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Sparks Suspended

Some context.

According to users in a Facebook goalie group for which Sparks is an administrator, members of the forum were mocking a disabled person and Sparks came to that person?s defence by asking one of those in the forum where he lived and writing, ?I want to go to open hockey with you, drag you out to center ice and beat you into a [expletive] pulp until you can?t run that [expletive] little mouth of yours. God, you sound like a 13-year-old girl.?

When another member reprimanded Sparks for insulting women, he apologized and continued, ?Girls don?t even whine as much as this guy does.?

 
1) It was a closed group so this certainly wasn't a public discussion
2) If this is all that he said, that's certainly pretty mild to justify an indefinite suspension

It's certainly not PC appropriate language but that seems to be a bit over the top to be described as sexist language.
 
In a situation like this it's a fair bet he got suspended less because of what he said and more that as a representative of the Leafs they won't want him to be out there saying anything that isn't entirely PR approved.
 
L K said:
1) It was a closed group so this certainly wasn't a public discussion
2) If this is all that he said, that's certainly pretty mild to justify an indefinite suspension

It's certainly not PC appropriate language but that seems to be a bit over the top to be described as sexist language.

Agreed on your two points. But I disagree on the your last statement. It's these "mild" statements that cumulatively lead to a sexist society.
 
You would thing the Leaf protocols would be heavily established, so Sparks goes overboard (in regards to protocol) and gets suspended. Now if he was really belittiling a person who was being cruel to disabled persons, then I would say the suspension should just be a slap on the wrist. 
 
Bullfrog said:
L K said:
1) It was a closed group so this certainly wasn't a public discussion
2) If this is all that he said, that's certainly pretty mild to justify an indefinite suspension

It's certainly not PC appropriate language but that seems to be a bit over the top to be described as sexist language.

Agreed on your two points. But I disagree on the your last statement. It's these "mild" statements that cumulatively lead to a sexist society.

That's fair. 
 
Highlander said:
You would thing the Leaf protocols would be heavily established, so Sparks goes overboard (in regards to protocol) and gets suspended. Now if he was really belittiling a person who was being cruel to disabled persons, then I would say the suspension should just be a slap on the wrist.

I don't see why what the other person said/did matters here. No matter how noble the aim if Sparks had said something a little racist or homophobic in defense of a disabled person nobody would think that made it ok.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Highlander said:
You would thing the Leaf protocols would be heavily established, so Sparks goes overboard (in regards to protocol) and gets suspended. Now if he was really belittiling a person who was being cruel to disabled persons, then I would say the suspension should just be a slap on the wrist.

I don't see why what the other person said/did matters here. No matter how noble the aim if Sparks had said something a little racist or homophobic in defense of a disabled person nobody would think that made it ok.

Well, "when they go low, we go high" isn't good for anything but keeping HR happy and losing presidential elections. To belittle and silence a bully, you often have to get down on their level, as our better stand-up comedians have long understood.

Of course, he did violate team policy, so I'm not disputing the suspension.
 
mr grieves said:
Well, "when they go low, we go high" isn't good for anything but keeping HR happy and losing presidential elections. To belittle and silence a bully, you often have to get down on their level, as our better stand-up comedians have long understood.

I think you may be vastly overestimating the effect any of those comedians had on actually silencing anyone.

Regardless, you can be all manner of "low" without being racist, sexist or homophobic as those same Comedians would know.
 
Didn't Reilly effectively do the same thing last year? I don't recall a suspension.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/leafs-morgan-rielly-apologizes-after-girl-comment-1.2965604
 
McGarnagle said:
Didn't Reilly effectively do the same thing last year? I don't recall a suspension.

Have to figure someone getting in trouble for it before would compound things, not excuse them.
 
Nik the Trik said:
McGarnagle said:
Didn't Reilly effectively do the same thing last year? I don't recall a suspension.

Have to figure someone getting in trouble for it before would compound things, not excuse them.

If only the player safety department thought the same way.
 
Bill_Berg said:
So the little girl comment was worse than the beat you to a pulp comment?

From my perspective, asking Sparks to apologize for the sexist remarks would have been sufficient- just like Reilly last year.  Threatening to hurt someone online is what put this over the top IMO and it isn't being discussed as much as I'd expect.  I think it was worse than the sexist comments, if only by a little.
 
I think Sparks's comment would have been fine if he had just told the guy to stop acting like a 13 year old.  Because the original poster was acting childish and immature with his comments.  Leave the "girl" part out and it's fine.
 
Zee said:
I think Sparks's comment would have been fine if he had just told the guy to stop acting like a 13 year old.  Because the original poster was acting childish and immature with his comments.  Leave the "girl" part out and it's fine.

I don't think threatening to beat the person into a pulp is "fine". 
 
Coco-puffs said:
Zee said:
I think Sparks's comment would have been fine if he had just told the guy to stop acting like a 13 year old.  Because the original poster was acting childish and immature with his comments.  Leave the "girl" part out and it's fine.

I don't think threatening to beat the person into a pulp is "fine".

Whatever, if the guy was making disparaging remarks about disabled people as the reports indicate,  I have no issue with Sparks playing internet tough guy on him. 
 
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