Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 12, 2011
Former NHLers may sue Cherry
Former NHL players Stu Grimson, Chris Nilan and Jim Thomson are considering legal action over Don Cherry’s rant about fighting in hockey.
They issued a joint statement early Tuesday morning calling Cherry’s comments “damaging and inflammatory” and his attempts to qualify them “entirely ineffectual.”
Cherry singled out the three men as “pukes”, “hypocrites” and “turncoats” for speaking out against fighting in the sport during the first “Coaches Corner” segment of the season on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada last Thursday.
He accused the men of not wanting current players to make a living as enforcers as they did and criticized them for linking drug and alcohol abuse to that role.
On a subsequent show Saturday, Cherry expressed some remorse over using the word “pukes,” but that doesn’t satisfy the former players.
“We’re considering all alternatives including legal recourse, of course, given the nature of Don’s comments,” Grimson told The Canadian Press on Tuesday from Nashville.
“We are curious to know what remedies we have, if any, under the law probably in Canada simply because that’s where most of these events took place. ”
Grimson is a lawyer with the Tennessee firm Kay, Griffin, Enkema and Colbert, which specializes in corporate litigation and intellectual property. The law firm issued the statement. (Hamilton Spectator)