Way offside

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This article was published 16/11/2019 (2330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Love him or hate him, Don Cherry’s ouster from Hockey Night in Canada can’t have come as a huge surprise to Canadians familiar with his over-the-top rants.

The bombastic commentator has a long, inglorious history of shooting from the lip, unleashing loudmouth observations that many fans found even more offensive than his signature loudmouth suits.

Cherry has found himself in hot water almost too many times to count. He has infamously blasted “Europeans and French guys” for wearing visors, criticized female sportswriters and railed against “you left-wing kooks.”

But after nearly 40 years on air, Cherry was fired last week for a “you people” rant on his Coach’s Corner segment that appeared to target new immigrants for supposedly failing to support Canada’s military veterans by wearing poppies.

“You people… that come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that,” he roared during the show Saturday. “These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada, these guys paid the biggest price.”

His offside remarks prompted thousands of hockey fans to condemn him on social media, while diehards signed a petition to have him reinstated. Cherry has since said he wishes he’d said “everybody” instead of “you people.”

It may be cold comfort for the man nicknamed “Grapes,” but he’s not the first controversial commentator shown the door, as we see from today’s cringe-worthy list of Five Famously Disgraced Sportscasters:

5) The controversial commentator: Sportsnet’s Gregg Zaun

The fall from grace: Given the inspiration for today’s list, we might as well start with a guy whose opinionated streak and penchant for flashy suits earned him frequent comparisons with Don Cherry. We’re talking about former Toronto Blue Jay and Sportsnet commentator Gregg Zaun, who enjoyed a 16-year professional baseball career. From 2004 to 2008, Zaun was a catcher for the Blue Jays, but signed with the Orioles again in early 2009. He earned a World Series ring with the Florida Marlins in 1997.

In 2011, he earned a permanent spot on Sportsnet’s baseball broadcasts, and spent the next seven seasons cultivating a persona he called the “Manalyst” — a blunt and virile commentator who spouted edgy opinions on the Jays and their players, according to the Toronto Star. In 2017, the baseball analyst — known for posting, then deleting, controversial messages on Twitter — was fired by Sportsnet after several female colleagues came forward with allegations of “inappropriate behaviour and comments.” After his dismissal, according to the Star, female Sportsnet employees described a co-worker who brought the same rough-edged “Manalyst” persona to the office, making women extremely uncomfortable.

“Zaun’s on-air brand and image was based around aggressive masculinity, so when he wore (undershirts) around the office and made rude sexual comments directly to women, or in close proximity of women, with the clear intention of making us uncomfortable, it was sort of implied — that’s who he was, deal with it,” one female Sportsnet employee told The Canadian Press. He later issued a statement saying: “It has never been my intention to give offence to anyone. I’ve done a lot of soul searching over the last few days and know that my ignorance of the harm caused by my language does not excuse it — for which I accept responsibility.”

Since then, the retired catcher has reportedly been running youth baseball camps.

4) The controversial commentator: Fox’s Steve Lyons

The fall from grace: You probably should not be surprised when you hear about off-the-wall behaviour from a guy with the nickname “Psycho.” During his nine seasons in Major League Baseball, Steve Lyons earned that nickname for such eccentricities as playing tic-tac-toe and hangman against opposing players during games, using spikes to mark the infield dirt. He became infamous after a televised game when he slid into first base to beat out a bunt hit, then absent-mindedly pulled down his pants to empty out the dirt.

Hired when Fox began broadcasting baseball in 1996, Lyons was fired in 2006 for making a racially insensitive comment directed at colleague Lou Piniella’s Hispanic heritage on the air during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. In the second inning, broadcast partner Piniella was talking about Oakland’s Marco Scutaro and the success the usually light-hitting shortstop had at the plate during the previous series against Minnesota. Piniella compared it to finding a “wallet on Friday” and hoping it happened next week, according to the Los Angeles Times. Piniella also said the A’s needed Frank Thomas to get “en fuego” — Spanish for on fire — and that he was currently “frio” — cold.

Lyons then said, “Lou is habla-ing some Español there, and I’m still looking for my wallet. I don’t understand him, and I don’t want to sit close to him now.” The next day, network spokesman Dan Bell said: “Steve Lyons has been relieved of his Fox Sports duties for making comments on air that the company found inappropriate.” At the time, Lyons said: “I was shocked when I was told this was an issue. I don’t know how what I said could be taken as a racial statement… They’re trying to make it like I was saying Spanish people steal wallets. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think it reads worse than the way I said it. It was a joke.”

It wasn’t the first time his flippant style had backfired. In 2004, Lyons was suspended for one game for an on-air comment about Shawn Green, who was then with the Dodgers and had chosen to take a day off for Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday: “He’s not a practising Jew. He didn’t marry a Jewish girl. And from what I understand, he never had a bar mitzvah, so he didn’t get the money.” He currently works for the New England Sports Network.

