Wading in on Don Cherry

Everybody's got an opinion about Don Cherry, with the lunch pail crowd firmly in his corner and we 'sophisticates' grinding our teeth every time he comes on the tube.

Even his most loyal fans admit that he's the very definition of a garish blowhard.

I pay him no mind, because generally I watch the RDS French broadcast with Pierre Houde who is better and more exciting than any commentator on the English side, TSN or the CBC.
I gave up on the CBC after listening to Bob Cole, the CBC's number two commentator (and I say that tongue in cheek,) who is assigned the few Habs games that are still on the CBC. While once a decent commentator, Cole has lost it these last few years. He is so dreadful that if you played a drinking game and had to down a shot of whisky every time he made a mistake, you'd be falling down drunk by the first intermission.
My favourite Bob Cole line.....
"The referee has stopped the play, something is happening!"

While Cherry is not exactly public enemy number one in Quebec, he is widely despised for his comments over the years disparaging Francophone players. Link
Most of these comments were tinged with a pretty obvious undertone of scorn and as such Quebecers just hate him, even Anglo Quebecers.

But the truth is that I've heard worse on the RDS post game show l'Antichambre where Anglophones are routinely given a rough ride.  I wrote a blog piece about it.

"Alain Chantelois couldn't contain his disgust at the fact that all four of the Canadiens' coaches, behind the bench during the Canadiens/Oilers game on Monday, were anglophones. His tirade on the talk show L'ANTICHAMBRE that followed the game was unacceptable
....Although the instigator, he was not alone, ex-Nordiques coach Michel Bergeron joined in the fun and listening to these two, was like watching two old southern racists sitting on the porch dissing blacks."

The latest Cherry controversy centers around comments he made October 6th, where he lashed into three retired NHL enforcers for advocating less violence in Hockey. Here's a YouTube video of that rant and you can skip forward to the 5:40 mark to hear the controversial remarks.

Cherry called Stu Grimson, Chris Nilan and Jim Thompson 'pukes,' 'turncoats' and 'hypocrites' for claiming that the substance abuse problems they had was attributed to fighting in the NHL.

I don't know any of the three personally, but Chris Nilan lives in the Montreal area and does a little radio work for the local TSN affiliate.

I ran into him shopping in Pointe Claire and he seemed like a regular guy, trying to save a few bucks in the local Costco.

'Knuckles' Nilan (is there a better hockey nickname?) looks and sounds like he should be in Hollywood, he'd be perfect playing the part of a tough Southie,  like in the film 'The Fighter.'
Watch this interview, I'm sure you'll agree, he just oozes character. Link
Obviously he's no hockey billionaire, just a guy trying to make it after a rough couple of years since retirement.

Nilan claims to be flabbergasted after being singled out by Cherry and says he never said the things Cherry attributed to him.

“I’ve never, ever attributed my problem, drugs and alcohol, with the fact that I played the role of enforcer for all those years,” Nilan said

If that is true, Nilan's reputation was damaged unfairly and he was defamed in front of millions of people.

The lawyers over at the CBC were having palpitations and delivered a message to Cherry that he had better apologize or face a legal and public relations nightmare.

On Saturday night he did a mea culpa and apologized. Not a namby-pamby apology but one that was probably written for him by lawyers in which he stated categorically that he was wrong. It must have been a bitter pill to swallow for the pompous fool.

Notwithstanding, I don't think an apology is enough. I hope Nilan sues the ass off of Cherry and his enabler the CBC.
In fact, Cherry's admission and apology strengthens the case against him.

It somehow seems grossly unfair to pick on someone like Nilan, a regular guy who truly didn't deserve this.

In a Twitter response to the apology, Nilan let Cherry off the hook, he shouldn't. Cherry only apologized because he was forced to.
An apology isn't enough to undo the harm.

The whole incident hurts Nilan's ability to be a more successful broadcaster, forever tainted by Cherry's harsh words, notwithstanding the apology.

Nilan lives in Montreal and the CBC broadcast was seen locally and so.....Nilan can sue Cherry right here in Quebec, before a Quebec judge. HA! HA!!!!

Hey, Don......GET OUT THE CHEQUEBOOK!!!!

By the way, in the blog piece I wrote about Alain Chantelois, I called on his bosses in Toronto to fire him for his anti-English remarks and call it a coincidence, he disappeared shortly thereafter.

Now if only I could get rid of Don Cherry.