Bad Influences

Edited by Jack McCallum

November 29, 1993

A recent observation from crusty former Boston Bruin coach Don Cherry (left), now the TV analyst for Hockey Night in Canada: "Once upon a time...we had a rough-and-tumble game when everyone took care of themselves. Then along came Wayne Gretzky, who had a credit card to set all kinds of records because he had a guy like [Dave] Semenko [a left wing for the Edmonton Oilers] looking out for him. But then Wayne went out there to La La Land and became friends with Arsenio and Chevy Chase and all those Hollywood types, and they didn't like fighting. So we said, 'Let's get fighting out of the game.' " In the Cherry spirit, we present Gretzky and a few other athletes who proved to be a blight on the sporting landscape.