Maybe I shouldn’t go on record with this, but most days, being a sports guy isn’t all that complex. There are games to watch, athletes and coaches to interview, video to edit and make-up to wear.
Yet, every so often, there are challenges in my world that leave me wondering, “what the hell is going on here?”
And for whatever reason, quite often I’m brought to this state by covering the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Perhaps it’s because pretty much from the day I began covering the team 7 years ago, up until present time, things continually happen with the WHL club that make me scratch my head.
The latest came with what looked like an innocuous parting of the ways between the Hurricanes and Rich Sutter. The member of hockey’s famous family had been a Special Assistant for General Manager Rich Preston for the 2008-‘09 season, but according to a recent ‘Canes press release “will be leaving the hockey club to pursue other interests.”
Believe me, at Global Sports, we always try to provide our viewers balanced coverage. When this news came to light during the team’s Annual General Meeting in mid-August, we strived to present both sides of the story. In an interview at the meeting Preston said of the parting, “Richie and I had a meeting last week, and had a good chat and he decided he wanted to pursue other interests. He’s got a couple of irons in the fire and that’s the way it is. It happens in every business but it’ll be tough to lose him.”
The next day, when Global Sports approached Mr. Sutter, he respectfully declined to comment on record.
Fine. Apparently all was well in ‘Canes-land—other than the team had lost over $260,000 during the 2009-2010 campaign (renovating Enmax Centre + poor results = big loss of $$$).
However, this appears to be far from the case. That same day Global contacted Sutter; he went on Toronto’s AM 640 and did a 6-minute interview for the Bill Watters Show (former Leafs Assistant GM and current SportsNet “personality”). In that segment, the ex-NHLer lambasted the Hurricanes, taking several shots at the organization.
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Early in the conversation, Sutter said, “From what I’ve understood with the press release today and what actually happened are quite two different things, but that’s not surprising.”
I infer this from those words: Sutter believes he was run out of the organization.
Earlier this summer the ‘Canes announced Assistant GM Brad Robson would take on an expanded full-time role with the club after retiring from the 30 years of service with the Calgary Police Force.
Said Sutter on Watters’ programme, “I’m tired of swallowing pride and hiding behind things and the bottom line is that Brad Robson retired from the police force in Calgary and individuals in this organization felt they had to supplement his income because he’s no longer was working under two salaries.”
Watters later stated, “You can only prostitute yourself for so long.” To which Sutter replied, “Well that’s basically what I did for the last 12 months.”
Now, the use of the word “prostitute” in this context is wildly inflammatory and completely off base. I believe what Watters was getting at is Sutter should not give away his expertise for free (or close to free) of which the latter agreed.
Several things here bother me. The first one is completely selfish. Why did Sutter blow off the local media? He refused an interview with Global and the Lethbridge Herald. Yet he went on Toronto radio and also commented for a Calgary Herald story. I wonder why talking to Watters was acceptable, but not anyone from Lethbridge.
Also, in the Watters interview, Sutter professed his respect for the man he worked with last year saying, “Rich Preston’s been tremendous, a tremendous person to work with.” Is this really a good way to go about showing it? When asked whether the team wanted him back, Preston said at the AGM “that’s between him and I.” Preston tried to kept things private. Sutter vented to an audience of thousands in the GTO, thousands of Calgary Herald readers and potentially the entire planet on-line.
It really comes off as Sutter has an axe to grind with the Lethbridge Hurricanes Board of Directors. He was passed over when Preston was hired as GM, and potentially squeezed out when Robson came on full-time. In light of what’s happened who would not be disappointed?
Still, to go out and trash the organization in such a manner, how does this help Sutter get a job in hockey down the line? He comes off as a malcontent, someone who cannot take his lumps when things don’t go as planned.
Finally, by airing this dirty laundry, across a national audience, it kind of makes all of Lethbridge look bad. Sure, we have our problems here, and Hurricanes fans have had enough crap to deal with in the past decade. By basically saying our junior hockey team is a joke to some pompous-sounding ass on a Toronto radio show gives off a certain perception of our community. When is the last time Bill Watters and his audience thought of Lethbridge? Probably only when a fighter plane crashes or some councilperson goes off the deep end. Now, they also think we’ve got a WHL team run by a bunch of clowns. Great. Another item to put on the “Visit Lethbridge” brochure.
Is Sutter right? He very may well be. But in the way he conveyed his message, it’s hard to believe it.
In the end, it was far from another average day in the life of a local sports guy…
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