Something Needed to Be Said...

[John_S_Osborne]

I just wanted to post a message to this board about an incident that occured tonight at the Marple Sports Arena during a game in one of their in house leagues.

It was brought to my attention that during an altercation in the game, which was between one team heavy with players from or related to Drexel University and another which had players from the MLRH-AAA Marple Gladiators and others related to the facility, a player on the Marple team offered up a racial slur in reference to an opposing player.

While I will not mention names, I will say that this is a player who participates in the MLRH-AAA at Marple. So, when I heard that this happened and that MSA did not (a) call any penalties on the player or (b) have a review for suspension, I thought my only choice was to bring this out on the message boards.

A similiar incident occured during ECHRA/CRHL-MAR competition this season and brought to the attention of Jon Huck, who immediately saw to it that the situation was confronted and resolved.

Not to be out of line or cynical, but if you want to say your name and "professional" in the same breath, then you damn sure should act like one.

- John S. Osborne
Secretary, Drexel U. Roller Hockey Club
LAL Director, ECRHA

[calihockey]

John,
Sadly this kind of ignorant action happens even in our sport. We had a player who started making comments to a ref when we were at the NARCh Arizona Qualifier. Some guy stood him up just inside the red line (smart play) and our player slashed the guy in the face the started giving the ref every four letter word you can think of. There was no barrier between our bench and our penalty box, so being the captain i took it upon myself to shut him up. I grabbed him by the back collar of his jersey and slammed him into the seat. He didn't say another word and is no longer a part of our organization. With that said, I think that if you see something like what i dealed with our the slurs you heard of, action should be taken. Personally I would be embarrassed to play with a guy who made slurs. Joking around with friends is one thing, but saying it to an opponent to make him think you meant it (if you meant it or not) is extremely wrong. If you complain enough to the in house league, they will take action hopefully. Hopefully the person that heard the slurs realizes that most hockey players don't act like that.