Name: Why white NHLers are calling out racism now: ‘Hit me so deep that I was angry’
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Why white NHLers are calling out racism now: ‘Hit me so deep that I was angry’

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Jun 3, 2020There was a thought inside ’s mind when it came to what was happening in the world.He’s white. He’s from Canada. He’s a professional hockey player. This might not be his business.“I started looking more into everything and started researching and following along and had an accountability moment that this was my business,” the center explained. “This is something I am feeling about the world right now. I can’t grasp how much pain people are in. Seeing it, it was an eye-opener to me.”Nine days have passed since George Floyd, an African American man, died after being arrested by police in Minneapolis. Numerous videos showed Floyd being arrested by police only to then have Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneel on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds while he was pinned to the concrete. Millions of people around the planet have watched footage of Floyd’s death. Those events have since led to mass protests and rioting throughout the United States beyond Minneapolis in metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, while expanding to smaller locales such as Bangor, Maine; Des Moines, Iowa; and Fargo, North Dakota.Floyd’s death has also sparked what has now become an international discussion regarding race and racism. Among those in the discussion are white players who have not been known for talking about those particular issues. Seguin is one of several players who have used social media to voice their concerns. It is a growing list of those who have chosen to speak out that includes , , , , and .Having players speak out about race and racism has led to questions about whether this could potentially become the launching point for predominantly white landscapes like the NHL and hockey as a whole to start addressing an issue that has not been fully explored in a public setting.Another question has risen from the statements made by players like , , and Seguin:Why now, considering there have been previous incidents like Floyd’s in the recent past?“It’s a good question. I think it’s an ongoing question,” said Rielly, a defenseman for the . “For me, it was just a matter of not being silent. That is what I believe is right and therefore I wanted to voice my opinion. You could leave it at that for sure. But it’s just a matter of having a moral compass and what you believe to be true and right, and that’s a tough question to answer.”Boyle, Carrick, Rielly and Seguin were each asked if they watched the Floyd video. Boyle, Rielly and Seguin said they did. Carrick said he has watched parts of the video but could not bring himself to view the rest of the footage after seeing what happened to Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African American man who was fatally shot in Glynn County, Georgia, in late February only to have the circumstances of his death become international news months later. Arbery was jogging when Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis, followed him in a pickup truck because they said later they believed he was a suspect in a string of burglaries. The McMichaels along with a third person, William Bryan, were all charged with felony murder in the wake of the incident.Carrick, a defenseman with the New Jersey Devils, said he first saw the Arbery video when it was tweeted by Los Angeles Lakers superstar forward LeBron James.“He’s been so big about how black people in this country are hunted,” Carrick said. “I can’t remember if he was commenting on someone else’s tweet. I looked at it and that’s what it looked like to me. It was hostile and predatory as a human-on-human crime as I’ve witnessed. I am not a news-watcher by nature. I am not normally very in tune with worldwide events. This is something I have tried to open my eyes to as a way to be a more conscious citizen.”Explaining what he saw with the Arbery video and describing why he could not watch the Floyd video caused Carrick to pause for a few seconds with his voice becoming shaky.“There are no words to summarize the horrific nature and the certain eeriness after you watch a video like that,” Carrick said. “It is breathtaking. I consider myself someone who is organized in my thoughts and able to come up with something I am happy with in terms of communication and it comes across clear. But there is this other realm of emotion that comes over you and it’s witnessing evil. It’s witnessing mankind at its most dangerous and at its worst.”All four NHL players were asked to describe their life experiences with diversity. Each of them, at some point during their recollections, began asking questions about how they did notice certain nuances that have become clearer in the coming days.Boyle grew up in Hingham, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb. The center said he did not have a black classmate between fourth and eighth grades, going back from the time he first started school all the way through his four years at Boston College. Boyle had black classmates and teammates in high school but added, “There was not many of them.” He went to St. Sebastian’s School, a prep school in Needham, Massachusetts. Boyle said attending St. Sebastian’s allowed him to interact with classmates from different socioeconomic backgrounds, ranging from “guys living on brownstones on Beacon Street with more money than you could count” to “kids who had to sacrifice.”Playing hockey and staying out of trouble was his primary focus. He went to Boston College where he admitted to being in a bubble with his teammates. Boyle had two black teammates during his time at Chestnut Hill. One of them was Brett Petersen, who is both an agent and vice president for the Acme World Sports firm that represents goaltender . Boyle described Petersen as “one of the best teammates I have ever played with” when they were at BC together.The second teammate Boyle talked about was Joseph Ehiorobo. Boyle remembered Ehiorobo from when they played prep school hockey against each other. Ehiorobo was a walk-on at BC who did not ever play in a game for the Eagles, according to his official bio page on the school’s website. Boyle said Ehiorobo was “a tremendous teammate” who was a hard worker that “did not have a whole lot to say.”“As I say this to you now, looking back, I wonder if he was comfortable in that environment,” Boyle said.What made Floyd’s death different for Boyle compared to similar situations such as Sandra Bland, , Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin is that Floyd’s situation was more visible in terms of what came across his social media feed. Boyle said there have been people he has come to know and develop friendships with such as WWE wrestler Titus O’Neil and former teammate J.T. Brown, who were active in bringing attention to Floyd’s death.Still, Boyle said he felt “embarrassed that I had not paid more attention” to what happened in the past.He reached out to Brown to check in on his old teammate and they began having a conversation that provided Boyle with a new perspective.