THIS HOCKEY WITCH HUNT HAS TO STOP!

[ItTakesAnArmy]

Condemning people for actions done decades ago even after they corrected or grew as the times did is nothing but a witch hunt.

 

Virtually every successful coach has almost assuredly used bad language, insulted and/or belittled players for a few reasons

Maintain discipline

"Push" a player to higher performance

To break bad habits

and others, his job for one.

 

This holier than thou witch hunt is not going to stop

 

I am telling ALL volunteer coaches to quit NOW before some unhappy kid makes an accusation years after that you can sued for.

You may do absolutely nothing wrong but an unhappy kid may determine that you are the one that caused him years of mental problems and you can be sued.

Your reputation will be ruined regardless of outcome.

 

There is no way I condone hitting a kid, but an adult?

 

"sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"

 

Well apparently an adult that can avoid this and doesn't can now come back and get vengeance.

 

This is the tip of the iceberg, going after pro coaches for actions decades old, now that there is traction in social media there will be thousands of opinions from people that don't know about competitive sports but want attention or feel they are part of the herd will comment. Accusations need not be factual. Prove you didn't go through a red light 20 years ago? Or a California stop (rolling stop) 20 years ago when it wasn't as big a hazard.

 

TG is guilty of bad language and physical contact in Portland, does it matter now?

 

Has anyone ever done the selection process by using eeni meenie minee mo? Then you are a racist and bigot. Ever used the term a "black ace", you are a racist. Ever used the term negro, then you are a bigot. 

 

20 years ago I was coaching and one of my assistants says "do you realize what you have done?", I was baffled, then he says "you put all the Asian kids on one line", to me i had put three players that played well together and made the team better, that was all. After that I was always afraid of being called a racist. The damn thing never even entered my consciousness, they were just players, all of them, there was just one color, the color of the jersey.

I went through police checks annually

I made sure there was always two adults and two others in every room.

I had a swear jar, it stayed almost empty all the time

I spent thousands of my own dollars coaching multiple teams each year, three was the most in two different associations.

I coached for 40 years, my list of bad behavior could be unending ruining a life time of volunteering. The only thing I will have left, is one time a kid should have been on the rep team and he wasn't, I tried to encourage him but he refused, he wanted me as his coach, not understanding I perused to find out why. He said "you talk to me, not at me",

 

As good a coach as I am, I will NEVER coach under this environment of accusation and searching to find imperfection in people.

Save yourself, you can not win if you are in a position of authority, you become a target for ALL accusations regardless if true or not or if you have changed your methods or not

 

This witch hunt isn't going after war crimes, unsolved murder mysteries,

Edited December 4, 2019 by ItTakesAnArmy

[Alflives]

I like the concept of your post.  However, the NHL is the highest profile hockey has, and for young coaches to see what wrong coaching habits can do to the players is important.  Babcock and Peters have a lot of money.  They will be fine.  It seems Hockey coaches need to be better humans.  

[YEGCanuck]

Wow, "witch hunt" now thats an interesting choice of phrase. 

[Nucker 67]

I think coaches will have less and less impact on players moving forward. Their job will end up being: conduct practices, set rosters and discuss calls with the refs. That's about it If coaches can't yell at their players anymore, can they still yell at the refs? Everyone's got sensitive feelings all of the sudden lol

 

Who ruined the game?

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, NUCKER67 said:

I think coaches will have less and less impact on players moving forward. Their job will end up being: conduct practices, set rosters and discuss calls with the refs. That's about it If coaches can't yell at their players anymore, can they still yell at the refs? Everyone's got sensitive feelings all of the sudden lol

 

Who ruined the game?

PC Police and SJW's.  Attack our national game.  I bet these two groups of bullies go after Timmy Ho Ho's next.  

[Nucker 67]

2 minutes ago, Alflives said:

PC Police and SJW's.  Attack our national game.  I bet these two groups of bullies go after Timmy Ho Ho's next.  

If an NHL team wants to pay me millions of dollars to play a childhood game, and have the adoration of thousands of fans, etc. the coaches can yell at me all they want lol

Heck, call me every name in the book if they'd like, I can't hear them with the wads of dough in my ears. 

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, NUCKER67 said:

If an NHL team wants to pay me millions of dollars to play a childhood game, and have the adoration of thousands of fans, etc. the coaches can yell at me all they want lol

Heck, call me every name in the book if they'd like, I can't hear them with the wads of dough in my ears. 

Plus, I've got plenty of padding too.  Kick me in the arse.  

[-SN-]

How dare we hold people accountable for their actions. How dare we! I should be able to beat and abuse people as much as I want darnit, especially when I have a position of authority!

[J-23]

This just going to become another toxic thread, been a lot of those recently.

Edited December 3, 2019 by J-23

[Sedinery33]

I should go back to my old junior football coach and sue him for slapping me in the helmet all those years ago. For all we know he's the reason I'm not a rich successful person...

[J-23]

17 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

I think coaches will have less and less impact on players moving forward. Their job will end up being: conduct practices, set rosters and discuss calls with the refs. That's about it If coaches can't yell at their players anymore, can they still yell at the refs? Everyone's got sensitive feelings all of the sudden lol

 

Who ruined the game?

