Leafs Goalie Garret Sparks Suspended Indefinitely after defending a kid with disabilities

[Bur14Kes17]

TORONTO – Toronto Marlies’ goaltender Garret Sparks has been suspended indefinitely by the Toronto Maple Leafs for violating team policy after directing violent and sexist language toward a user in an online group.

Sparks did not dress for the Marlies on Friday or Saturday. 

“[Garret] was sent home for some team policy reasons when we were on the road trip there [in New York],” Keefe said after Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Utica Comets. “I’m familiar with the circumstances, but we’re not going to comment any further from there. Management handled the situation.”

The Maple Leafs released a statement saying they were aware of the incident and that it had been addressed directly with Sparks.

The suspension stems from an incident that came to light on November 22. 

According to users in a Facebook goalie group for which Sparks is an administrator, members of the forum were mocking a disabled person and Sparks came to that person’s defence by asking one of those in the forum where he lived and writing, “I want to go to open hockey with you, drag you out to center ice and beat you into a [expletive] pulp until you can’t run that [expletive] little mouth of yours. God, you sound like a 13-year-old girl.” 

When another member reprimanded Sparks for insulting women, he apologized and continued, “Girls don’t even whine as much as this guy does.

Keefe said there is no timetable for the goalie’s return. His status will be reevaluated by the team in the next week. Sparks could not be reached for comment.

The 23-year old native of Elmhurst, Illinois played 17 games for the Maple Leafs last season, posting a 6-9-1 record, 3.02 goals-against average and .893 save percentage. Slowed by an injury this season, Sparks has seen limited action, going 3-1-0 with a 2.02 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.

 

To provide some context to exactly what went down here, I was a part of the Facebook group that Garrets Sparks was a moderator in. It's a pretty large group of hockey goalies mostly who are all great guys. A little while back this new fellow joined and it was obvious he had some developmental issues as he kept posting kinda odd pictures of himself wearing a pretty incomplete set of goalie gear. At first people thought he was doing it on purpose as a joke, but when it became abundantly clear he wasn't, this one guy just kept ragging on him and verbally abusing the poor kid online until eventually he left the group. Garret Sparks then tracked the kid down, bought him and entirely new set of ice hockey goalie gear himself, and convinced him to join the group again and learn how to be a hockey goalie. The kid posted a picture of himself in his new set of gear and then this went down. This screen shot was sent to a member of the media Scott Wheeler, his twitter tag is @scottcwheeler (feel free to show him some love) Wheeler knew the context and background story of the whole thing and still made the whole thing public to get his shot at fame. And now the Leafs have indefinitely suspended Garret Sparks indefinitely for standing up for someone even if he chose his words poorly.  What is wrong with our society. 

[Junkyard Dog]

I commend sparks. 

[Fanuck]

Good for Sparks.   That loser who was demeaning that poor member deserved exactly what Sparks was suggesting.

 

Typical in today's society where the ignorant cowards are protected by anonymity while stand up people like Sparks are punished. 

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

3 minutes ago, Fanuck said:

Good for Sparks.   That loser who was demeaning that poor member deserved exactly what Sparks was suggesting.

 

Typical in today's society where the ignorant cowards are protected by anonymity while stand up people like Sparks are punished. 

Yeah but he fell for the bait hard and started to threaten someone, AND used sexist language, on a semi-public forum.  This is the stuff you might say when you leave no paper trail.  In this instance he had to ease off.

 

What else could the Leafs have done?

[Bur14Kes17]

13 minutes ago, Bob.Loblaw said:

Yeah but he fell for the bait hard and started to threaten someone, AND used sexist language, on a semi-public forum.  This is the stuff you might say when you leave no paper trail.  In this instance he had to ease off.

If I was in Shanahan position I might suspend him for one game because of that but I definitely come out and say something like 

 

"Even though we don't condone the language Garret used, we strongly support the values Garret stood for and those are the same values of our organization." 

 

Instead they indefiniteky suspend him?! Wtf...

[Fateless]

Pretty disappointed to see another example of political correctness gone too far. This guy stood up for a disabled person and has been suspended for saying someone whines like a girl? Is that really what our society has come to? Suspensions and media crucifixion over using stereotypes? 

 

Sounds to me like society needs to change its tampon.

[cookieeater55]

why has this world gotten so sensitive ffs 

 

but Sparks the mannn for that reply !!!! 

[cookieeater55]

why has this world gotten so sensitive ffs 

 

but Sparks the mannn for that reply !!!! 

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

2 minutes ago, Bur14Kes17 said:

If I was in Shanahan position I might suspend him for one game because of that but I definitely come out and say something like, "Even though we don't condone the language Garret used, we strongly support the values Garret stood for and those are the same values of our organization." 

Instead they indefiniteky suspend him?! Wtf...

Defending someone and threatening to beat someone else to a bloody pulp are not the same thing.  I don't think that's a desirable value of a hockey organization.

 

Consider this forum.  If you say something really insulting towards another member (hypothetical of course), I would call you a scumbag and try to defend the member.  If I threaten to beat you to a pulp and use sexist remarks in the process, I am banned.  That is not an acceptable reaction and not something the Leafs want from their players.

 

I mean, this is a PR nightmare for Toronto.  I honestly wouldn't know how to mediate this.

[Bur14Kes17]

Just now, Bob.Loblaw said:

Defending someone and threatening to beat someone else to a bloody pulp are not the same thing.  I don't think that's a desirable value of a hockey organization.

