Is Don Cherry Still Relevant?

[Kimota]

After seeing the Ontario Sport Minister wanting to take hitting out of the game, yes he is more relevant than ever.

 

[tarheelhockey]

By that logic Don Cherry was never relevant. Because most people are not hard core sports fans and most people don't watch hockey. It's not like his reach before was beyond the scope of hockey. HNIC routinely doesn't even beak the top 30 watched programs in Canada. The crux of this discussion is of his ongoing relevance or not. If the base of the discussion is that he was relevant prior to his firing from HNIC, the scope of the argument is completely limited to the scope of hockey in Canada. Not some wider spread appeal.

I mean, you're not wrong to be honest. He was never that relevant. Even Sidney Crosby isn't that relevant. These are meaningful names to a small number of people in the scheme of things -- a large portion of the population doesn't pay any attention to them, and among those who do pay attention only a subset really care. From a global-culture point of view, nearly every hockey personality is at the fringes of public consciousness. That's also true of nearly every personality in football, baseball, basketball, etc. Maybe 10 sports figures in total actually stick in the general public consciousness for more than a quick 15 minutes of fame.

If we're talking relative to the sports-fan niche, and specifically the hockey-fan niche, yes Cherry was relevant while he was on HNIC. Even in his declining years, he was still a voice. Now, he really isn't. He has an extremely small niche-within-a-niche following who still listen to his cast and read his tweets. But seriously, we're talking about a guy who gets around 100 replies per tweet and isn't charting as a podcast. He's still out there, but he's not a leading voice any more.

 

[Bring Bak Damphousse]

Ive always gone back and forth on Cherry, I dont agree with alot of what he said on coaches corner, but I have started listening to his podcast, and I am enjoying it. He’s a great story teller, and gets along far better with his kids than he did with Ron. Which makes for less animosity.

 

[Aceboogie]

He is a good storyteller and a good entertainer. However, if you are using him for guidance on the actual evaluation of hockey you are in for a bad time. You can definitely see the generation of hockey fans raised on Don Cherry gossip by the sheer amount of bias in their evaluations

 

[MoeBartoli]

As relevant as a Brontosaurus.

 

[Pyrophorus]

He is a good storyteller and a good entertainer. However, if you are using him for guidance on the actual evaluation of hockey you are in for a bad time. You can definitely see the generation of hockey fans raised on Don Cherry gossip by the sheer amount of bias in their evaluations

I thought he had some good nuggets: get your stick out of the way of the shot, how he would've handled the Patrick Roy situation,
to save his career in Montreal.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

Ah yes, the usual PC of the bunch speak out about how the dinosaur has been put out to pasture where he supposedly belongs

 

[Shakey Rustie]

Someone get Don talking about Whole Foods.

 

[Bowski]

Piece of ancient xenophobic trash.

Pat Quinn called him out on his made up Bure garbage way back in 95:


Don loved his good old boys Ballard/Eagleson racists all the way to their end:



Now he might as well continue to yell at the cloud until it's all over.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

This thread proves the answer is yes, people don't talk about you if you are irrelevant

 

[crowi]

Forgot he existed to be honest. One less bigot in the big stage.

 

[Atoyot]

I thought he had some good nuggets: get your stick out of the way of the shot, how he would've handled the Patrick Roy situation,
to save his career in Montreal.

Him ranting "get your stick out of the way of the puck" when it resulted in a deflection on net about 1% of the time while completely ignoring it when it deflected away 99% of the time isn't really great advice.

 

[weastern bias]

We've officially reached the "go back where you came from" portion of the thread, I see

 

[Wretched Oil]

Nope, I haven't heard anything from him since he was fired

 

[Yog S'loth]

I'm American, so he's never been relevant to me. In nearly 30 years as a dedicated NHL fan, I've never seen a single broadcast he's been a part of.

 

[TooManyHumans]

I know him as the loud-mouthed guy with hideous suits. Don't care about him at all.

 

[Mister Ed]

He's about as relevant as tight leather pants. Good for a special occasion once in a while - maybe a meet and greet - but a pain to take off once it's there and not to be shown in public .

 

[The CyNick]

Sorely missed based on the lack of poppies I'm seeing this year.

 

[Matty Sundin]

Been a year now but feels like he’s been gone forever. His podcast just can’t compete with the other hockey podcast as well.

 

[DaWatcher]

Piece of ancient xenophobic trash.

Pat Quinn called him out on his made up Bure garbage way back in 95:


Don loved his good old boys Ballard/Eagleson racists all the way to their end:



Now he might as well continue to yell at the cloud until it's all over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40toS8x4jvs

Show this one too and let people make their own decisions.

Don Cherry went to bat for Nazeem Kadri since he was drafted. He was his most vocal supporter against Ron Wilson.

In terms of xenophobia, Don is just nationalistic about Canada's place in the game. He saw the influx of European players as a detriment against home grown Canadian talent, and even still I have heard him rip and praise hockey players of all backgrounds. He called a Dane the best goalie in the NHL two years running.

 

[LuckyDay]

I understand Whole Foods in Canada was forced to change their policy on Remembrance Day poppies.

Grapes was right. Vindicated!

 

[GOilers88]

I understand Whole Foods in Canada was forced to change their policy on Remembrance Day poppies.

Grapes was right. Vindicated!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/employee-reaction-poppy-whole-foods-1.5795247

They thought allowing poppies would be seen as pushing an agenda.

Such a sad effin society we've created.

 

[bsu]

no

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I understand Whole Foods in Canada was forced to change their policy on Remembrance Day poppies.

Grapes was right. Vindicated!

If Don Cherry's comments only involved wearing a poppy as a Whole Foods employee he'd still have a job.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/employee-reaction-poppy-whole-foods-1.5795247

They thought allowing poppies would be seen as pushing an agenda.

Such a sad effin society we've created.

Whole Foods didn't have a policy specifically banning the poppy. They had a uniform dress code that didn't allow things like wearing the poppy. Earlier this summer Whole Foods sent workers home for wearing Black Lives Matters masks because it violated their dress code. I'm guessing you were equally outraged then.

This looks like a simple case of a blanket corporate uniform policy being applied instead of looking at the unique circumstances of the case. It often happens with the monolithic behavior of giant corporations.

But if you want to be outraged about the downfall of society over a massive corporation's dress code that was quickly changed to accommodate the patriotic display, knock yourself out.

From your link:

After initially refusing to back down, Whole Foods reversed the policy later on Friday, explaining that its new dress code wasn't designed to single out the symbol of remembrance, and that employees are now welcome to wear poppies at work.

 

[Smokey McCanucks]

I understand Whole Foods in Canada was forced to change their policy on Remembrance Day poppies.

Grapes was right. Vindicated!

I tell ya, these big corporations, who come here...the least they can do is let their employees wear a poppy.