First of all there are other ways of coaching your team besides yelling at them . Not that I care if a coach yells at his team or not. 

 

Who was complaining about the coaches yelling at them?

 

All I’ve seen about coaches is Babcock is a snake, good coach but a snake. Make sure rookies on his team cry.

 

Peters used a word he shouldn’t have and kicked/hit his players.

[Nucker 67]

I was also just thinking about when I was a kid, going to an NHL game. It was an experience. Everyone there, was there for the game (fans didn't chat to eachother about what they did the previous weekend, or got distracted by some toy in their pocket (cell phones). And by experience, I mean the angry fans yelling at the most hated players on the other team or the refs. Fans were passionate, they cared about winning and losing, hockey WAS a religion. If some older dude in the stands was yelling at the refs, even using foul language, we kids laughed our butts off, because it was funny. Those were real good times at the games, we cheered heartily for our team, we hated the other team and we let them know. 

 

 

 

[Toews]

Accountability, coaches preach it but get cold feet when it now suddenly applies to them. This "witch hunt" isn't about simply "yelling". Johan Franzen took so much punishment in his career standing in front of the net, he earned his nickname 'The Mule'. When this man has a nervous breakdown due to Babcock humiliating him in front of the entire team, it speaks to a different sort of abuse than simply "yelling". If your manner of coaching involved publicly humiliating kids on a regular basis then yes you absolutely deserve blame for the detriment that you were to the mental health of these kids. 

Edited December 3, 2019 by Toews

[BrockBoester]

[Mike Vanderhoek]

14 minutes ago, StealthNuck said:

How dare we hold people accountable for their actions. How dare we! I should be able to beat and abuse people as much as I want darnit, especially when I have a position of authority!

I think we need to stop the what do people call it ? " cancel culture " part of things. Yes punish and hold people accountable for their actions absolutely. That should not mean they go away. We are literally seeing people who have been rumored or reported to be part of the problem or have been accused of actions and being removed from their livelihoods, careers, and positions for past albeit punishable indiscretions.

 

We need to learn how to hold people accountable without simply making them go away. In the case of Peters, well unless I like the rest of you in this thread are not privy to everything behind closed doors it appears he did not reach out to Akim Aliu rather he publically apologized to the Flames, so he doesn't quite get it. But he was essentially fired, one of 31 NHL coaches lost his job due to these actions, the same if not similar actions the other 30 coaches have more than likely committed if not worse or in the same realm. So we are going to fire all NHL coaches ?

 

Probably guessing on the low side by suggesting 8 out of 10 NHL players have experienced or been the target of such " abuse ".

 

Nobody is condoning this type of behavior but we need to learn to understand that while wrongs are committed and some people never change it is absurd to simply toss aside anybody who in the past committed a wrong.

[Dekey Pete]

Hate the term witch hunt since I feel it gives credibility to Trump's endless ranting, but in this case I agree.  This whole drumming up things that happened 10+ years ago in order to sabotage someone's career has to stop.  If we're talking about a crime being committed (rape, sexual assault etc.) then you don't get a pass no matter how many years ago it happened, but people are getting all up in arms about words being said and in some cases some minor physical contact.  Yes that makes those people crappy human beings (at that point in time) but it fails to recognize that people grow and learn as life goes on.  If Babcock is still treating his players like crap the GMs around the league will hear about it and probably choose not to hire him, and that's their call.  But there's no reason why the "court of public opinion" needs to be involved at every turn.

 

 

[VforVasili]

Pretty sure it is illegal to assault adults, whether you are their coach or not. 
 

Don’t see the problem with holding people accountable for their past stupidity. 
 

Every case is different of course. 

[ReggieBush]

There are a lot of different approaches to coaching. If I am being honest, my favourite coach I ever had was the most difficult I ever played for. He would yell at you, he would get up into your face, he would grab you by the facemask, the pads.

 

At the same time, he would know your interests and make conversation with you, he loved and cared about you.

 

For example, my Jr year of HS, I played RB and I fumbled the ball on back to back plays (both were exchange issues) he grabbed me by my facemask and told me to get it right or leave. I was a little hurt at the time, but I shook it off and finished practice. That same day, the yankees (my team and his team) were playing the a playoff after practice, and he saw me running to the bus stop. He picked me up and drove me home so I could get home to watch the game sooner and we bonded by listening to the game in the car. 

 

I love him to death and I feel incredibly privileged to have played in his program. If he ever was called out/sued for his coaching tactics, I would go to bat for him. I would go to the court proceedings to show support. People are getting too soft

[VforVasili]

If I went into the subway station and kicked someone in the ass I am pretty confident I would be facing charges, for example. 

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, VforVirtanen said:

Pretty sure it is illegal to assault adults, whether you are their coach or not. 
 

Don’t see the problem with holding people accountable for their past stupidity. 
 

Every case is different of course. 

I think sports falls under a different set of rules somehow than being out in the general public.  There are plenty of what would be determined assaults on the streets, that happen in every game in hockey.