|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Rap sheet History catches up with Marty McSorley
Posted: Wednesday March 01, 2000 11:38 PM
I am not surprised Vancouver Canucks forward Donald Brashear opted not to take a call from Marty McSorley. Why should he? Though much has been said and written regarding McSorley being "a good guy" and how his indescribable act of violence was so "out of character" ... it isn't exactly true. Few seem to remember that McSorley "snapped" when he attempted to gouge Bob Error's eyes out a few years back, an act that drew a mere four-game suspension. McSorley also was suspended two games for spearing Scott Mellanby. The list of victims is long: Martin Gelinas, Darren Banks, Doug Evans and Mike Bullard ... all on the short end of assorted McSorley hits and slashes. Even in the minor leagues, McSorley was not without incident. He once got 10 games for deliberate attempt to injure. That was in 1986-87. Yet a decade and a half later, the "good guy" is still doing his thing. This time he got 23 games, a ban from the playoffs (though the Bruins aren't likely to make it anyway), and a date with the commissioner should he want to play again. Doesn't seem like a whole lot for a player about whom former league vice president Brian O'Neill once said: "It is my assessment that McSorley deliberately speared his opponent for no apparent reason, and used enough force to cause an injury. There is no justification for any player to use his stick in this manner." O'Neill, one of the most respected administrators in NHL history, wrote those words way back in 1988. John Ziegler was the NHL president back then, but O'Neill was the primary decision maker in matters regarding acts violence. O'Neill was referring to an incident that saw McSorley pierce Bullard's midsection with his stick. Most hockey fans were aghast and O'Neill was clearly concerned. McSorley, who put forth a now infamous "amnesia" defense, came back with an opportunity to "redeem" himself. Bullard wasn't so lucky. He has played the bulk of the second half of his career in Europe in an elite German League. Reporters recently tracked him down there. He noted he was bothered by what he saw of the McSorley incident but that his European teammates were stunned. "They couldn't believe it," he said. "You just don't see things like that over here. They were stunned." That's a problem for the NHL today. Hockey is no longer a nasty little border game where teams are expected to beat their opponents in the alley as well as on the ice. The whole world is watching now and large segments of it don't like what they've seen. They also don't have to look hard to get a good view of what McSorley has done in his career. Two seasons after being cited by O'Neill, McSorley got another three games for a gloved-fist to Doug Evans' face. O'Neill said McSorley's actions were "a clear case of retaliation and in a manner that is unacceptable. Provocation is not an excuse to create a foul." Unless of course you're Marty McSorley, NHL tough guy and Daren Banks is in your way. McSorley got six days without pay and a $500 fine for crosschecking Banks. By then, O'Neill had given way to Gil Stein, and Stein (no stranger to NHL violence as a long-term legal consul and aide to Ziegler) noted: "This is not the first time McSorley has attempted to injure another player with his stick. It is evident (his) prior suspension did not get the point home to McSorley. A more stringent deterrent is apparently necessary and will be applied." Except of course one month later, McSorley got a game for spearing Gelinas. A season later it was three games for his third major spearing incident of the 1993 season, the incident involving Mellanby. After the Errey incident in 1994, Brian Burke, who had followed in the footsteps of O'Neill and Stein, said: "This action has absolutely no place in an NHL game." And yet it was allowed to go on and on and on and on. This time it was Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell's turn. Three commissioners, three vice presidents in charge of discipline, a series of sharply-worded rebukes and enough injured players to fill a hospital ward and McSorley was not only still in the game but on the ice in the closing seconds of a contest already decided. Why? "Why" is always the question when it comes to these kinds of incidents of violence and the NHL. The broad-based problem is that the NHL has always allowed a large dose of violence into its game. Fighting is "a part of the game." Intimidation is "a part of the game." Stickwork is abhorred, but it, too, has become a "part of the game" ... and seemingly more a part than ever. And players like Marty McSorley have also been "a part of the game." McSorley has no appreciable hockey skills. He was a walk-on as a junior player and after a brief stint in the AHL (where he incurred the 10-game suspension for deliberately intending to injure an opponent), he became a walk-on in the NHL. His calling card noted that he was big and tough and could fight and played a game so close to the edge that no one was really surprised when he crossed it. That he crossed it on more than one occasion didn't seem to bother anyone in power. In Edmonton he was Wayne Gretzky's bodyguard and when Gretzky went to Los Angeles, he asked specifically that McSorley be included in the deal. After Gretzky moved on, McSorley became a sort of hit-man for hire. Along the way he did pick up a few hockey skills, but aside from the physical aspects of the game, his only other claim to fame was for being caught with an illegal stick that eventually turned the tide in the 1993 Stanley Cup finals, and not in Los Angeles favor. With a track record like that, it's hard to stomach McSorley's "I can't believe I did that" defense. McSorley's actions were indefensible and, in many ways, so are the league's. If fighting was banned from hockey this incident never would have happened. Brashear and McSorley had fought earlier in the game and, under the rules of most other pro sports, would have been tossed. If the NHL didn't have a brute force over pure skill approach, McSorley wouldn't even be in the game. If it didn't have 28 teams, soon to be 30, he also would be gone. He got into the game via expansion. He stayed longer than he should have for the very same reason. If officials like Campbell never state "the rules are different in the playoffs" perhaps the concept of "letting the players decide the outcome" wouldn't take hold over orderly rules, regulations and a sense that skilled players will actually be able to perform to the best of their abilities. Instead there is always a climate of fear in the NHL. Fear that a player can't go to the net without risk of having his head, hands or legs chopped until they are raw, bleeding or broken. There is a fear of being run from behind, having their heads smashed into the boards or their skulls dented with a stick because "that's part of the game." Not unlike the NHL's approach to its game. The NHL has always opted to try and manage its violence. It won't dismiss it, just manage it. It's as if it is always unsure as to whether or not it can sell its game without it. But after watching Pat LaFontaine leave the game because of concussions; after watching Mario Lemieux spend the greater part of his career being hacked all over the ice; after seeing Paul Kariya skulled by a brutal blow from Gary Suter; Pierre Turgeon have his shoulder separated for the mere pleasure of scoring a goal; Grant Fuhr having his knee ripped apart in what appeared to be an intentional collision; and Mike Modano being knocked senseless by a vicious push from behind into the boards ... you have to wonder just where the NHL is going with its game. It's more likely than not that we haven't seen the last of this incident. In Vancouver, police are deciding whether or not to get involved. You can be sure lawyers, lots of lawyers, already are gearing up for a fight. The entire incident has done more than give the NHL another black eye. In some quarters it is being suggested that the game itself is about to be put on trial and Bettman and company will be hard pressed to defend it. Bettman did do the best he could given the still developing nature of the case, but you have to wonder where the NHL will go from here. The police are looking hard at the case. Lawyers are going to want some answers and a worldwide audience is wonder if this is a game they really want to watch, really want to let their children watch. These are problems that won't go away. Even Donald Brashear knows that. Jim Kelley covers the NHL -- and the Sabres -- for the Buffalo News. His notebook and Rumor Mill appear weekly on CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
