Quote:
Originally Posted by rogermexico
The thing with Bowman is more complex than "he's done a bad thing — but other people have done bad things too, why single him out." The bad thing that Bowman has done makes him uniquely unsuited to do this job. He was part of the leadership of an organization and found out that one of the organization's employees sexually assaulted another. He then helped lead the cover up of that sexual assault.
Can be contrite about this and seek to do better? Of course, and he should. Working with Sheldon Kennedy is a great step on that. I hope he continues to put in the work to raise awareness and change the culture that he was part of.
But that doesn't mean that he should have ever been put back into the role that he failed so spectacularly at. He shouldn't have even been considered. Jumping to scoop him up ... Yikes.
It's like Katz read Moneyball and thought "Gee, other organizations' desire to not be associated with sexual assault is a real market inefficiency, I wonder how I can exploit that..."
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Not only could he be unsuited to do the job, Edmonton's also a city especially unsuited for someone like him to work in. 95% of Edmonton's identity as a city is tied up in the Oilers hockey team. Those types of cities / towns are where the media, civic leaders all get along to get along in their interactions with the sports team as the team's performance is overly intertwined in an unhealthy way with civic pride. It explains the sycophant media, fans and how somehow Katz's $5MM court battle with a homeless org in Edmonton goes under the radar without significant local bad press. Team is never held accountable for greasy behaviors.
This isn't an environment where if presented with an ethical challenge where doing the right thing could impact on-ice performance would be an easier thing to do than in Chicago. But as established with signing Evander Kane, Corey Perry, and trying out Jake Virtanin, the Oilers aren't ever concerned with doing the right thing if it will give them the slightest edge in their cup dreams. What's next? Inviting Carter Hart to training camp?
E=NG