Freddie P's Blog

September 28, 2011 @ 07:01

It's been quite the week for Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers. Last Thursday night he was the victim in the banana tossing incident, and then last night he's accused of calling Sean Avery a "faggot" during an on-ice skirmish.

Needless to say this has prompted quite the reaction, including a demand from the The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for an apology.

Others can't believe that after the insult that Simmonds suffered last Thursday, he could turn around and say such a thing to somebody else.

On the surface, there's no dispute. Throwing a banana at a black man is wrong and so is calling somebody a "faggot." But beyond that is one worse than the other and can you really compare them?

Yes to the first question and no to the second - and I base it on two facts. Wayne Simmonds is black and Sean Avery isn't gay.

There's no question that Simmonds shouldn't have said what he said, but it was in the heat of battle and obviously wasn't something meant as a direct hit so to speak.

Guess what; a lot of guys call each other "faggots." It's stupid and childish and insensitive but it's a cheap way to insult a guy's manhood. I'm convinced that 99 percent of the time, the same guy who would call another player a "faggot" would never dream using the "N word", or in Simmond's case "honky or whitey."

That doesn't make it OK but during a hockey game and with trash talk coming hot and heavy, for some reason calling a straight guy a "faggot" doesn't seem to carry the same weight as throwing a banana at a black man.

Do you agree?

Simmonds could have saved himself a lot of grief by choosing his words more carefully and calling Avery something that most definitely could not be argued.

A weasel.