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Michel Therrien called “French F*ck”: another case of racism against francos

 Manuel Sperandio-Lemay
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Michel Therrien called “French F*ck”: another case of racism against francos

In the NHL, as in all professional sports leagues, intensity, competitiveness and emotion are the order of the day… Sometimes, a little too much so.

We’ve often heard of players and former players who’ve made headlines for saying something inappropriate.

Mike Commodore and Brent Sopel come to mind, and they’re not shy about sharing their thoughts with us.

The most problematic aspect of these comments is racism.

Racism is a polarizing subject that continues to be present in everyday life, unfortunately.

Racist comments have happened many times, and repercussions have followed for most of the time.

Former Philadelphia Flyers and Nashville Predators player Scottie Upshall, among others, needs no introduction.

For those who have seen him play, he’s the very definition of a gritty, character-driven player.

A good old-fashioned agitator, in other words.

The Albertan is co-host of the Missin Curfew podcast, with former NHL strongman Shane O’Brien.

On the 206th episode of Missin Curfew, Upshall revealed that he had made an inappropriate comment about Michel Therrien, who was head coach of the Penguins from 2006 to 2009.

During a Pennsylvania War game, Upshall allegedly called Therrien a ” French F*ck “, triggering an intense rage from the Quebec coach.

“Once, Michel Therrien was chasing me around the rink. I called him a ‘French F*ck’ and he completely lost it.” – Scottie Upshall

You can listen to the whole episode right here.

The sequence where they talk about Michel Therrien is at the end of the 27th minute of the episode.

Comments like that, however inappropriate, happen a lot in professional sports.

The only problem I have with this story is that the Flyers’ coach at the time, Paul Holmgren, knew after the game what his player had said, and he seemed to approve of the message.

After saying that he called Therrien that, Holmgren replied, “Perfect,” and O’Brien seemed to agree when Upshall recounted it during the podcast.

Even though Quebec in a way gave birth to field hockey, Americans don’t seem to give respect to Francophones in the sport, and that saddens me.

Not liking certain people is normal, but disrespecting them is different and, above all, unacceptable.

At this point, it’s downright racism against francophones.

It’s very important to make people aware of racism, because it affects countless people, including young people who abandon their hobbies and passions because of it.

We have to put a stop to racism, even if this case isn’t the worst, when you think of what happened to George Floyd, among others.

There should be no repercussions for Upshall, because it happened about 15 years ago and times have changed.


In brief

– Not to be missed

– Listen now.

– Read more.

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