Should Don Cherry Have Been Fired?

[NyQuil]

In light of recent news that Don Cherry is/may have been fired.

Click to read more...

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I haven't seen him in over a decade, but he was irrelevant, bigoted, and cringeworthy even then. He apparently hasn't changed. Nice to see somebody show the spine to finally move on from his antiquated clown act.

 

[ESH]

It’s stupid that Don Cherry has even managed to maintain such a feature role in hockey broadcasting for this long.

 

[Baxterman]

Of course not he did nothing wrong.

 

[Addison Rae]

Of course not he did nothing wrong.

You seem totally objective..

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Cherry’s an idiot but it’s probably more so to the time than who he actually is inside.

The man is 85 years old. Do you realize how old that is and how different the world was during his prime “working years” when you experience life? If you talk to any 85 year old man they have the exact same views as Don. We just laugh at them because “that’s just grandpa”. The difference with Don is that he’s a public icon and people who aren’t family actually listen.

Don is beyond the times in both hockey and culture. Despite this being obvious, Rogers//CBC/Sportsnet have continued to employ him and the stupid comments have continued to multiply. Don should have retired years ago. He didn’t and this (expectedly) happened.

All the best Don. You were a hockey icon. A Canadian icon. Wish it didn’t end like this but we all knew it would.

 

[robsenz]

Happy you put this poll up, super curious about how lopsided the results are...kind of wished there was an age group with the choice selections, cause obviously a lot of young people are going to vote yes.

 

[NyQuil]

Happy you put this poll up, super curious about how lopsided the results are...kind of wished there was an age group with the choice selections, cause obviously a lot of young people are going to vote yes.

Well, I'm 40 years old.

I'm not sure where that puts me in the "Yes" column.

 

[Janjua]

Give him a medal.

 

[wetcoast]

Cherry’s an idiot but it’s probably more so to the time than who he actually is inside.

The man is 85 years old. Do you realize how old that is and how different the world was during his prime “working years” when you experience life? If you talk to any 85 year old man they have the exact same views as Don. We just laugh at them because “that’s just grandpa”. The difference with Don is that he’s a public icon and people who aren’t family actually listen.

Don is beyond the times in both hockey and culture. Despite this being obvious, Rogers//CBC/Sportsnet have continued to employ him and the stupid comments have continued to multiply. Don should have retired years ago. He didn’t and this (expectedly) happened.

All the best Don. You were a hockey icon. A Canadian icon. Wish it didn’t end like this but we all knew it would.

Everything you say is true but at the end of the day nothing Don said on that broadcast was untrue but in 2019 even an awkwards support for remembrance day and veterans by a 85 year old man in the media spotlight will get that person fired.

I will miss him and his wardrobe now that he isn't on TV but I think there should be a national Don Cherry "jacket day" to mark his memory going forward after you know ( that which can't be said as it's not PC and might be misunderstood and considered insensitive).

Even if one doesn't like Don Cherry he is a Canadian and hockey icon for a reason.

 

[Just Linda]

Angry old man ranting got tired a long time ago.

 

[ViewsFromThe6ix]

There is no reason an 85 year old man should be on TV spewing the nonsense he does.

 

[POVERTY]

Does Don Cherry even know that he's been fired? I question how much he actually understands about wtf is going on around him these days. I bet he responded to his firing with a thumbs up and "See you next Saturday"

 

[Steveshutt]

48 year old fan. Been watching him from the beginning. I continued to support him in spite of my better instincts, mostly because he'd been a part of my life for so long.

There's a difference, however, between being an irascible old uncle and a person who invents straw-men to promote a hate-agenda.

He's a dangerous son of a gun and I'm glad he won't be able to misrepresent or embarrass my country from this point forward.

 

[LeafGrief]

He should have quit or retired with much celebration years ago. Instead he hung on too long and went too far, unceremoniously getting the boot.

Whether you agree with him or not (and I vehemently disagree with him), he spoke an opinion that went directly against the values that his employer publicly support. That gets most normal people fired, so I'm not exactly feeling a whole lot of sympathy for Cherry on that front. They probably would have let him off with an apology because of his status, the fact that he wasn't fired immediately is telling.

At the Remembrance Day ceremony I attended this morning, the cadet groups were very multicultural. The kids in the band were over 50% visible minorities. Cherry isn't just an idiot, he's wrong. It would be nice if more Canadians wore poppies, but it's about all Canadians, not just immigrants. And we should all know by now that "immigrants" doesn't actually mean immigrants, it means people with different skin colours. Pretty hard to figure out who the Ukranian immigrants are without talking to them...

 

[NyQuil]

Cherry's response in this interview:

“I speak the truth and I walk the walk,” he said. “I have visited the bases of the troops, been to Afghanistan with our brave soldiers at Christmas, been to cemeteries of our fallen around the world and honoured our fallen troops on Coach’s Corner.”

And it has been an honour to back the fighting men and women in uniform, he added.
Cherry said he would change none of it.

“To keep my job, I cannot be turned into a tamed robot,” said Cherry.

Still, he admits, being fired on Remembrance Day does hurt “because I would have liked to continue doing Coach’s Corner. The problem is if I have to watch everything I say, it isn’t Coach’s Corner.”

As he reflects on what just transpired, added Cherry, he won’t forget any part of his decades on the air. “I want to thank everyone who has watched Coach’s Corner over the last 35 years,” he said.

But he does have one message he would like people to take from his situation:
“Remember to wear your poppy to honour our fallen soldiers … Thumbs up.”

WARMINGTON: Don Cherry fired over controversial poppy comment

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

I hope he was fired at 11:11 too.

 

[NyQuil]

23-22 right now.

Interesting.

 

[OilCanada92]

Everything you say is true but at the end of the day nothing Don said on that broadcast was untrue but in 2019 even an awkwards support for remembrance day and veterans by a 85 year old man in the media spotlight will get that person fired.

I will miss him and his wardrobe now that he isn't on TV but I think there should be a national Don Cherry "jacket day" to mark his memory going forward after you know ( that which can't be said as it's not PC and might be misunderstood and considered insensitive).

Even if one doesn't like Don Cherry he is a Canadian and hockey icon for a reason.

Nothing he said was untrue? He didn't get fired because of his support for the poppy. He got fired because of his use of "you people" and "our." He implied it's only immigrants not wearing a poppy right now, that immigrants don't appreciate life in Canada, and that immigrants don't contribute to making life in Canada great.

It was a ridiculous generalization. I'm sure most people were on his side about more people needing to wear the poppy until he decided to just make it about immigrants.

 

[EdJovanovski]

No.

 

[Deadly Dogma]

what kills me is Rogers/Sportsnet firing him due to divisive comments but when you look at how broadcast companies work its all based on division.

 

[Captain Mountain]

-It wasn't the most heinous thing he's ever said;
-He's said a lot of...questionable... stuff over the years, even hockey related, to justify being removed; and
-He wasn't worth listening to or watching from a pure hockey analysis perspective for a long time.

He should have stepped down a while ago of his own volition.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

My vote is, "Yes, because he refused to apologize."

 

[Not The One]

Yes.

25 years ago.

 

[TeddyBare]

HELL NO

Coaches corner is a canadian icon, even if you want him gone just let him finish up the year.