“I told him, ‘I’m sorry. I cannot believe I did not take this more seriously sooner,’” Boyle said. “He’s a gracious man and an understanding person. I know he has the purest of hearts. He’s a guy I really respect and I went to him for guidance.”Carrick said he grew up in Orland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, that he described as mostly white. He saw more diversity in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when he played for the U.S. National Team Development Program. There is also the diversity he experienced when he played for the Maple Leafs and what he experienced in dressing rooms playing with teammates over the years like P.K. Subban, and .“In terms of my relationship with (diversity), I think the sphere and the hockey bubble I live in is relatively limited,” he said.Rielly, who is back in Vancouver with his family, said growing up in British Columbia’s largest city and playing in Toronto has exposed him to diversity ever since he was a child. Discussing diversity and why it is important is a conversation Rielly said his parents have had with him going back to when he was a young boy. In fact, he shared how he was having dinner with his parents earlier in the week when they talked about race and racism. He said the hope is people express their feelings and address what they believe to be right and how they can help bring awareness to a situation they feel passionate about.“My immediate reaction is that it is a movement that needs support, deserves support and I stand by that,” Rielly said. “That is my reaction when I see this across a nation or a continent, if you will. I stand by it.”Seeing what happened to Floyd prompted Seguin to start doing research. He watched the video where Christian Cooper, a black man who was bird watching in New York’s Central Park, had a dispute with Amy Cooper, a white woman of no relation, about her unleashed dog and how it violated the park’s rules. It led to Amy Cooper’s calling police and telling them “there’s an African American man threatening my life” with the recorded exchange going viral on social media platforms.Knowing what happened to Floyd is the latest in the string of events is something that Seguin said, “hit me so deep that I was angry.” He talked about how hockey culture is often associated with getting better and that is something he wants to do when it comes to understanding race and racism along with the fact he wants to show more support.“Once the riots and protests started, I was saying, ‘I don’t see why we have to burn down our cities,’” Seguin said. “Understanding and researching that protests have gone on since the ’60s and people are at the point they don’t know what else to do. Maybe that is the start of how you change something. It’s tough to say you support it but I also understand where they are coming from.”Seguin said one of the reasons hockey has potentially not addressed race and racism goes back to the structure of a sport that is about falling in line and not being too outspoken. He admitted there are times when players can be robots with the media. He said there are times when he will go into interviews and know what he wants to say by talking about what it means to “get pucks in deep” along with the importance of quick chances and all the other characteristics associated with playing Stars hockey.“I think seeing more people, white athletes, speak up, it’s great because everything tells you not to because it is how we are raised and how our sport is,” Seguin said. “You’re going to feel vulnerable and it starts with that accountability and I have to look in the mirror first. I am part of the stigma. I feel like I have treated everyone well. I have lots of black friends that I grew up with but have there been mistakes that I have made?“This is all new and fresh, and for right now, it’s research and understanding and seeing that part of it and supporting the movement.”Looking back, Seguin even questioned how he did not notice certain things. He has had black teammates like with the Stars. He works out in the summers with brothers Anthony and , along with and .“I’ve had black friends and never thought twice about it. I’ve felt ashamed I have never asked them,” Seguin said. “Or ask the question of how much tougher their journeys may have been, and that is why I felt the need to speak up.”Players are now speaking out. So are NHL teams that are continuing to issue statements.But what is the next step? What is the NHL, its teams and its players going to do beyond just speaking out on social?“First thing you have to understand is people are more concerned with looking like a good person than being a good person,” Seguin said. “Yeah, I said something good yesterday, but it’s about being a good person and taking those next steps. It’s talking with our team and people who work with our team about the next step. Whether it is having special nights or doing more in the community. I have been a part of St. Philip’s School, which has underprivileged black children. We play ball hockey. What we have done has been good, but it’s not enough.“It’s reaching out and understanding. I get the gist, but I want to know more of the background of this world and the society that black people have to live with but are not comfortable being in. Everyone should be comfortable and not be scared to wear a tank top, have a du-rag on and have tattoos. I want to figure what the next step is going to be.”Boyle said he hopes what Americans and others are seeing in response to Floyd’s death leads to a league-wide discussion when it comes to addressing race and racism.The approach Boyle used was straightforward. That the past is the past and humanity should not forget what was done. That society should learn from those mistakes and take those lessons to move forward in the hopes those errors are not repeated “over and over again.”“It was something Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said and the way he explained racism in America is that it was like dust in the air,” Boyle said. “You can be choking on it and not even see it. It’s only when the light comes in is when you see it. People can change and if they cannot, you have to accept that these are not responsible behaviors. You have to wake up every day (deciding) that you, yourself, has to be the one to treat people the way you would like to be treated.”(Top photo of Seguin: David Kirouac / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Jun 3, 2020There was a thought inside ’s mind when it came to what was happening in the world.He’s white. He’s from Canada. He’s a professional hockey player. This might not be his business.“I started looking more into everything and started researching and following along and had an accountability moment that this was my business,” the center explained. “This is something I am feeling about the world right now. I can’t grasp how much pain people are in. Seeing it, it was an eye-opener to me.”Nine days have passed since George Floyd, an African American man, died after being arrested by...

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Ryan S. Clark

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Why white NHLers are calling out racism now: ‘Hit me so deep that I was angry’

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