RE: Sean Avery's Suspension - Restriction of Free Speech, NHL Publicity Stunt, or Justified Offense?

I am a lifelong Dallas Stars fan. I was happy when the Stars signed Sean Avery because he is a talented hockey player. I thought that the Stars had the leadership on the team from the coach and the veteran players to be able to handle Sean Avery. I was wrong. The team that did very well last year is playing like a different team this year, and the most obvious change is the addition of a player with a cancerous attitude. For that reason alone I would fire him.

As for the remarks that Sean Avery made. As previously discussed, I can not stand disrespect. It is my number one irritant. Sean Avery was extremely disrespectful to his ex-girlfriend and Dion Phaneuf. This is not what I would consider trash-talking. Trash-talking is saying that Dion Phaneuf is a weak player or that he has the first name of a Hannah Montana fan. Delving into the personal relationship of a player and his girlfriend is the same reprehensible disrespect as mocking the pregnancy of a Vice-Presidential candidate's 17-year old daughter. I feel a strong need to put a crowbar in between something like this and trash-talking. I played sports my whole life. I know that in the heat of competition that people talk about mom's, wives, girlfriends, and about anything that can be imagined. In my opinion, there is a difference between two athletes yelling these things during competition and one athlete bringing it up to the media outside of competition. It is similar to the differences between slander and satire. Sean Avery was not talking trash, he was disrespecting two people by discussing their personal relationship with the media.

As for the question of where we draw the line when it comes to people speaking their mind freely, that line is where Sean Avery signed his name to play for the Dallas Stars and the National Hockey League. Free speech is about the government preventing you from speaking your mind, but it has nothing to do with your employer. If one of the people that works in my bank says something that I feel is detrimental to my business, then I will punish them. Sean Avery is employed by the NHL and the Stars, they can terminate his employment as per his contract. And that is that. The NHL felt that Sean Avery's statement was bad for the image of the league and outside the realm of behavior they are willing to accept, so they punished him. Try telling the customers of the business that you work for that another employee enjoys picking up your "sloppy seconds", let some of the customers complain to your boss about what you said, and see what happens.

I think the indefinite suspension was a rare smart move by the NHL front office. They did not know how to punish Avery (mostly because they didn't know exactly how upset their sponsors would be) so they suspended him indefintely and set a date to review the suspension. So basically, they have for sure suspended him for 2 games (one of which was the Flames game he would have been killed in, which would have been bad for the league image) and gave themselves enough time to gauge the reaction to the comments so they could set an appropriate punishment. This was a smart move. Now the league can talk to Avery and hand out a punishment in accordance to how the situation has played out over the last couple of days.

I do agree entirely with the Rocker that as a society, Americans have become far too sensitive to things. Political correctness is a violation of our freedom of speech. While Avery can say whatever he wants, as long as he does not work for the NHL, the average American can not escape the prosecution of political correctness without removing himself from the society completely. I do think it is important that we act with respect for one another, but we must also keep the expectation of respect within reason. I say Merry Christmas because I celebrate Christmas, not because I am disrespecting the other holidays (or people that do not celebrate at all). But the politically correct thing to say is Happy Holidays and in some cases I would be chastised for saying Merry Christmas. That is a violation of my freedom to exercise my faith and express myself by select members of society.

Luckily, politically correct on this blog only means that you vote Republican, which is the correct thing to do politically.

-The Banker-