Tag: Mike Milbury

Mike Milbury is out, but NBC adding Mike Babcock show they haven’t learned anything

NBC is giving a coach known for verbally abusing players a national platform.

NBC Sports announced on Monday that long time NHL broadcaster Mike Milbury, who has been with the network for 14 years, would not be coming back for the 2021 season.

The move is hardly a surprise considering the multiple times Milbury landed in hot water for comments that were racist, sexist and outright insulting. For a brief primer, there was the time Milbury called P.K. Subban a “clown”, the time he called a convicted domestic abuser a “special player” and when he said women were nothing but a “distraction” to male players. That hardly begins to scratch the surface of Milbury’s comments, and suffice to say the list goes on and on.

In ditching Milbury, NBC had an opportunity to bring a new, talented and diverse view point into the fold. One that might push back against the narrative of old school hockey by old school hockey guys. Unfortunately, they decided to give an in-studio platform to Mike Babcock, a legendary NHL coach also known for being verbally abusive to players.

In 2019, former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios recalled an incident in which Babcock verbally assaulted Johan Franzen on the bench during a game.

“Some of the things said on the bench, I don’t know what he said to him behind closed doors one-on-one, but he blatantly verbally assaulted him during the game on the bench,” Chelios said on a podcast, as reported by the CBC.

Per the CBC, Franzen later confirmed the incident.

“I get the shivers when I think about it. That incident occurred against Nashville in the playoffs. It was coarse, nasty and shocking. But that was just one out of a hundred things he did. The tip of the iceberg,” Franzen said.

In addition to allegations of his abusive style as Red Wings head coach, Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan also addressed allegations of mental abuse against Babcock, saying the tactics were not “appropriate or acceptable.”

In one widely reported incident, Babcock had then rookie Mitch Marner rank his teammates by how much effort they put forward on the ice. Babcock later threw Marner under the bus and shared that list with the team.

In the context of these allegations, which haven’t been denied or really even disputed, NBC isn’t showing any growth or even accountability. By giving Babcock a national hockey platform, they’re condoning his abusive style, and showing that there are little to no consequences for the mental anguish he inflicted on players. Babcock’s coaching “style” is one of the many toxic bedrocks of a hockey culture that desperately needs to change. NBC letting him have a nightly megaphone to spew those opinions is the last thing the sport needs.

Importantly, Babcock hasn’t done any public growth or reflection on they way he has treated players. Despite being out of a head coaching job this season, his status in the NHL likely means he’ll escape any significant consequences for his actions. The circle then, just goes round and round.

Removing Milbury could have been a sign of real growth for NBC and for the sport. Instead, it’s pretty clear hockey is determined to stay stuck in its old fashioned, toxic ways.

The NHL, NBC and hockey fans would be better off without Mike Milbury on air

The simple truth is that Milbury doesn’t see women as equal to men.

About a week ago, NBC NHL analyst Mike Milbury went on social media and tweeted out a blurry photo of Toronto’s CN Tower that lead to some pretty severe social media roasting.

Not only did Milbury misidentify the tower as Seattle’s Space Needle, but he complained about the length of the 5OT game between the Tampa Bay Lighting and the Columbus Blue Jackets, saying they should have sped up the end with 3-on-3.

That tweet, which has since been deleted,  encapsulated what Milbury has been like during the Stanley Cup Playoffs: Out of touch, ill prepared, and an absolute embarrassment.

On Thursday night, Milbury once again showed why the NBC broadcast would be better off without him, by making an off-hand, misogynistic remark.

“Not even any women here to disrupt…your concentration,” Milbury said of the upside of the NHL bubble.

However Milbury meant it, the remark is thoughtless, reductive and crude. It does a disservice not only to all hockey fans (not just women) but to the players as well.  With his words, Milbury implied that women naturally don’t belong within the hockey world, that their purpose, when they are there, is to divert attention, either sexually or with emotional needs, away from the more important things happening on the ice.  The statement is laughably outdated yet it’s clear that Milbury absolutely believes it.

With his flippancy, Milbury also showed how little he thinks of the players. As much as hockey culture needs to change, we’ve hopefully evolved to the point where players view the women in their lives not just as distractions, but vital support systems that contribute to their overall growth and well being.

While we’re at, Milbury’s also operating under the assumption that everyone within the hockey bubble is perfectly heterosexual, because why would there be space for other kinds of “distractions” in such a rigid game?

This isn’t even the first time this playoffs that Milbury has pushed tiresome narratives around the sport. He lambasted Tuukka Rask for leaving the Boston Burins to be with his family, he offhandedly thought Jake Muzzin might be staying down longer just for a whistle, before a stretcher was brought out to take him off the ice. When talking about the empty arenas in the NHL bubble, he compared them to beer leagues or “NCAA women’s hockey.”

Even as stuck as NHL culture seems sometimes, it has evolved past the likes of Milbury’s comments and his old school take on the sport. Sexism, racism, homophobia all exist within the sport, but there are many working to turn the culture around. Why then would NBC give such a prominent role to someone who is hopelessly committed to keeping it stuck in the past? Anson Carter, Patrick Sharp, or this fantastically long list of women in hockey would all be better choices.

The frustration pouring out of female hockey fans at off-hand comments is because off-hand comments reflect off-hand thinking.  Earlier this week, there was incident within the MLB world, where Cincinnati Reds play-by-play man Thom Brennaman used an anti-LGBTQ slur on a hot mic. He was suspended from the team, and issued the weakest of apologies.  While Milbury’s comments are not a direct comparison to what Brennaman said, they similarly reveal that what kind of person he is. Milbury sees women as a distraction, he sees women as lesser then, he thinks that whatever place they have in the hockey world, it is a step below what the men have earned. They exist as binaries, not mutually supportive networks, and certainly not as equals.

Brennaman let the slur slip with the ease of a man who has likely gotten away with it before. Milbury has repeatedly made sexist jokes on camera because no one has checked him on his comments. With the history that Milbury has, it does not seem possible to change that kind of entrenched thinking. As a reminder, he’s called P.K. Subban a “clown” for dancing on the ice, saying the coach needed to give him a rap on the head. He’s ranted about Alex Ovechkin needing to “act like a man” and applauded a cheap headshot from Sidney Crosby.

Brennaman insisted his comments weren’t reflective of the kind of person he is, yet the fact that he used that word, so casually and with such disdain showed that not to be true. Milbury has stayed away from such outright bigotry, yet the ease at which he uses racist stereotypes, and gendered insults on air also shows what kind of person he is, what values he has.

Racism, sexism, homophobia —all the societal ills many are fighting so hard against—are easier to tackle when they appear as bright, neon flashes. They are harder to eradicate when they appear as a series of micro-aggressions spread out, consistently, over a decade.  Brennaman gave a clear cut example of what we shouldn’t tolerate, and for that he was shown the door. Milbury has been operating unchecked for years, yet he doesn’t belong on air any more than Brennaman does. There’s disdain and contempt in Milbury’s words too, it is just harder to see.