04/25/24
September 23, 2011
Fan tosses banana peel at Flyers' Simmonds: Often as the only black player on his team, growing up in Ontario, Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds dealt with his fair share of racial slurs on the ice as he climbed the hockey ladder. Few experiences could have prepared him for what happened on Thursday night, as a fan in the John Labatt Centre threw a banana peel at Simmonds as he skated in alone on a shootout attempt during a 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings. According to a fan on Twitter at the game, it was not the only time Simmonds was targeted with a banana peel during the game. Another peel was thrown, presumably by the same person, when Simmonds scored late in the 3rd period to tie the game but the toss did not clear the boards to make it onto the ice.
posted by tommytrump to hockey at 09:44 AM - 13 comments
I felt it was worth front page status.
London Ontario is my home.
I am embarrassed and sickened that this happened in my city.
I realize racism exists everywhere, but it's tough when something so ignorant & stupid happens in your own community.
posted by tommybiden at 09:56 AM on September 23, 2011
Christ, what an asshole.
posted by NoMich at 10:18 AM on September 23, 2011
Simmons should have thrown a Barry Manilow album back at the guy.
posted by wfrazerjr at 10:30 AM on September 23, 2011
Barry Manilow??? That's funny.
posted by yzelda4045 at 10:34 AM on September 23, 2011
tommy -- was not questioning the FPP nature of it; definitely FPP-worthy (I was just being lazy). Just funny that I literally had the same thing on preview when I saw your post.
posted by holden at 10:56 AM on September 23, 2011
holden, no worries, I was weighing it out as well, could have gone into The Huddle just as easily.
posted by tommybiden at 11:33 AM on September 23, 2011
Statements from Wayne Simmonds , Peter Luukko, Gary Bettman
posted by tommybiden at 11:39 AM on September 23, 2011
London Ontario is my home.
I am embarrassed and sickened that this happened in my city.
This current London resident is disgusted.
posted by grum@work at 11:52 AM on September 23, 2011
I liked Bomani Jones' response (he posted it on Twitter today, it's from 2009).
posted by yerfatma at 12:03 PM on September 23, 2011
Nice to see some of the classier traditions of European football making their way into North American sports.
Yeah, the classy North American tradition was always to avoid that kind of spectator idiocy by keeping black competitors in their own leagues. But anyway. The venue may not have been able to identify the fuckwit, but I imagine he (because it's going to be a he) will be the kind of person who brags about it, and when he does, I hope his friends have a tolerance bypass towards him.
posted by etagloh at 12:33 AM on September 24, 2011
Suspected banana thrower ID'd and charged
posted by tommybiden at 12:55 PM on September 28, 2011
Just was posting this to the huddle (with the same link!).
Nice to see some of the classier traditions of European football making their way into North American sports.