Don Cherry’s Xenophobic Remarks on Ovechkin Should Not Be Tolerated
Around college campuses and street hockey courts, I hear hockey fans debating about Ovechkin’s exuberant celebrations. I’ve been watching ice hockey since 1997 when the Philadelphia Flyers went to the Stanley Cup finals (and were swept by the Detroit Red Wings), and I’ve never heard this kind of debate before. It’s no doubt that the “celebration controversy” was generated by Don Cherry’s commentary, but whether people realize it or not, it reinforces this new idea that there is a Canadian/North American “unwritten law” on how hockey players are supposed to celebrate goals. When Ovechkin scored his 50th goal of the season, Cherry ripped on Ovechkin’s “hot stick” celebration and had these words for the young star, “Have a little class and do it right.” In other words: Be Canadian, otherwise you’re “threatening” the “Canadian way” of hockey and aren’t worthy of admiration or praise. It’s sort of like the Bush administration on ice.
The fact of the matter is that many aspiring hockey players admire Alexander Ovechkin, not because of his nationality, but for his extraordinary display of talent and leadership. What worries me is how people like Don Cherry want to make Ovechkin’s nationality an issue. It seems that he wants us to perceive Ovechkin’s style of play as “foreign” and “un-Canadian,” while making us forget the fact that Canadian-born players such as Theoren Fluery, Tiger Williams, Wayne Gretzky, and countless others have also displayed plenty of dramatic celebrations in the past.
Dictating how NHL players should celebrate their goals isn’t so much about hockey than it is about fascism. Calling all European players “cowards,” accusing them of having no “heart,” and then comparing them with “goofy” dark-skinned soccer players is not about hockey either. It’s called racism. If Don Cherry is not held accountable, then what’s to stop him and other sports commentators from making racially charged statements about athletes outside of North America? What’s to stop the xenophobia and ethnocentrism from spilling out on the ice? Everyone remembers what happened to that other Don (Imus), right?
It’s funny because amidst all this controversy, whether its Cherry yapping on about the “Canadian” way of hockey or our generation’s hockey fans engaging in superficial debates about goal celebrations, a simple truth lies beneath it all: Alexander Ovechkin is one of the greatest players to have ever played the game.
Great athletes don’t always have to be North American.
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