 

Consider this forum.  If you say something really insulting towards another member (hypothetical of course), I would call you a scumbag and try to defend the member.  If I threaten to beat you to a pulp and use sexist remarks in the process, I am banned.  That is not an acceptable reaction and not something the Leafs want from their players.

 

I mean, this is a PR nightmare for Toronto.  I honestly wouldn't know how to mediate this.

That's what I'm saying though. Garret stood for the proper values even if his reaction and words were wrong. Sometimes though doing the right thing even if you do it the wrong way, is still better then doing nothing at all. I think this is one of those situations and it's something I think in a world of political correctness gets often overlooked.

[Fateless]

2 minutes ago, Bob.Loblaw said:

Defending someone and threatening to beat someone else to a bloody pulp are not the same thing.  I don't think that's a desirable value of a hockey organization.

 

Consider this forum.  If you say something really insulting towards another member (hypothetical of course), I would call you a scumbag and try to defend the member.  If I threaten to beat you to a pulp and use sexist remarks in the process, I am banned.  That is not an acceptable reaction and not something the Leafs want from their players.

 

I mean, this is a PR nightmare for Toronto.  I honestly wouldn't know how to mediate this.

To be fair, he specifically stated he wanted to do it on the ice - insinuating it'd be a fair hockey fight. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

5 minutes ago, Fateless said:

Pretty disappointed to see another example of political correctness gone too far. This guy stood up for a disabled person and has been suspended for saying someone whines like a girl? Is that really what our society has come to? Suspensions and media crucifixion over using stereotypes? 

 

Sounds to me like society needs to change its tampon.

Right, so I have bit of a bone to pick with you.  You are so ideologically bent towards the sexist comment that you think THAT is why Toronto suspended Sparks.  That warrants discipline, not an indefinite suspension.  It's his half-death threat that got himself in such a hole.

 

Political correctness gone too far, give me a break.  You are so far off you can't even see the problem here.

[Fateless]

Just now, Bob.Loblaw said:

Right, so I have bit of a bone to pick with you.  You are so ideologically bent towards the sexist comment that you think THAT is why Toronto suspended Sparks.  That warrants discipline, not an indefinite suspension.  It's his half-death threat that got himself in such a hole.

 

Political correctness gone too far, give me a break.  You are so far off you can't even see the problem here.

There is no such thing as a half-death threat. Sparks said he wanted to take him to a rink and have a fight where he intended to beat him to a pulp. Isn't that like any other hockey fight? 

And you'll notice my comment didn't just talk about suspension, but media crucifixion. The media is targeting his "sexist" comments. That is the PC bull$&!# I was referring to.

[DeltaSwede]

You know, coming to the defence of a 13 year old with a disability is horrible if women are offended at the same time. Check your privileges Sparks, you brute.

#pcprinciple

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

2 minutes ago, Bur14Kes17 said:

That's what I'm saying though. Garret stood for the proper values even if his reaction and words were wrong. Sometimes though doing the right thing even if you do it the wrong way, is still better then doing nothing at all. I think this is one of those situations and it's something I think in a world of political correctness gets often overlooked.

One thing we can all agree upon is that the Tyler guy is a douchebag.  But honestly in situations like that one should behave like the other Tyler and calm the situation down.  Sparks escalated hard and went way over the line.  Your point still stands, but what would you tell the kid Sparks was defending?  That beating people to a pulp is the right way to fix wrongs?

2 minutes ago, Fateless said:

To be fair, he specifically stated he wanted to do it on the ice - insinuating it'd be a fair hockey fight. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

Again, imagine if he said that about another player in a media scrum.  Maybe Milan Lucic said something really crummy and Sparks says what he said.  You kidding me?  He would be instantly fined and suspended by the NHL.

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

9 minutes ago, Fateless said:

There is no such thing as a half-death threat. Sparks said he wanted to take him to a rink and have a fight where he intended to beat him to a pulp. Isn't that like any other hockey fight? 

And you'll notice my comment didn't just talk about suspension, but media crucifixion. The media is targeting his "sexist" comments. That is the PC bull$&!# I was referring to.

Why are you parenthesizing "sexist"?  Surely you don't think it... wasn't sexist?

 

Also, why are you concerned with the media?  If you want to defend Sparks, why don't you threaten to beat the media up (on the ice of course, since that makes the world's difference) and call them homo fa****s in the process?

[Down by the River]

9 minutes ago, DeltaSwede said:

You know, coming to the defence of a 13 year old with a disability is horrible if women are offended at the same time. Check your privileges Sparks, you brute.

#pcprinciple

 

Member when people didn't participate in recreational outrage? Ooooh. I 'member!

[Warhippy]

OK wait

 

So...what he said was sexist?

 

WTF....why the hell aren't 99% of every single player in the league not on suspension by their teams for what they say on the bench or the ice?

 

Seriously THIS got him suspended?

 

Man...this world is doomed

[Mr.DirtyDangles]

what's the problem here ?

[Fateless]

43 minutes ago, Bob.Loblaw said:

Why are you parenthesizing "sexist"?  Surely you don't think it... wasn't sexist?

Mildly, but really who cares? If you're getting offended over the stereotype that 13 year old girls whine a lot (which they most definitely do), you have your priorities wrong.

 

45 minutes ago, Bob.Loblaw said:

Also, why are you concerned with the media?  If you want to defend Sparks, why don't you threaten to beat the media up (on the ice of course, since that makes the world's difference) and call them homo fa****s in the process?

I'm concerned about the media because the media often does an excellent job ruining people's lives and careers by blowing things out of proportion. Sparks stood up for someone being bullied and all people can do is blow out of proportion his response.