ABOVE: Watch Don Cherry on Global’s The Morning Show.
TORONTO — Don Cherry was given plenty of time Wednesday to complain about his Coach’s Corner segment being trimmed to five minutes during last Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada.
“If they don’t want me, it’s fine with me. It’s over,” Cherry said during an appearance on Global’s The Morning Show.
“But I’m not going to be pushed around.”
Cherry, 80, complained during Hockey Night in Canada about Coach’s Corner being cut by at least two minutes. (“I gotta talk fast … because I don’t get much time,” he told viewers.)
“If you’re timed to go seven minutes then all of a sudden you go five, it throws you right off,” Cherry said Wednesday. “I mean, it really did. It threw me off.”
The outspoken hockey icon is not apologizing for griping publicly about the reduced airtime.
“When I first started I had 10 minutes, then it went to eight minutes, then seven,” he recalled. “Saturday was a little too much for me, at five minutes, so I had to say something.”
READ MORE: Don Cherry’s best (and worst) moments
Rogers, which scored the rights to NHL games last year in a $5.2 billion deal, now controls Hockey Night in Canada even though it continues to air on CBC.
Cherry suggested his new relationship with Rogers may have gotten off to a bad start.
“They’re not too happy with me,” he said. “All I did was make a little statement. Holy smokes. I better get my seven minutes back.”
Scott Moore, president of Rogers Sportsnet, told the National Post he spoke to Cherry on Monday and smoothed things over.
“We laughed,” Moore explained, “and I said to him, ‘You know, Don, if you have more to talk about, all you need to do is make sure that you tell the executive producer what you want to talk about and we’ll make sure you have lots of time.'”
BELOW: Watch Don Cherry complain during Coach’s Corner.
Cherry said he thinks the situation has been straightened out but added: “If they don’t want me, fine.
“I’ve been going long enough, I’ve had a good ride.”
Cherry is on the road promoting his latest book, Straight Up & Personal, and — of course — he’s donning his trademark wardrobe.
He told The Morning Show he prefers to dress like “a construction worker” at home.
“I dress so bad,” he said. “My wife won’t even let me answer the door. That’s how bad it is.”
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