Tonight on "Hockey Night in Canada," the infamous Don Cherry eulogized Rob Ford — a clown, misogynist, drug addict and buffoon. As if Ford were a serious person who deserved respect and recognition. This drives us cats crazy.
Not just because Don Cherry is pretty much of a caricature himself — but because we are sick and tired of right wingers in the sports world holding up people as paragons of perfection when they are, in reality, sorely, sorely lacking. Several folks come to mind. Probably the first is Ty Cobb, who was not only a dirty player for the Tigers and the Phillies but an unreconstructed racist.
Even so, Cobb, who later came to accept blacks and whites playing together, pales in comparison to the San Diego Padres players of the 1980s — Eric Show and Dave Dravecky — who were open members of the John Birch Society during their careers.
Which is disgusting. Let us not allow the traditions of professional sports, whether hockey or baseball, to obscure the vile beliefs that some of its most stellar athletes — or fans — profess.
Rob Ford, an icon to hockey legend Don Cherry, was a right-wing demagogue whose destructive addictions killed him. Eric Show and Dave Dravecky, as John Birchers, believed that the Holocaust never happened, that blacks were genetically inferior to whites, and that women should stay barefoot and pregnant. Show died of a drug overdose in 1994. Dravecky has yet to repent. Cherry — well, Cherry, like Donald Trump, will never admit he's been wrong.
We cats have no problem with praising people for personal courage, combativeness or competitiveness. But for us, ignorance, bigotry and cowardice trump all. And yes, that's a pun. We cats HISS.
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