Watching sports has been North America’s favorite pastime for a long time now, and the big four (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL) are the front and center leaders in viewership and fans. But behind the scenes of the games, there is also a lot of controversy, and with controversy comes illegal activity, including domestic abuse, weapon charges, and the always popular drug use.
Leagues like the NFL, the NBA, and the MLB are no strangers to having these type of cases landing at their doorstep, but the NHL has not always been known for having high-profile cases in the league. Or has it?
On October 20th 2014, Slava Voynov, a defenseman for the Los Angeles Kings, was arrested on domestic abuse, marking the second time in a one year period that an NHL’er was arrested for violent crimes.
Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov was arrested on October 30th 2013 for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting his girlfriend. Varlamov turned himself in almost immediately, and was subsequently dropped of all charges nearly two months after. The biggest surprise though, was that Varlamov was not suspended. He returned to playing two days after turning himself in. Voynov has since been suspended with pay, like that makes a difference, but is it really enough?
The NHL has also had it’s fair share of substance abuse cases, and in one confirmed case it resulted in the death of former Wild and Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard. There have been two other recent cases of active or non-active NHL’ers dying, but drugs have never been linked to them yet.
In the event of substance abuse cases or players getting positive tests, they are required to enter the NHL Substance Abuse and Behavioural Program, but for violent crimes, there is still no concrete program or suspension system in place in the NHL, like the NFL has recently done. After an NFL player is convicted of his crime, he is suspended for six games, and second offense carries a life time ban, but can be appealed after a full year. Roger Goodell implemented the new system after severely screwing up on the Ray Rice fiasco.
Rice was found on video dragging his unconscious fiancée out of an elevator, presumably from knocking her out cold. He was suspended for two games, but the biggest problem was that Goodell and the NFL sat on the video for some time, and did nothing.
After the video was made public, the Baltimore Ravens, Rice’s former team, cut him from the roster and pulled all his merchandise from their stores. They even had an exchange program set up, where fans could trade in a Rice jersey for another player’s jersey.
Since 2006, the NFL has been dealing with over 50 cases of domestic assault involving women, including one murder. Of those 50, only 14 were officially suspended by the NFL, although they were brief suspensions, ranging from one to three games. 15 of those cases resulted in the teams cutting those players from their respective teams, and they never played another NFL game. In those 50 cases, 43 ended with a legal solution, from acquittal, dropped charges, going into a rehabilitation program, or being given community service.
Since 2000, the NFL has had over 700 arrests involving their players. That’s 50 arrests a year, and it took Goodell nine years to start cracking down on this issue, and unfortunately the system hinges on the player being convicted. With football players mostly being big and strong guys, the women who are the victims usually don’t want to testify because of this fact. The fact that it took nine years to even install such a system is ridiculous, and while I don’t follow the NFL, it shows that Goodell has done a great job of protecting players, and allowing such disgusting crimes to occur with little to no consequences.
So now the question is this: is the NHL heading down the same road? With two domestic cases in under a year, and numerous others in between long periods of time, it seems as if this is the case. Maybe it is overreacting, but two situations in just under a year is a big deal. It’s a big jump from every two to three years, and I hate to use this, but with how much some players are being paid nowadays, they might start to feel invincible. Like they already have their bank account stacked to pay off the victim and lawyer, and just go about their day. But that is just going to damage the NHL. It will turn out ugly.
Gary Bettman should be taking notes to nip this in the bud and prevent the NHL from becoming tainted with this image. After Voynov’s arrest, the NHL, NHLPA, and board of Governors should be meeting to start getting a new system in place, and not one where a conviction decides whether or not that player should be handed a suspension. If a player’s name shows up on a domestic abuse arrest sheet then, like Voynov, they should be suspended, but without pay. Why should they be paid still after abusing someone?
If I’m arrested for domestic abuse, then I will probably lose my job, if a background check is mandatory, which most are. I will be viewed as a monster. That arrest will follow me for the rest of my life. So why should it be different for athletes? Aside from the skills, they are no different from us. Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.
I’m a Montreal Canadiens fan, and you can bet I would say the same if one of my beloved committed these senseless crimes. I’m sure many Kings fans are getting rid of Voynov merchandise, and personal fans of his are deleting any mention of him from their lives. In fact, at around 7:30 PM on October 20th 2014, Voynov has been dropped from Yahoo’s Fantasy Hockey League from almost 8,000 teams and counting.
It’s unfortunate that the NFL was put into a position where they had to set a standard for how such cases are dealt with within their league, but here’s hoping the NHL can follow their lead and do the right thing with Voynov, no to mention any potential incidents that could occur in the future.
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