Sean Avery - Victim

by Chippy McGuinness

Class and restraint are so overrated. Guys insinuate that their ex-girlfriends are sluts every day. The words “sloppy seconds” are thrown around like leftovers all the time. Sean Avery says as much in front of a couple dozen reporters for them to repeat to millions and it suddenly becomes a potentially career-ending issue that’s currently the hottest water cooler topic in Canada and cold places in America.

To recap for the despicable among you who don’t follow hockey, here’s how things went. Left wing forward Sean Avery, who is playing for the Dallas Stars this week, gave a press conference while his team was in Calgary for a match-up against the Flames. During this conference, he made an insult to several of his unnamed but famous ex-girlfriends for dating other players in the NHL who don’t dress as well as he does. He was immediately suspended from the league by Commissioner Gary Bettman for an indefinite period until a more finite punishment could be decided. A short time later, Bettman ruled to suspend him for six games, though his relationship with the Stars remains tenuous; several members of the organization have publicly made comments that were subtly less-than-supportive of their teammate and his remarks.

Words like “pest” and “cheap” are frequently thrown around in regards to Avery. Sure, he often doesn’t play by the rules, but neither did men like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, or John Lennon and they’re considered beacons for the heralding of progress. Hockey fans act as if waving a stick in front of Martin Brodeur is a capital crime, when it’s little less than a distracting tactic meant to win, the ultimate goal in sports. We all laughed when Reggie Dunlop did it in Slap Shot. We crucified Sean Avery when he did the same during a professional game. One off-color, flippant comment shouldn’t be enough to destroy a person’s career. Sure, the last time the NHL didn’t rein in trash talk between players, it ended with a man having his neck broken, but that hardly calls for the hysterics we’ve witnessed this past week.

Let’s be honest as to what this issue is really about: elitism. Who among us has not questioned the decisions of our coaches and union leaders? Or faked being injured to the penalizing detriment of others? We’ve all been guilty at one time or another of making unprovoked racial slurs and poking fun at someone with cancer. Humans have an innate need to feel like they’re better than other people; we enjoy putting heroes on pedestals if only for the shameful thrill of knocking them off and laughing when they fall. That’s exactly what is happening to Sean Avery right now.

No doubt, Avery is not your typical hockey player. He’s charismatic, rebellious and, let’s face it, quite possibly something of a latent poof. That doesn’t mean he has nothing useful to contribute to the sport. He grabs headlines the NHL needs for the growth it so readily aspires to achieve. We should all be grateful his antics have brought the league the much-needed attention. Instead, we are throwing him to the hungry wolves like a contagious leper. Sean Avery is nothing less than a victim of the ugliest aspects of our inherent nature. We should all be ashamed of ourselves.

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