Big Phil
Registered User
- Nov 2, 2003
- 31,703
- 4,151
Now I love Cherry, the guy is Mr. Canadian everyman. He's popular with blue collar Canadians, which is much of Canada. Of course, he's hated by many as well, always has been. I have to give him credit, he is always the type of guy you want to go to war with if he is on your side. He sticks to his guns.
But 4 decades of being on air has left him with a lot of controversies. His first (late) wife Rose very much disliked Coach's Corner. She was very non-confrontational and she would have been happy had he packed it in. 20 years after her death, he's still doing it. If anything, according to him even, Rose kept him in check with a lot of things said on Coach's Corner.
So what are times when you thought for SURE they were going to fire Cherry. Obviously CBC and now Rogers knows they have a ratings giant with them and this gives Cherry a lot more of a leash than anyone else could have. Think Howard Stern or George Carlin if he were alive, minus the swearing. Cherry knows this and his bosses know this. It doesn't mean there haven't been times to try to get him removed.
I'll go back to 1998 at a time when I wasn't sure how he would survive. During the Olympics he made a comment that Jean-Luc Brassard - Canada's flag bearer - was just some "French guy no one knew about". I think he was pining for Gretzky to be carrying the flag. Usually things die down quickly after Cherry says something controversial but this one lasted a little longer. Quebec, who isn't in love with him to begin with, made a big push to get him fired. I honestly thought it might have been the end with him.
The other one was 2003. Cherry and MacLean are doing Coach's Corner and it was MacLean - not Cherry - that brought up the Iraq war. MacLean kept pushing on the issue and Cherry reluctantly said he thought Canada should have gone to help them. I honestly thought with the political tensions at the time and just how far removed it was regarding hockey (I always hate politics involved in our sports) that it may have spelled the end for Cherry.
Lastly, I don't remember him being threatened for termination on this one, but Alpo Suhonen, then the assistant coach of the Jets, wanted to sue him (or maybe it was the Jets?) for saying "Alpo sounds like a dog food." Of course, if Cherry apologized they'd forget it, but he didn't, mainly because it was factually true, and no lawsuit would last that way.
I just wish Cherry's beatdown of Michael Farber after the 1987 brawl at the WJC would have ended Farber's career because he was a deer in the headlights and out of his league.
But 4 decades of being on air has left him with a lot of controversies. His first (late) wife Rose very much disliked Coach's Corner. She was very non-confrontational and she would have been happy had he packed it in. 20 years after her death, he's still doing it. If anything, according to him even, Rose kept him in check with a lot of things said on Coach's Corner.
So what are times when you thought for SURE they were going to fire Cherry. Obviously CBC and now Rogers knows they have a ratings giant with them and this gives Cherry a lot more of a leash than anyone else could have. Think Howard Stern or George Carlin if he were alive, minus the swearing. Cherry knows this and his bosses know this. It doesn't mean there haven't been times to try to get him removed.
I'll go back to 1998 at a time when I wasn't sure how he would survive. During the Olympics he made a comment that Jean-Luc Brassard - Canada's flag bearer - was just some "French guy no one knew about". I think he was pining for Gretzky to be carrying the flag. Usually things die down quickly after Cherry says something controversial but this one lasted a little longer. Quebec, who isn't in love with him to begin with, made a big push to get him fired. I honestly thought it might have been the end with him.
The other one was 2003. Cherry and MacLean are doing Coach's Corner and it was MacLean - not Cherry - that brought up the Iraq war. MacLean kept pushing on the issue and Cherry reluctantly said he thought Canada should have gone to help them. I honestly thought with the political tensions at the time and just how far removed it was regarding hockey (I always hate politics involved in our sports) that it may have spelled the end for Cherry.
Lastly, I don't remember him being threatened for termination on this one, but Alpo Suhonen, then the assistant coach of the Jets, wanted to sue him (or maybe it was the Jets?) for saying "Alpo sounds like a dog food." Of course, if Cherry apologized they'd forget it, but he didn't, mainly because it was factually true, and no lawsuit would last that way.
I just wish Cherry's beatdown of Michael Farber after the 1987 brawl at the WJC would have ended Farber's career because he was a deer in the headlights and out of his league.