I get where you're coming from, but my only issue is we don't know who knew what and when they knew it. Isn't it possible that they didn't know the whole story until after the fact and likely after the season ended? It may sound cold but I doubt many players and coaches would stop focusing on winning a Stanley Cup to investigate a rumor that something may have happened between a coach and a black ace. That's the reason I can't hold the players responsible, although team management are the ones who should have done something. If all parties knew the whole story all along then I agree with everything you said, but that may not be the case. The problem with the court of public opinion is that they usually don't know ask the facts before passing judgment.
But there is also a big difference between dropping the ball and not looking into it more and knowing exactly what happened and ignoring it. The latter is obviously much worse. The fact the Sheldon Kennedy trusts Bowman tells me that he's redeemable at least and hopefully Beach is ok with these guys being reinstated. I just get tired of fans acting like they know everything that happened because there is likely more to the story than the average fan knows.
Of course there is a big difference between dropping the ball and knowing.
Quenneville and Bowman most certainly knew after the Stanley Cup and hid everything. The fact that an intern came forward and said that Aldrich accosted him proved that it was an "open secret". The players on the Blackhawks knew what was going on; they kept taunting both Beach and Black Ace 2 with homophobic slurs about "Aldrich being their boyfriend" during practice the year after he left, so I can feel safe in blaming Toews, the team captain who is supposed to protect his teammates, for not protecting two players he knew were assaulted.
This was not a secret, and Bowman, Quenneville, and those responsible hid everything for well over a decade, letting the careers of Beach and Black Ace 2 fizzle out, let Aldrich wear out his welcome at Notre Dame before he went to a high school and raped a teenaged boy. Beach came out with his own story after that happened
because he blamed himself for everything, a sad thing that happens with abuse and rape victims. Credit Beach and Black Ace 2 for having the courage - courage I wish I had - to come out with their stories because otherwise, nothing would've changed for the better.
I am fine with second chances. I'm far from perfect myself: I screwed up majorly in a lot of parts of my life, lost a lot of very good friends - including a girl I fell in love with back then - because of my stupidity and selfishness, and even though a large part of me doesn't want to give a second chance to myself after the things I did to people, I know I've changed for the better because I hate every bit of what I did.
That doesn't mean that there are no consequences to people's actions. I will never get those friends back. I will never get the girl I loved back. My name will forever hold a place of hatred in their hearts, and I have to live with that guilt, knowing that it's a natural consequence from my actions towards them.
Likewise, I don't believe that Bowman or Quenneville should be anywhere near professional hockey ever again. They can make their podcasts (Q, as much as I loved him when he was the Blues coach, hasn't shown the slightest bit of remorse in his interviews, and I despise him for it. Bowman has made an effort, at least, and I think there's some guilt in his actions, but I don't think he's doing this entirely out of altruism but instead because he got caught.), they can work with grassroots efforts to bring awareness and stop sexual predators from preying on people, they can use their acumen in so many different ways to impact and bring awareness to sexual violence...but they should
never hold another job in the NHL again. Again, I'm a firm believer in natural consequences, and all of the Blackhawks management proved that they should never be allowed back in a position where players can get hurt under their watch again.
But like I said, guys like Graham James, Bill Peters and Mitchell Miller got chance after chance in the game of hockey, even after their - quite frankly - horrific actions, so I'm not surprised that Bowman got a GM position again. I won't be shocked when Quenneville gets rehired. Disgusted, but not shocked, and I hope it's not with us.