It has been two weeks since the five former National Hockey League players were found not guilty of sexual assaulting an Ontario woman that the public just knows at this time as EM. When Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Michael McLeod, Alex Fromenton, and Cal Foote were found not guilty, there was an expectation by many within the hockey community that it would be just a matter of time before Hart, Dube, McLeod, Fromenton and Foote would be eligible to sign a NHL contract.
Not so fast. The NHL put out a statement which stated the following:
“The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behavior at issue was unacceptable. We will be reviewing and considering the judge’s findings. While we conduct that analysis and determine next steps, the players charged in this case are ineligible to play in the League.”
No decision made yet
The review is still going on at this time. The NHL is continuing with the analysis. In the meantime, the players are not eligible to play.
Similarity to MLB
In 1919, eight Chicago White Sox players were banned from Major League Baseball. They were first baseman Chick Gandil, pitcher Eddie Cicotte, center fielder Happy Felsch, outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson, infielder Fred McMullin, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver, and pitcher Lefty Williams. Even though Gandil, Cicotte, Felsch, Jackson, McMullin, Risberg, Weaver, Williams were eventually banned from playing baseball at the Major League level, all eight were initially found not guilty by a jury for attempting to throw the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. It was only after the not guilty verdict that MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all eight players. Landis clearly disagreed with the jury’s ruling when he stated the following:
“Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player who undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player who sits in confidence with a bunch of crooked ballplayers and gamblers, where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.”
The point I am trying to make is the following. Based on this historical event, just because a jury finds a group of people not guilty, does not guarantee an immediate return to normalcy. The baseball commissioner made a ruling which was different than the opinion of the jurors. The future fate of these five hockey players will rest with Commissioner Gary Bettman, and he has every right not to agree with the jurors’s decisions from last month.
