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sports Diabierna 29 OctOber 2021

‘Animalism’: Blackhawks scandal raises culture questions

(AP) — For three weeks in 2010, they did nothing. released, leading to the departures of President
That’s how long it took for the leadership of the of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman and Al Ma- But the report makes clear that 11 years ago, win-
Chicago Blackhawks to act on allegations that an cIsaac, another top executive. ning the Cup took priority over taking immediate
assistant coach sexually assaulted a player. action on the Aldrich allegations: Bowman recalled
“I think the overriding message was that we, as in that during the May 23 meeting, McDonough and
Three weeks. Three weeks that — more than a the organization, we’re here for you,” coach Jer- Quenneville talked about the challenge of reaching
decade later — rocked a once-proud franchise and emy Colliton said. “The family is behind us. The the Stanley Cup Final and “a desire to focus on the
raised more questions about the culture of sports. organization’s behind us, and we’re going to do ev- team and the playoffs.”
erything we can to move forward here.”
In the span of 107 pages, featuring interviews with Bowman’s description of what happened was rem-
139 witnesses, more than 100 gigabytes of elec- Rocky Wirtz said Tuesday that he and Danny were iniscent of scandals at Baylor, where assault claims
tronic records and 49 boxes of hard-copy records, first made aware of the accusations ahead of a May against football players were mishandled by school
a report by an outside law firm detailed how senior filing of a lawsuit by Beach alleging sexual assault officials, or at USA Gymnastics, still reeling from
leaders of the Blackhawks seemingly ignored the by then-assistant coach Brad Aldrich in 2010. The its mishandling of convicted serial sex abuser and
sexual assault accusations raised with the franchise team also is facing a second lawsuit by a former stu- team doctor Larry Nassar.
days before the team won its first Stanley Cup title dent whom Aldrich was convicted of assaulting in
since 1961. Michigan. Loggans said she hopes what happened with Chi-
cago leads to changes across sports.
The ramifications of the independent review, com- The Blackhawks said their lawyers contacted Susan
missioned by the team in response to two lawsuits, Loggans, an attorney who represents John Doe and “There has to be a change from a mentality of com-
stretched into several corners of the NHL, which the former student in the second lawsuit, on Tues- plete animalism, like let’s just completely ramp up
fined the Blackhawks $2 million for “the organiza- day about possible settlements. A call was set up for the masculinity factor of these players and what-
tion’s inadequate internal procedures and insuffi- early next week. ever it takes to win a game, we’ll do that,” she said.
cient and untimely response.” “There has to be some context, no different than
According to the report, the encounter between being concerned about concussions in football
Florida coach Joel Quenneville is slated to meet Beach, then a 20-year-old minor leaguer called up games.
with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on in case the Blackhawks needed help in the playoffs,
Thursday, and Winnipeg general manager Kevin and Aldrich, then 27, occurred on May 8 or 9 in “It’s not winning at all costs. These are human be-
Cheveldayoff is planning to talk to the commis- 2010. ings. They’re not gladiators whose lives are going
sioner on Monday. Both were with the Blackhawks to be sacrificed in the game.”
when the accusations by Kyle Beach were first re- Beach told investigators that Aldrich threatened
ported to team leadership. him with a souvenir baseball bat before forcibly
performing oral sex on him and masturbating on
According to the report, Donald Fehr, the leader of the player’s back, allegations that he also detailed
the NHL players’ association, was contacted twice in his lawsuit.
about allegations connected to the assistant coach,
including by a Beach confidant. Fehr told inves- Aldrich told investigators the encounter was con-
tigators he couldn’t recall either conversation, but sensual. Asked Wednesday about the law firm’s re-
did not deny that they had occurred. port, Aldrich responded: “I have nothing to say.”

“Kyle Beach has been through a horrific experience About two weeks later, on May 23, 2010, right after
and has shown true courage in telling his story,” Chicago advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, Bow-
Fehr said in a statement Wednesday night. “There man, MacIsaac, team president John McDonough,
is no doubt that the system failed to support him executive vice president Jay Blunk and assistant
in his time of need, and we are part of that system. general manager Cheveldayoff met with Quenn-
eville and mental skills coach Jim Gary to discuss
“In his media interview, Mr. Beach stated that sev- the allegations.
eral months after the incident he told someone at
the NHLPA the details of what happened to him. Former federal prosecutor Reid Schar, who led
He is referring to one of the program doctors with the investigation, said accounts of the meeting
the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program. “vary significantly.” But there was no evidence that
While this program is confidential between players anything was done about the accusations before
and the doctors, the grave nature of this incident McDonough contacted the team’s director of hu-
should have resulted in further action on our part. man resources on June 14 — a delay that violated
The fact that it did not was a serious failure. I am the team’s sexual harassment policy, according to
truly sorry, and I am committed to making changes Schar.
to ensure it does not happen again.”
During those three weeks, Aldrich continued to
Beach, a 2008 first-round draft pick playing profes- work for and travel with the team. Schar said Al-
sionally in Germany, told TSN on Wednesday he drich also “made an unwanted sexual advance” to-
felt “alone and dark” in the days following the al- ward a 22-year-old Blackhawks intern.
leged assault. He said he is only now beginning the
healing process. Beach told TSN seeing Aldrich around the team
made him feel sick.
Beach, 31, had been referred to as John Doe in
his lawsuit against the team and the Blackhawks’ “I reported this and I was made aware that it made
report. The AP does not typically identify people it all the way up the chain of command by (Jim
who say they are victims of sexual assault unless Gary) and nothing happened,” Beach said. “It was
they come forward publicly. like his life was the same as the day before. Same
every day.
In a statement attributed to the team, the Black-
hawks commended Beach for his courage in com- “And then when they won, to see him paraded
ing forward, and reiterated the organization’s around lifting the Cup, at the parade, at the team
“deepest apologies” for what he has gone through pictures, at celebrations, it made me feel like noth-
and its failure to promptly respond in 2010. ing.”
Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz, the son of team McDonough, Blunk and Gary are no longer em-
chairman Rocky Wirtz, met with current play- ployed in the NHL. Now Bowman and MacIsaac
ers Wednesday, a day after the graphic report was are out as well.