3) The controversial commentator: ESPN’s Sean Salisbury

The fall from grace: If the name Sean Salisbury sounds familiar to local football fans, there’s a good reason. In 1988, Salisbury was the quarterback who led the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to an upset 22-21 victory over the favoured B.C. Lions in the 76th Grey Cup Game in Ottawa. “That season was one of my best in my football career. When my agent first said I could go to Canada to play, I thought it was beneath me,” Salisbury told Free Press columnist Gary Lawless back in 2012. “I won in my first year up there and it got me back to the NFL.”

Salisbury left Winnipeg to sign with the Minnesota Vikings and spent parts of six more seasons in the NFL before moving to the broadcast booth, where he enjoyed 12 years with ESPN in a high-profile broadcast career. But then everything was flushed down the toilet thanks to an indiscretion with his cellphone. His problems began in 2006, when he was suspended by ESPN after showing co-workers a cellphone photo of his genitals while partying in a Connecticut bar.

ESPN did not renew Salisbury’s contract in 2008 and he fell into a toxic pool of depression, isolation and self-loathing. “Salisbury continued to deny the incident even after his dismissal before finally coming clean in 2010,” Lawless wrote.

“I’ve spent six years paying for that mistake. Did I do it? Yes. Did I lie about it? Yes. I was ashamed. It was stupid. I’m not pooh-poohing it away, but I don’t think I should have been fired. I was their lead analyst on TV six days a week. I should have taken a suspension for a week and I thought it would go away. But then it just ended. My life fell apart. The sad part for me was my identity was locked into my job. I couldn’t recover for a long time.”

But he has bounced back, and now works as a football analyst in sports radio in the U.S.

2) The controversial commentator: CBS’s Jimmy (the Greek) Snyder

The fall from grace: What are the odds a Vegas bookmaker would say something stupid that would cost him his job working on football broadcasts? Pretty good, as it turns out. Already famous in gambling circles, Jimmy (the Greek) Snyder parlayed a weekly pro football betting line in Vegas into a 12-year career on CBS’s NFL Today, where he would predict the results of the week’s NFL games alongside legendary sportscaster Brent Musburger.

In 1988, the analyst and oddsmaker was fired by the network after a TV interview in which he said many black people were superior athletes because of breeding from the time of slavery and that the only area in sports left for white people was coaching. CBS executives wanted him to resign, but he refused and was fired. The network said: “(Snyder) made a number of remarks about black and white athletes which had patently racist overtones. CBS wishes to categorically disassociate itself from these remarks.” Snyder’s interview took place at a downtown Washington restaurant for a program on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

“Snyder’s remarks touched off a storm of protests across the country from viewers, television and radio commentators and some black leaders. He apologized for his statements moments after they were aired and said he did not mean to offend anyone,” the Washington Post reported. Snyder later said: “What a foolish thing to say. I thought I was being instructive, when in fact, I was destructive.”

Musburger later said: “I’m feeling a twinge of sadness for the individual, but on the other hand, there’s no way you can defend any of those comments, period. Given how outrageous what was said, I don’t think they had any choice.”

1) The controversial commentator: NBC’s Marv Albert

The fall from grace: The word “legend” is often bandied about carelessly in the sports world, but it is more than appropriate when used to describe sportscaster Marv Albert, who is commonly called “the voice of basketball” and has been hailed as the greatest play-by-play announcer in NBA history.

Back in the day, he made routine appearances on David Letterman’s late-night talk shows, showing clips featuring sports bloopers and highlights he dubbed the “Albert Achievement Awards.” In 1997, however, the legend became embroiled in a sex scandal that derailed his career. His sexual assault trial came to an abrupt halt in September 1997 when he pleaded guilty to assault and battery and was promptly fired by NBC.

“From my point of view, I just felt like I had to end this ordeal,” Albert, then 56, said outside court. “In the interest of my family, my friends and my many supporters, I step aside with deep humility and will seek to reconstruct my personal and professional life.” According to the L.A. Times, Albert had originally pleaded not guilty after being accused by a longtime lover of throwing her on a bed, repeatedly biting her on the back and forcing her to perform oral sex in an Arlington hotel room.

The woman said Albert became enraged because she failed to procure another man and bring him to bed with them. “Albert finally agreed to the plea bargain after a second woman — a surprise witness — testified that three years ago Albert met her in a motel room wearing white panties and a garter belt. He lunged at her and then bit her, she said. The woman testified that she escaped his clutches after ripping his toupée off his head,” the Times reported.

Within hours of the plea deal, NBC fired Albert, one of the best-known and highest-paid sportscasters in America. Spared jail and ordered to undergo counselling, Albert was rehired by NBC less than two years later. He is currently the lead NBA announcer for Turner Sports, though many fans still recall the day a legend was tarnished.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca