In Chicago, things go from bad to Wirtz
Gary Bettman has 'full and complete authority' to expel or suspend Blackhawks' chairman Rocky Wirtz. And that's exactly what the NHL commissioner must do
Rocky Wirtz was recently ranked No. 28 by The Hockey News on its annual list of power brokers and influencers in the hockey world. Kyle Beach was No. 2. Interesting, because we all know who really holds the power here and people like Rocky Wirtz remind us all the time, as he did last night. And when the people who truly control the levers of power in the game don’t even pretend to care about people like Kyle Beach, there is still something very wrong.
When Beach and the Chicago Blackhawks reached a settlement in the negligence lawsuit Beach filed against the team over his sexual assault by a video coach and the subsequent cover-up, the NHL and Blackhawks put out a joint statement. Part of that statement read the following: “As for the Blackhawks organization, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that, going forward, this team will be a beacon for professionalism, respect and integrity in our community. We remain grateful for the trust and support of the Blackhawks community, and we promise to continue working every day to earn and maintain that trust.”
Oh really?
Because judging by the petulant, boorish, immature and shockingly bizarre behavior Blackhawks chairman and resident man-child Rocky Wirtz displayed exactly 49 days after the settlement in what was supposed to be a collegial town hall with season-ticket holders and media members, the Blackhawks are none of these things. Or at least their chairman, who has apparently learned absolutely nothing from this, is not. Wirtz called the Beach situation, which is one of the most damaging off-ice issues in NHL history, “old business” and would prefer everyone just put it in the rear view mirror and bury it completely out of sight. You know, the way hockey guys tend to do. On Groundhog Day, Chicago Rocky emerged from his cave, only to see there is still a long and dark shadow surrounding the Kyle Beach scandal. At which point he lashed out, then returned to his cave, thereby ensuring that the long winter of discontent and disgust will continue indefinitely.
In an exchange with writer Mark Lazerus of The Athletic, Wirtz went off the rails. When called upon to ask a question, one it should be pointed out was directed to Blackhawks CEO and Wirtz’s son, Danny, Lazerus asked what the Blackhawks have done, are doing and will do to prevent things such as the Beach sexual assault by the team’s video coach from ever happening again. Wirtz took the floor and insisted that nobody from the organization – joining him on the stage were Danny, president of business operations Jaime Faulkner and TV analyst Ed Olczyk – was going to talk about Kyle Beach, saying the Jenner & Block report into the incident and the Blackhawks’ cover-up are no longer with the organization. Not true. Wirtz is still there. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane still play for the team and 2010 teammates Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa were recently appointed by the team to join Olcyzk on a committee to search for a new GM.
But it was when Danny tried to defuse the situation to detail the Hawks’ plans that his father wagged his finger at him and, as Danny, Faulkner and Olczyk looked on in disbelief, said to Lazerus, “That’s none of your business…You don’t work for the company. If someone in the company asks the question, we’ll answer it…We’re not going to talk about Kyle Beach. We’re not going to talk about anything that happened.”
It was incredible in its tone deafness and arrogance. The same organization that pledged seven weeks ago to restore integrity and trust lost any shred of it that it had. The culture of secrecy and willful blindness that allowed the Kyle Beach sexual assault to happen, then fester for a decade, is exactly what Rocky Wirtz wants to uphold. He’s basically saying the Blackhawks plan to keep this in-house, far away from the light that needs to be shed on it. When Phil Thompson of the Chicago Tribune followed up, Wirtz doubled down on his rich-white-guy sense of entitlement, saying, “I think you’re out of line with to ask this line of questions. Why don’t you ask about something else?” And when Thompson did, Wirtz came back with, “Want to talk about your paper and what the sports page looks like? Should I do that? You can’t even get our late scores…”
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a man unhinged. And one whose ability to run this enterprise should be called into question. The NHL’s constitution has a provision for the commissioner to deal with this type of thing. Article VI states the commissioner has “full and complete authority” to discipline “anyone connected to with the league or member club, (who)…has been or is guilty of conduct detrimental to the league or the game of hockey.” Among the commissioner’s powers are, “expelling or suspending the person for a definite or indefinite period.” (There’s also a provision for a $1 million fine, but the Blackhawks have already been fined $2 million by the league over this and it apparently hasn’t changed anything.)
It will be interesting to see what he does with this, since Wirtz is a close ally, a billionaire who wields an enormous amount of power. He is a member of the two most powerful committees on the NHL’s board of governors: the executive and the finance and audit committees. Wirtz later issued a public apology to both reporters and the fans, but the damage had already been done. How can anyone trust a team with this kind of leadership? Or as Wayne Gretzky said on last night’s TNT broadcast, “As a parent, you’re sitting there going, ‘My son is 18 years old and he’s maybe going to be drafted by that team…I want to know my 18-year-old son is going to be protected.”
The Great One could not have hit the nail any more directly on the head. Above all, this is about preventing any young, vulnerable person from having something like this happen to him. And thanks to Wirtz, any parent whose son becomes property of that organization simply doesn’t have that security. That is a complete erosion of trust. This is not an owner who “crossed the line,” his words, over questions about a bad power play or high season-ticket prices. This was about a heinous crime on a young man that was perpetuated and covered up under his watch – although the Jenner & Block report cleared Wirtz of any wrongdoing – a crime and its fallout that Wirtz dismisses as “old business.”
Just hours after Wirtz’s comments, the Blackhawks were shut out 5-0 on home ice by the Minnesota Wild. No big deal. That kind of stuff happens all the time these days to this team. No Blackhawk fans will be talking about that today. They’ll be too busy wondering whether the organization in which they sink their emotions and money can ever be trusted to do the right thing.
If Whoopi Goldberg can be suspended from “The View” for running her mouth, Rocky should be suspended for running his - heck, remember when Sean Avery was suspended just for saying “sloppy seconds?”
Good read. These gross men have always been around. It's the psychopathy of success. I get the impression that had it been their child, they may be more committed to their enterprise than to their child.