HNIC personality eviscerates Don Cherry, who is once again trending on social media
Hockey Night in Canada has been a Canadian staple for decades and it really took off after the addition of Coach's Corner with Don Cherry and Ron MacLean. Unfortunately, due to Cherry's deteriorating popularity and lack of political correctness on the air, the program's plug was pulled in 2019.
During a November 9, 2019 segment, Cherry commented on the subject of wearing poppies to celebrate Remembrance Day to honour the country's fallen heroes, using the words "you people" in reference to those who have immigrated to Canada who may or may not honour Canadian traditions. This led to a lot of backlash and a lot of viewers calling for Cherry to be fired, which he was. This decision by Rogers left fans divided.
It's been four years with Cherry off the air. Since then, he has started a podcast called "The Don Cherry's Grapevine Podcast." This morning Cherry was trending on Twitter and former Hometown Hockey Host Tara Slone decided to shoot on Cherry, calling him a "bigot" and saying that Cherry was jealous of Ron McLean and herself for doing Hometown Hockey.
Right or wrong, Slone's tirade against Cherry is not being received overly well on social media. Was it Cherry's time to go when he did? Yes - and you can argue that he should have been removed from his seat on HNIC long before he actually was. But at this stage of his life and his career, I'm not sure that dumping on him is the play.
Hockey culture right now is already under the microscope. Fans of the sport don't need to deify Cherry, but they shouldn't be going too far in the opposite direction either. For the areas of Cherry's persona that needed work, there were other aspects of the man that bred positive actions as well. Things like honouring Canadian soldiers, educating parents on how to keep their kids safe in hockey and shining a light on things that may not have gotten any attention otherwise.
None of this is to defend Cherry. He needed to go. I think we all know that. It's more to say that there's a lot of grey area in between the black and white here. Slone has taken her stance and that's fine, but just as Cherry was not right 100% of the time, neither is Slone in this case. It seems more like one former host slighting another more than what I'm sure her intended message was.
| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 16 | 3241 ANSWERS HNIC personality eviscerates Don Cherry, who is once again trending on social media Do you agree with Slone that Cherry's tenure as a public figure in hockey should be erased? | ||
| Yes | 242 | 7.5 % |
| No | 2269 | 70 % |
| This just seems really petty | 730 | 22.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
