He says he's remorseful, but quickly points the finger at someone else, and makes up excuses for his actions. At no point does he take responsibility for what he did. He just says that "he feels bad". Should Don Cherry apologize to Dean McAmmond for what Downie did because he says he didn't know any better? Ridiculous.
So how do you know it's an excuse and not the truth? Sure he should take responsibility, but when he said he wished he never played, is that not doing exactly that? He gave the reason why he played that way. Not sure what else you want from him. Like I said, most players don't play dirty because they are sociopaths.
No, not every player plays the way Downie does, otherwise everyone would be getting knocked out and concussed on a daily basis.
Awesome bud, I never said they did.
There are plenty of players who are fringe and do everything in their power to play in the league, without playing dirty. There are chippy players who spear, hit hard, slash, what have you, without crossing the line of dangerous.
Anyway, the real issue here is that people are lauding the guy for "having character", when he's not owing up to his actions. We understand that there are players who play dirty. I also understand that people who do things like this should owe up to their actions, or at the very least keep their mouths shut.
Again, I didn't say it was right. But it's time to start looking at this logically. Hockey, and football, are popular sports and a lot of it is due to people liking violence. It is part of the culture and has been for a long time. Only recently have both sports really started cracking down on dirty hits. Players are almost groomed to play like that. Not all of them obviously, but Steve Downie is making a valid point. It's time to stop crying about his character or whatever it is you have an issue with and just look at what he's saying (this goes for other people too). He isn't wrong. He's just saying that as a kid he grew up watching big borderline hits be glamorized, and that's an issue. What's the big deal with speaking the truth? Can't do it anymore without somebody getting upset with it.
It seems Downie is speaking out in hopes that this stops other players from doing the same thing. Logically speaking, this is a positive thing for the hockey community. But according to HF Boards, he needs to keep his mouth shut just because he was a dirty player.
You people are funny. You care way too much about who the messenger is rather than the actual message. If he wants to voice out against something, that is far better than him keeping his mouth shut and never saying anything about the way he played. That shouldn't be rocket science.
