LF Advice: Rec. Hockey Incident

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by nickerjones

agreed... I have a guy who used to be a friend before moving to another team just to " win a championship cause we sucked" say to me "If you were a better driver your 1st wife would still be alive" during a skirmish on the ice. ( my first wife died in a car wreck and I was with her but not driving.) I just let it go since he said it while 1 ref had me by the jersey and the other ref was in between me and him. It was disrespectful, cowardly, and ridiculous but what can you do. He eventually apologized but everyone on my team looks for him with his head down now , even though its a non contact league. Its a penalty well worth it every time in our books.

P.S our team beast his team out of the playoffs this season so he didnt win that Oklahoma City mens league championship he coveted so bad. Best part of the season for me!

That guy sounds like a real piece of #####. I just don't get how guys can think that something that inappropriate off the ice is acceptable simply because it is said during a hockey game.

[yads]

Love the arm chair analysis about what OP should have done. Tough to maintain composure after someone just said something racist to you after a heated exchange of words. I think OP acted reasonably given the situation.

[Northendzone]

i can also recall one other situation where one guy remarked to anotehr how his mom was a dead #ay - turns out the guys mom had recently passed away........I guess the best rule is when insulting someone on the ice is to keep it about him - or just hurl a bunch of descriptions about the fact he is overweight and a fat @#$%...

Or alternatively, just don't talk.

[Nammer403]

What league is this?
from my experience i get called a bunch of nasty stuff with racial comments involved, we just leave it on the ice and walk away.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Nammer403

What league is this?
from my experience i get called a bunch of nasty stuff with racial comments involved, we just leave it on the ice and walk away.

Judging by your user name and the treatment my Asian teammates have received in the past, you've probably got a bit of experience in this field.

Would you not be absolutely choked though if someone made a racial remark to you, you kept it to respectful cursing, and YOU ended up with the suspension?

[ThisYear]

Hope for some karma?!

[Superfraggle]

I think you need to separate the two incidents here:

Incident #1: racial slur from the player. Worth a complaint

Incident #2: ejection for abuse of the timekeeper. Hard to judge whether the timekeeper was just overreacting without having witnessed it, but will be very tough to fight. The league needs to protect their refs & timekeepers, because they are tougher to come by than players.

Why weren't you able to just look across the penalty box and get the guy's number? The scoresheet will supply the name. The number is all you need to specify which guy to the league.

[Nammer403]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Judging by your user name and the treatment my Asian teammates have received in the past, you've probably got a bit of experience in this field.

Would you not be absolutely choked though if someone made a racial remark to you, you kept it to respectful cursing, and YOU ended up with the suspension?

Yea Id be choked, but I'd just submit a complain, its your words against the scorekeepers and refs though but its always worth a try

[blankall]

Probably nothing much you can do since the officials are not on your side. I'd write the administration a very very politely worded letter explaining the situation and how you think the officials were mistaken. Even if they don't correct the situation it will be good for your reputation. Whether or not you actually made the slur, people are going to think you did.

[BergyBoy]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Judging by your user name and the treatment my Asian teammates have received in the past, you've probably got a bit of experience in this field.

Would you not be absolutely choked though if someone made a racial remark to you, you kept it to respectful cursing, and YOU ended up with the suspension?

You're a tall a**hole on the ice >.<

[StoneCole]

OP Checking back (finally, after two days). Thanks all for the discussion. Special thanks to:

hulkrogan (aka roomate/landlord) for sticking up for me. Although I think he secretly has some alterior motives like getting me to stop stealing his gfs parking spot...

BergyBoy (aka captain/star-winger from my summer team) for suggesting I am better suited for soccer

fotze (aka fotze) for yet another thoughtful and insightful contribution. I've got an inside source that tells me he has pulled some strings to get his tyke-aged kid on the same team as Jarome Iginla's tyke-aged kid. Don't ask me how he does it...

[StoneCole]

I think a lot of posters read only my initial point #1 about what the opposing player said.

What seems to have been lost on a lot of you was my biggest concern: the suggestion of the timekeeper that I had initiated/made some prejudiced remarks (completely completely untrue).

[StoneCole]

Originally Posted by robocop

I think you swearing back pretty much screwed it up for you. If you had been passive the whole time it would have been fine, but just let it go is my advice, no one is going to take your side when you were equally aggressive

I feel the need to point out that I never swore at the scorekeeper UNTIL he threw out his false allegation. At that point I will admit becoming quite defensive using some 'emphasis' words.

[StoneCole]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

Aren't you a honkey?

I am a white male.

I replied to this as a precursor to my next comment below:

[StoneCole]

Originally Posted by Ducay

I understand that he identified you by your race, but how is that actually racist? If he used some form of derogatory term or a racist connotation then maybe, but if he just calls you your race, then I don't really get the racism. (Not that calling people by their races is totally cool, but it certainly impacts the gravity of his words)

For example (racist example warning)

Cool: "dang you, you arab"
Uncool:

Spoiler!

"dang you, you terrorist"

Really depends on what he said. Either way I'd appeal to get back in for the 2 games. Oh, and leave the timekeepers alone, its the ref's job to deal with you.

I agree. But I guarentee if I was the one who said "shut the ###### up you [race] piece of s**t" in certain situations it could mean huge issues for me.

As an extreme example: bird poop is usually a mix of white/black in colour. What if I made the argument that the opposing player was suggesting I was bird feces? It's a crazy extreme stretch but I wouldn't be surprised if there are past instances where people have landed in big trouble for even more extreme stretches.

[StoneCole]

Originally Posted by Howie_16

How exactly, besides looking to cash in, might a lawyer help make this situation any better for you?

I want to clarify this. I had no intentions of cashing in. My reasoning for inquiring for the opinion of a lawyer was not to "cash in". Rather this situation got me thinking: what if someone ever falsely accused me of (a much more serious form of) racist or hate-filled action? I would probably want to be pro-active in making darn sure that people knew the allegation was complete BS.

[StoneCole]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

what you probably should have done was talk to the ref.... and i mean TALK... beaking and going off on the ref never ever helps... in our league it gets you tossed. if that would have been unsatisfactory then you (or in my league it would be the team captain) would talk to the league coordinator

In general I agree. Sometimes this is an option.

I play a lot of rec. hockey (2-3 times a week year-round). I have encountered refs who won't entertain any sort of discsussion, even with a captain/alternate captain, regarding any event (even including a minor penalty or an offside not involving said captain/alternate captain).

Some refs are completely unreasonable, and I'm not sure I blame them because there are some players out there that are complete DBs. The majority of players fall in the "never cause any problems" category, then there is the group that "occasionaly can get a little edgy" (and I think you'd all say I'm a liar now if I didn't put myself in this category), and then there is "NHL rec-hockey guy"

[Keselke]

You should probably hire Johnny Cochran

[StoneCole]

To all the guys suggesting I shouldn't have bugged the timekeeper at all, of course there is some additional info. I can provide:

1. The timekeeper was obviously a friend of the opposing team. My team was up 3-0, and eliminating me from the game would have a not-insignificant impact on the game.

2. Following my ejection, I returned to the viewing area to watch the game. Upon seeing me, the timekeeper gestured - quite confrontationally (raising both his arms in the air) as if to say "you get any closer and I will knock you out"

I think it's somewhat worth noting that in addition to obviously being a friend of the opposing team the timekeeper was quite young-approximately 20 years old.

[StoneCole]

Originally Posted by Keselke

You should probably hire Johnny Cochran

why would a wookie, an 8 foot tall wookie, want to live on Endor with a bunch of 3 foot tall e-wocks? THAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!