being accepted, he should have directed his apology to the individual impacted by it all. Instead he danced around the root of the problem to avoid liability. 

 

Everything is lawyer-ed right now. Its not like this happened while he was with the Flames, this is retro active which likely complicates it from a legal standpoint.

 

Should the apology have been better? Yes. But in 2019 there's more going on behind the scenes that impacts it IMO. 

 

 

[RUPERTKBD]

4 minutes ago, Down by the River said:

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe Peters knew he was in the wrong and wanted to cover things up by burying Aliu in the ECHL.

 

At the end of the day, whether it directly impacted Aliu's career or not shouldn't matter. If you're supposed to be in a leadership position but you're willing to abuse players, it suggests you are not suited for that position. And by abuse, I don't mean yelling/shouting/swearing at guys. Call them racist names and punching them in the head and kicking them in the back have nothing to do with proven motivational tactics. They just speak to a guy that is ineffective.

The "abuse" angle is another thing that's kind of getting buried here....

 

....the stories about his actions in Carolina, (backed up by Brind'amour) suggest a pattern of behavior and racial slur directed at Aliu is only part of the problem.

 

Peters is a dinosaur in all facets of the game and there really is no place left in hockey (or any other sport, for that matter) for people who treat their players with that much disrespect.

 

1 minute ago, PhillipBlunt said:

I would have liked to see Peters kick Lucic in the back just once though. I wonder how Milan would have reacted. 

....or Radulov. Remember him slashing his own coach on the bench back in Russia?

[PhillipBlunt]

Just now, RUPERTKBD said:

....or Radulov. Remember him slashing his own coach on the bench back in Russia?

I don’t remember that. What motivated him to do so?

[RUPERTKBD]

1 minute ago, PhillipBlunt said:

I don’t remember that. What motivated him to do so?

Not sure, but here it is:

 

 

[Petey Castiglione]

29 minutes ago, 10pavelbure96 said:

I said earlier in the thread that I understand the sentiments as to why he would keep quiet... didn't want to get black listed as a coach killer etc. But I still think this is extreme.

 

Bill Peter's career is over because of a mistake 10 years ago. 

 

I dunno.... society is soft..racism is wrong but society is soft. Two ends of the spectrum.

Standing up against racism isn't soft.  People die everyday because of it.

[JM_]

39 minutes ago, Tortorella's Rant said:

He was fired over the Aliu remarks - regarding his music - not the individual. That was it. He apologized the other day. Whether or not you, they, them, whoever found it sufficient is irrelevant. Some people simply will never forgive. 

This idea he's some bigoted, racist asshole who should be fired and never work in the NHL again has no basis. But if this is the route society is starting to go, I do hope the same for you one day. What goes around comes around as they say.
 

 

in that moment, thats exactly what he was. There's no way around that, although you seem to be desperate to apologize for him. 

 

Of course you'll never satisfy everyone, thats not the standard and never has been. You're setting up straw men to avoid responsibility. 

[JM_]

I think Treliving handled this well. Its a good template for the next time this happens, and no doubt there will be a next time.

 

Peters can save himself for future work as well if he comes out with an honest statement taking responsibility and regret for his actions. Most reasonable people would be OK with that. 

[PhillipBlunt]

9 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

Not sure, but here it is:

 

 

What the hell! It doesn’t look like the coach did anything, outside of muttering something about borscht. 
 

As well, the coaches reaction to shield his collarbone after the stick hit is so very Russian. 

[Smashian Kassian]

This is a watershed moment for hockey. 

 

Its an unprecedented situation with such magnitude, I think Brad Treliving & the Flames handled it very well. 

[Tortorella's Rant]

Just now, Down by the River said:

And what a timely and sincere apology it was. 

 

The dude lawyered up and the apology was written for him. 

 

If you think that Peters' comment was more of an insult to rap music than to the people associated with it, then I'm going to believe that you are just one of the many people that have got so fed up with liberal BS that you're more concerned with tearing down that part of society than about thinking about the merit of specific incidents.

 

I didn't want to see Peters fired (or resign) because I wanted to see him make amends. I would like to see this more often than just canceling/firing people; people need chances not only to redeem themselves but to repair the damage they did. I don't know if there are any "winners" today.

Possibly. But it isn't a crime to be an asshole either. He could have called Akim directly. He could have gone on camera, got on his knees and begged. Chances are he would've been executed anyway because a very loud and vocal portion of society has deemed such acts unforgivable no matter how sincere one may be in their apology. Obviously I wanted to see some sort of resolution here instead of this knee jerk reaction to immediately terminate someone, anyone, just because they did something we find despicable. This is dangerous and the dumb asses advocating for this clearly don't see the problem with it and probably never will.

I don't think Peters meant ill will towards Akim. To suggest he's some racist asshole is based on absolutely nothing other than this one case But, of course, if Bill Peters was black, this would've totally been a non-story. Another race based double standard which is actually racist itself. 

I'm just tired of the overreacting and the character assassination and this irrational selective demonizing of individuals over a particular instance.. 

[JM_]

46 minutes ago, RonMexico said:

But doesn't it also beg the question if he is a crappy coach and crappy person, how did he keep getting hired? 

seems to happen a lot in sports, doesn't it? small pool of proven winners (or those viewed with the potential) I guess.