Ron MacLean is a dirtbag!!!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Yeah reading his book was a real eye opener for me as well.
Which is so weird. I don't know where I've ever read an autobiography and have it give me so much more of a negative view of a person.

Huh. Intriguing. Maybe some relative excerpts?

[jonesy]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Ron and Don are a great example of a situation where neither are worth defending, both trash. The only difference is that Don is sitting where both of them should’ve been years ago.

I can't say they are 'trash' and I do think they had a run of being on point. Like most things in life, they had a 'best before' date and are on the wrong side of it.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

They were a good duo that worked in the 2000s and peaked some time in that decade.

But like most things in this society we hang onto what was once good for too long and fail to put them out to pasture while they're still in most people's good graces, and instead drag it out until they're canceled or old and tired and leave every one with the memory of a tarnished product.

[BigThief]

The whole stabbing in the back thing is hogwash. There's so much to dislike about Ron McLean that we don't need to pretend he turned on someone. Cherry was doing his xenophobic thing and Ron is under no obligation to have his back. They were colleagues not married

[Press Level]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

They were a good duo that worked in the 2000s and peaked some time in that decade.

But like most things in this society we hang onto what was once good for too long and fail to put them out to pasture while they're still in most people's good graces, and instead drag it out until they're canceled or old and tired and leave every one with the memory of a tarnished product.

Actually, Coach's Corner was a Canadian cultural phenomenon that was at its peak from the late 80's to the mid 90's (the years that the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em videos were released). It was well past its prime in the 2000's.
In its heyday, however, casual (and even some non-hockey) fans would tune into HNIC every Saturday just to watch Coach's Corner. It was "water cooler" television that everyone talked about Monday morning. There is no modern equivalent on the Canadian sports scene, and there hasn't been for decades.


For those of a certain generation, there is a healthy dose of nostalgia involved whenever Coach's Corner is discussed, which colours the conversation somewhat.

[Paulie Walnuts]

I never turned into Coaches Corner. I always found it stupid and boring. HNIC for me was the satellite hot stove during the 2nd intermission.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

I never turned into Coaches Corner. I always found it stupid and boring. HNIC for me was the satellite hot stove during the 2nd intermission.

Coaches Corner was just a platform for Cherry to complain about things that bothered him about hockey. It was almost always pure negativity.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Shazam

My impression is that he considers the best hockey players to be NA-white, and that the Euro-whites don't measure up.

But please, as a visible minority myself, do tell me how racism works.

I'm not going to pretend to know 100% what Don Cherry thinks but PERSONALLY I always took his uncomfortable ranting to be more about nationalism than racism.

I think he felt Canada was hockey, and all the jobs should belong to Canadians. Maybe he had some room for Americans as well as he lived in Rochester.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Locke

Huh. Intriguing. Maybe some relative excerpts?

Came across like he was more important and smarter than everyone else.

Talked down his nose to too many.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Came across like he was more important and smarter than everyone else.

Talked down his nose to too many.

Well thats not much of a surprise, he's always fancied himself the 'be-all, end-all, know-all of hockey.'

I wonder who else that sounds like? But Ron just needed him out of the way...

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988

What word is being diluted by your standards?

Are you implying that the word "racism" or "racist" should only be used in certain circumstances?

And please explain what "racial obsession" means.

It should be used in reference to race. It’s right there in the word.

Cherry is not racist towards northern Europeans. He’s never made prejudicial comments about people due to their northern European descent. He thinks hockey players raised and trained in Sweden and Russia aren’t as tough as those raised in English Canada. So he has bigotry against them, but it’s not racism.

Of course he may well be racist about other people.

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by Shazam

My impression is that he considers the best hockey players to be NA-white, and that the Euro-whites don't measure up.

But please, as a visible minority myself, do tell me how racism works.

Someone like Don Cherry's views on things like immigrants/immigration and hockey players is somewhat unique as it's sometimes confusing. His line of thinking is shaped by his old school mentality and inability to change in some ways. He does have views and feelings that are somewhat out of social norms of today but he's also a 91 year old who grew up in blue collar Canada.

