Pardon the Eruption – Gav Sports Column
By Terrance Gavan
Trash talk.
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| Greg Walsh kudos! |
I don’t think it was around when I was growing up.
Trash talk is imbued with a certain efficacy today.
It’s subtle as a jackhammer.
It’s unpleasant.
It’s the antithesis of sportsmanship.
It’s schadenfreude taken beyond reasonable bounds.
I’m not a big fan … even though my number one hero, Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird was apparently one of its most vile and loathsome practitioners.
Walsh is sitting out an as yet undetermined suspension for pulling his team off the ice during a hockey game a few weeks back.
Walsh is sitting because he wouldn’t sit still.
He’s sitting because the trash talk aimed at one of his teenage players clearly overstepped the bounds of good taste.
He’s sitting because of a racist taunt aimed at one of his players.
A player from an opposing team called Walsh’s player, 16-year-old Andrew McCullum: “Nigger.” (Writer’s note: If we continue to use the N-word – as most publications do - as a replacement for what was really said it does a disservice to the process and the reader. It’s an ugly word. When it’s uttered in anger it should be exposed for what it is: Gutless, spineless, mealy-mouthed racism.)
The word was directed at McCullum while both players were sitting in the penalty box during a Peterborough Minor Hockey Association league encounter.
McCullum told the Toronto Star that both players “were chirping at each other,” when the opposing player upped the ante.
