Don Cherry was trending again on Twitter on Sunday.
It wasn’t for anything he had said or done – not recently anyway. Cherry’s name has been brought up, as is often the case on the social media platform by those who share her political beliefs, to make a point.
So Tara Slone, a former colleague of Cherry’s at Sportsnet, who left the network in July, decided to step in.
Slone said she liked Cherry as a person, but added that he was a bigot who shouldn’t be given a national platform. And certainly, he should not be considered a hockey player or a political leader.
“I see Don Cherry is in fashion again. I’ve never weighed in, but I want to do it now,” the former Hometown Hockey co-host said.
“I love (d)Don as a person because, like many of us, he wasn’t just one thing. But I hated his perspective, more and more over the years.
“He kind of tolerated Hometown Hockey, but was jealous of Ron’s other job/co-host. He thought we were limp and awake and focused on too many things outside of hockey. HTH wasn’t for everyone, so that didn’t bother me.
Slone co-hosted Hometown Hockey with Ron MacLean for over seven years, until the show was canceled this summer.
“He had good points, probably, once upon a time. He has a lot of charisma, which is why he stayed on the air for so long. But this relentless, nostalgic elevation of Don as a figure we should look up to as a leader in hockey and politics? Go on.
“I like him, really. I hope he’s healthy and doing well. But he’s bigoted and didn’t belong on national television with a national platform. It wasn’t not the poppy incident, that was all he had been proclaiming for three decades. Come on. Stop with the deification.
He kind of tolerated Hometown Hockey, but was jealous of Ron’s other job/co-host. He thought we were limp and awake and focused on too many things outside of hockey. HTH wasn’t for everyone, so that didn’t bother me.
— Tara Slone (@TaraSlone) October 16, 2022
I like it, really. I hope he is healthy and doing well. But he is fanatical and had no place on national television with a national platform. That wasn’t the poppy incident, that was all he claimed for 3 decades. Come. On. Stop with the deification.
— Tara Slone (@TaraSlone) October 16, 2022
It’s been nearly three years since Cherry, now 88, was fired from his job at Hockey Night in Canada, after refusing to apologize for what the Sportsnet president called “dividing remarks”.
Cherry appeared to point the finger at immigrants for not wearing poppies.
“You people…you love our way of life, you love our milk and our honey, at least you can pay a few bucks for a poppy or something,” Cherry said during her latest Coach’s Corner segment. “These guys paid for your lifestyle that you love in Canada, these guys paid the biggest price.”
It was far from Cherry’s first on-air transgression. For decades, Cherry got away with saying things no one else on TV apparently could say.
Rather than fire Cherry in 2004 for what the CBC called “inappropriate and objectionable personal comments,” the network imposed a seven-second deadline on her. Cherry had said that most of the players who wore visors were “Europeans or French”, implying that they weren’t as tough as English-speaking Canadians and American players.
Cherry, who now has a podcast, has largely stayed on the sidelines in recent years.
In May, he indicated that his relationship with MacLean, his co-host and longtime Coach’s Corner friend, was forever fractured.
“I don’t think we’ll be friends again,” Cherry said, fighting back tears in a video posted to social media by the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington. “You can’t be friends after that. You can’t… It’s a shame… we were having fun. It was fun. Coaches Corner was fun.
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