I tried putting myself in her shoes.
I'm a grown ass man and I'm not small. I'm bigger than Auston Mathews. If a group of young men, apparently drunk, approached my car late night and tried opening it, I would be scared and I would immediately call the cops. Not sure what the other guys look like physically, but Auston Mathews is a pro athlete and probably looks strong and intimidating at night.
Thankfully she was not physically assaulted, but her feelings about the incident are valid, and are not up for debate. Fear, anger, sadness, regret, etc all valid.
The cops obviously thought the incident was serious enough to lay a charge. So any talk of boys will be boys is hogwash and you people saying so should be ashamed of yourselves. They crossed every line.
What Mathews should have done (or his advisers) is turn this ugly negative into a positive. Immediately own the action. Use his fame to offer a very sincere and public apology, then use his massive wealth to maybe offer to pay for something for the victim i.e.: classes if she's a student, childcare if she's a mom, etc. Then make a sizable donation to a Scottsdale area charity that has something to do with violence against women, or women's rights groups. The hockey world would have applauded his maturity, instead now he's vilified and lost the captaincy. In my opinion, he has no one to blame but himself.
|