Andrew Shaw deserves his one game suspension
The Stanley Cup playoffs are underway. It's for the championship of the National Hockey League. The Chicago Blackhawks are the defending champions and they're playing the St. Louis Blues in a first round series.
One of the Hawks key players is Andrew Shaw. He's come up big in previous playoffs and has helped the team win two Stanley Cups.
Last night was a big game in this series. The Blues had a 2-1 lead in games and were leading in this game by a score of 4-3 . Shaw was having a great game. He scored a goal and had two assists. But with two minutes to play, Shaw took a bad penalty and cost his team a chance to come back and tie the game. The Hawks are now down in the series 3 games to 1 and on the verge of elimination.
Shaw was enraged at the penalty call and lost control of his emotions. He immediately started screaming at the referee and continued when he entered the penalty box. His rant included using a homophobic slur.
In the above video you can see an outraged Shaw give the ref a double finger a couple of times. He then pounded the glass with his stick and followed up with the slur.
Since this happened last night, Shaw has apologized for the episode. "I apologize to many people, including the gay and lesbian community, the Chicago Blackhawks organization, Blackhawks fans and anyone else I may have offended," he said. "I know my words were hurtful, and I will learn from my mistake."
From what I understand, Shaw is a pretty good guy. He's given money to Cancer charities and also has been known to visit children in hospitals fighting Pediatric Cancer. Most athlete's apologies come off as fake. You can usually tell that the team and the league are behind them. I'm sure there was some of that in Shaw's apology but he seemed pretty upset by what happened and was close to tears during the apology so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Since then, I've seen comments that lots of people say inappropriate things. It happened during the heat of the moment so the apology is enough. It's true that people do say or write inappropriate things. I've been known to drop more than a few F-bombs in the writing of this blog. I've had enough comments about it from readers, that I took it to heart and always check to see if using them makes my point and the piece stronger. I'm still working on that. As for the heat of the moment thing, yeah, I get that, too. Most of us, when we get upset, don't follow up with a barrage of G-rated language. If Shaw had just left it with the F-bombs, it might have been distasteful but all most likely would have been fine. The slur crossed the line by so far that you can't see the line.
Andrew Shaw knew better before it occurred. You can't become a professional athlete by playing out of control. The mental game is as important as the physical skills...some think it's more important. Plus these guys get lots of training on how to deal with people. I'm sure they've had sensitivity training. Guess it didn't work on Tuesday night. It looks like he'll be having a review course.
I've also seen comments that the apology was enough. Nope, it really isn't. There has to be a consequence to the action. Precedent has been set for one game suspensions for this kind of behavior in the NBA and in Major League Baseball. Shaw's one game suspension is in line with those.
It's tough that this comes at a time when Hawks really need a player like Shaw. They'll be fighting for their playoff lives. But some things are more important and this is one of them. As a lifelong Chicago Blackhawk fan, I'll be disappointed if they're eliminated tonight. But I'd be more disappointed if Andrew Shaw was on the ice.
Talking about inappropriate language, remember when Corey Crawford said this?
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