I won't deny he has some views on race that probably aren't good but he's a lot more pro Canada and pro Canadian than anything. Players from all ethnic backgrounds that played the game the way he loves were his favorites and that includes visible minorities. Players like Iginla, Kadri, Subban, Ted Nolan, Jordan Nolan and more were beloved by him. If a player was a good Canadian boy from the prairies who was a visible minority, he loved you more than being a white guy from some EU capital.

The example earlier of Greeks and Italian's is a good one actually. A lot Greeks and Italian's who may have come to Canada did deal with a fair amount of comments, racism, remarks and discrimination in the old days. A lot of "Old Stock" Canadians who originally came to Canada from UK, Ireland and other Anglo-Saxxon countries plus France had a lot of strong opinions about other "foreigners" taking away jobs from Canadians. They were not happy with DP (Displaced persons) or economic migrants coming here for work and they was primarily white (olive toned) European immigrants who shared history, religions and a sense of commonality being from Europe with the White Canadian's. It bothered a lot of them a lot.

I kinda look at Cherry's comments and feelings on that matter in a similar light. He would defend players, soldiers, first responders and others to no end if they were Canadian and wore the flag proudly despite their background.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Someone like Don Cherry's views on things like immigrants/immigration and hockey players is somewhat unique as it's sometimes confusing.

as confusing as this sentence?

[Lewis_D]

Somewhat unrelated but I was in the bar that night where those photos surfaced of Ron standing on the bar air guitaring with his shirt off.

To be fair he had been in the establishment for awhile and had a crowd of drunk people around him the whole time and was a pretty good sport about it. But a party trick where you take your tarp off and play air guitar in public as a man in his 50's is certainly a bold & bizarre choice.

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by BigThief

Gare Joyce is more than familiar with Cherry and probably wasn't interested in asking him about anything. They have a history going back to the mid 90s

Well why be interested in attempting a balanced story, letting readers decide for themselves and trying to get a comment from the actual subject of the article when you can just go with an opinionated hit piece on an old man disguised as journalism!!

It’s kind of like how I don’t like you, but I still read your reply.

[Funkhouser]

I still have major nostalgia for the Rock 'em Sock 'em videos.

So while I don't really care for Cherry, and actively dislike MacLean - I do love those videos and wish Don Cherry had a role in editing the daily highlight packages.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Press Level

Actually, Coach's Corner was a Canadian cultural phenomenon that was at its peak from the late 80's to the mid 90's (the years that the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em videos were released). It was well past its prime in the 2000's.
In its heyday, however, casual (and even some non-hockey) fans would tune into HNIC every Saturday just to watch Coach's Corner. It was "water cooler" television that everyone talked about Monday morning. There is no modern equivalent on the Canadian sports scene, and there hasn't been for decades.


For those of a certain generation, there is a healthy dose of nostalgia involved whenever Coach's Corner is discussed, which colours the conversation somewhat.

Even knowing who Ron and Don are and were, there is strong nostalgia for Coach's Corner. The intro song with Blue barking at the end just screams growing up in the 90s. Every edition of Rock 'em Sock 'em was must see. The fervor the two of them - well, maybe just Cherry - would swirl up around the Olympics was awesome.

Both were well past their best before dates over a decade ago, but it's silly to think they weren't an iconic piece of Canadiana. I also think it's entirely in the realm of possibility that both of them end up in the HHOF, although I'm indifferent to that going in either direction.

[Finger Cookin]

Let's all be nice to dear old Don and be sure to not call him a racist when he's actually a xenophobe.

[BigThief]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

Well why be interested in attempting a balanced story, letting readers decide for themselves and trying to get a comment from the actual subject of the article when you can just go with an opinionated hit piece on an old man disguised as journalism!!

It’s kind of like how I don’t like you, but I still read your reply.

And it's like how you've been here for 20+ and I can't recall a single interesting post you've made.

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by BigThief

And it's like how you've been here for 20+ and I can't recall a single interesting post you've made.

Oh oh. Nerve poked. You okay there diddums?