Edge
Kris King's Ghost
I was a victim of bullying myself as a 14-15-16 year old; nothing quite as heinous as this, but nonetheless things that were certainly enough to cause substantial emotional distress. Some of it, unfortunately, is just kids being kids though. I'm not saying that Miller was "just being a kid," but to my knowledge he did receive punishment for his behavior contemporaneously.
I'm not claiming to know what is correct right now, but I do find the "it's a privilege to play in the NHL and if you are a bully (even a racist one) at 14, you give up your privilege to play in the NHL" argument to be a bit disingenuous and/or disconcerting.
A lot of people do a lot of terrible things at age 14 that would get them fired in the real world if they had done it at age 22 or whatnot. If we are gonna go back and hold their feet to the fire - after they had already received what was considered just punishment at the time of the incident by most authorities - I do not believe that is automatically or generally a wise decision. I think there are better ways to send the message of no-tolerance for racism than re-punishing something that happened when the transgressor was 14, even under the auspice of "that doesn't align with our organizational values." It's a punishment.
That being said it's also impossible for us to know the exact circumstance of the team's interaction with Miller since some of this has come to light. Did they ask him to renounce his behavior or issue an apology and he refused? Etc. That is certainly more understandable then.
I don't have a problem with someone dealing with the cosequences of a major incident, even if they are 14. I think some actions carry long-term impacts, regardless of the age.
Having said that, I think there's a fair argument to be made that quite a few adults have failed here and that their actions, are questionable as well.
If a team was willing to accept the behavior history a month ago, or even a year ago, then it is disingenuous to suddenly make bold statements and take strong actions now. Ken Campbell touches on that here - Led by Coyotes, UND and USA Hockey, the hockey world failed Mitch Miller.
That debate does exist somewhat apart from the actions of Miller and how we view those actions.
He did what he did. It was atrocious. Something is a amiss there. That's understood, so let's put it aside for a second.
There's the very issue of Arizona and UND being okay with it until they aren't. Look, if the stance is "We know what he did, we feel he's sorry for it, and now this is his chance to carry on" then that's the stance. You make that decision and stick you with it --- knowing not everyone is going to agree with it.
If you're not prepared to stick with it through the pushback, you don't believe he is sorry, and you don't think he deserves a chance to carry on, or you don't want to be the team to provide that path, that's fine. Then don't go there.
At the end of the day, you either decide not to pursue Miller, or you are. There's nothing wrong with the former --- that would be my approach.
But, if you decide upon the latter, then you accept everything that comes with it. None of this hokey-pokey shit to save face.