After letting some of the Don Cherry dust settle my thoughts for what they're worth - bearing in mind I don't know the man of course. I suspect at heart he's a good guy for whom personal loyalty among other things is an important trait. He's also older at 85 and I guarantee even the most outraged person, especially those younger than the Don Cherry's of the world, that as you age so too will your beliefs become more entrenched and, insofar as younger people are concerned, they will fall out of fashion. It has ever been thus and that won't change anytime soon.
Cherry is an unabashed and unapologetic Canada-First kind of guy and I'm more than OK with that.
Could he and should he have worded his comments differently on Coach's Corner? Obviously. And he's already stated that many times. He's become something of a cultural phenomenon and in the process become very wealthy so I don't feel sorry for him in that regard. He'll do fine whether he's on the air again or not. However....
....what did occur to me in light of this affair was the following; sooooo....Sportsnet wants to do - and, more importantly from a customer and public perspective - be SEEN to be doing, the "right thing", ethically and morally. So it immediately fires an employee who publicly makes a comment or comments that certainly in today's world is not and are not acceptable. Okay...but...ethically and morally, how does that action square with the fact that front and center on the HNIC set sits a Huawei corporate logo...? Bear in mind too this is a network that is bleeding cash, largely as a result of a horrendous 12-year deal it signed for FIVE BILLION++ dollars to broadcast NHL games in Canada, a deal for which they are on the hook for several more years.....
You'll recall Huawei of course, an entity that may (or not) represent a significant security threat to this nation; either way it is certainly an organization in fact beholden by Chinese law, to the monolithic Chinese Communist state. You remember that gang of course. Its the same very totalitarian state currently holding two Canadian citizens under dubious at best circumstances, on what are almost assuredly trumped up and wholly manufactured charges in retaliation for Canada upholding its end of a signed extradition treaty, something it had no choice but to do. In addition this same Chinese state is holding a third Canadian who is currently under threat of execution.
Now back to Sportsnet - so Cherry and his bad words also = Bad. Therefore (cash poor) Sportsnet 'does the right thing' and cans him. Fine.
But how is accepting millions and millions of $$$$$ in Huawei corporate sponsorship fees from a leading firm from a hostile state "doing the right thing" exactly? Sorry but on that subject I'm having a problem following the logic and forgive me for being a tad confused because - on the surface and were I a suspicious man - it kind of looks to me like, well...."doing the right thing" and being respectful of all cultures etc., is actually little more than a matter of interpretation and which only holds up until.......you know..........the threat of losing a s***-ton of badly-needed cash rears its head, in which case nary a word is heard from SN. Cherry - Bad. Huawei....Good? Hm.