It’s tough to like the NHL right now - and it should be tough
Huge trigger warning: rape, sexual assault, violence against women
I’m struggling here. Really struggling. I haven’t written anything about the NHL’s handling of Patrick Kane (or Slava Voynov, or Semyon Varlamov, or Drew Doughty, or...). Mostly because it’s not my job to write anything. I’ve been using the Silver Seven Twitter account to highlight work primarily by women, especially victims of sexual assault. The problem with all media coverage of the Kane case is that it’s by white men. It’s like a horrific version of the Republican debates talking about birth control - a bunch of white men discussing the rights a woman has to her own body for a national audience. So for some better reads on the topic, see this one by Jen LC, and also this one by Jen LC, this one by an anonymous assault survivor on Anaheim Calling, this one by Emily W on Pension Plan Puppets, this one by Stanley Cup of Chowder, this one from Jewels from the Crown, and this one from former Silver Seven manager Andrew. And remember this list in non-exhaustive. There are many, many more worth reading that can be found with a simple Google search.
For those who don’t know what’s going on, NHL superstar Patrick Kane was accused of rape over the summer. There was some discussion as to whether or not he’d be allowed to show up at training camp. Not only was he present, he did a press conference in which he answered exactly 0 questions about the on-going investigation. The case has been further complicated by a variety of aspects, which are very easy to find via Google.
There are so many problems here. First of all, I don’t understand why Kane is even present at camp. The commissioner has the power to suspend him with pay until the investigation concludes. That power was used last year against Slava Voynov while he was accused of domestic assault. Even that one wasn’t handled well, but I took it as a sign that the NHL was committing to a new, victim-focused path. How wrong I was. At one point, I though Kane was getting preferential treatment because he’s a superstar and he isn’t Russian. But now, I don’t even think that’s true. I think Voynov was suspended because of how soon after the whole Ray Rice debacle his incident occurred. I can’t help but think that if Voynov’s assault happened later this summer, after Kane’s alleged rape, neither would be suspended. Eric Macramalla, an oft-used sports law expert, argued that Kane should have been at camp while Voynov was suspended, and his argument basically boiled down to “there was a reporter at the Voynov incident that saw blood”. If the absence of TMZ starts to be used as a legal defence, we’re not in a good place.
I understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Kane gets that benefit, legally. However, he is accused of a heinous crime. The Blackhawks are willing to expose all of their female staff to a potential sex criminal for the sake of having a better hockey team. And considering that 1/6 American women have been the victims of a rape or an attempted rape, that’s a lot of victims exposed to a potential rapist. But hey, Kane scores a lot of goals, so the team has decided it’s worth it.
Additionally, a lot of people who give Kane the “innocent until proven guilty” benefit don’t extend the same statement to the victim. I’m advocating for Kane to be suspended with pay until things have come to a conclusion. Letting him live his life normally is akin to calling the woman a liar. It means that she’s already been declared guilty of slander in the eyes of the team.
The likelihood that Kane is innocent here is extremely low. It’s estimated that only 32% of rapes even get reported to the police. The FBI reports that about 2% of rape accusations are false, which is on par for other crimes. So the odds are a lot higher that Kane has sexually assaulted someone before who did not report it than that his current accuser is lying. But people are very ready to defend Kane’s innocence in the face of statistics, hopefully because they like him as a hockey player and want to think the best of him, possibly because they are misinformed about rape, and some disgustingly because they don’t see rape as an issue.
But the issues don’t end there. The mainstream media has been awful about this. ESPN and TSN analyst Pierre LeBrun said the NHL isn’t used to arrests like other sports leagues. This perpetuates the “good guy hockey player” myth. I call it a myth, because a lot of players have been involved in assault accusations, as this non-exhaustive spreadsheet shows. (If you’re one of those people who looks through it and ignores the list because it includes players making light of rape on Twitter, don’t. Realize the gravity of the other accusations, rather than looking for a reason to dismiss the whole list.) Statements like this reduce the statements of victims to attempts to tarnish the league. As if hockey is more important than a person. One can also follow the lead of Bob McKenzie, which it to never talk about anything that could be controversial. This essentially helps the NHL to try to sweep issues under the rug. One could also followed the lead of Elliotte Friedman, answering when he’s called out on not addressing the Kane issues, but then not really saying anything other than his press conference was dumb. So I’m grateful that the blogging community is speaking up, but disappointed it’s only the blogging community.
Today Sens prospect Mikael Wikstrand was suspended by the team for going back to Sweden. People were livid on Twitter, calling him a mama’s boy that needs to grow up and get used to living in Ottawa. I don’t see how we’ve entered a culture where being accused of wanting to go home is vilified but being accused of rape is defended and argued away.
It bothers me that probably the only people who bother to read this are people who already agree with my opinion. The people who blame the victim are the people who know they’re right and won’t bother to listen to anything else. The only reason I bothered writing this is so that when someone asks what I think, I can direct them to this, rather than going on a poorly thought-out rant in multiple snippets of 140 characters.
But overall, I’m very bothered by the NHL. It’s very clear the NHL doesn’t care about women or victims if it involves alienating their best players. It’s all very calculated. A player of Kane’s skill brings in a lot of money, and the league won’t risk that cash flow to stand up for women’s rights. I can’t really walk away from the league, I’ve just taken over management at a blog. But this will taint my whole season. When (not if) Ottawa plays against Kane, I doubt I’ll be able to watch. I can’t even imagine what victims of assault are feeling. I would support the decision of anyone who decides to walk away from the NHL completely after this. Sometimes sports is a coping mechanism to help with tough circumstances. But when sports create tough circumstances, I don’t know what to do or say.
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