The never-ending nightmare continues for Mitchell Miller.
As a middle schooler, Miller pulled a prank on his longtime friend Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, who happens to be black. The color of Isaiah’s skin should be irrelevant, but this is 2022 and now race can be the determining factor in almost any situation.
Isaiah’s mom went ballistic and turned the stupid prank into a juvenile court case. Miller admitted his transgression and then satisfied the court’s requirement of community service. Because Miller continued to develop into one of the United States’ brightest hockey prospects, Isaiah’s mom turned the childish prank into a national story and made every attempt to destroy Miller’s career after he was drafted by the Coyotes in 2020. His scholarship to the University of North Dakota was reneged and his draft rights renounced by the Arizona Coyotes as a result.
Miller returned to the United States Hockey League (Tri-City Storm) where he captured league Player of the Year honors after a remarkable 2021-22 season. Miller has also been exceptional off the ice. Apparently all that does not matter to Bettman and the NHL.
What Miller did is apparently worse than a bunch of Canadian junior players pulling a train on a young girl. Maybe if that girl was black, all those players would be suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. I’m also sure that lady would of happily slurp down that nasty lollipop if it meant not getting gang banged by a bunch of drunk hockey players.
So, let’s look a little closer. Alleged bullying from grade two to eight is now worse than killing a teammate while speeding, domestic violence, and felony assault. But only if the victim is black and person doing bullying is white. I get it now. Also of note, I believe Miller’s civil rights have been violated because incident occurred when he was a minor, that stuff is supposed to be sealed. Let’s open the juvenile records for all NHL staff and players, I’m sure there are going to be worse skeletons in the closets.
Kings blueliner Joe Corvo was arrested in Boston in 2003 for assaulting a waitress. “Corvo grabbed a 34-year-old woman’s buttocks last November. Restaurant staff told him to leave, but Corvo returned, punched the woman and then kicked her when she fell to the ground.”
Stars goalie Ed Belour was arrested early Wednesday and charged with misdemeanor assault and resisting arrest after a scuffle with a security guard at a hotel and restaurant complex, according to Dallas police. Belfour was arrested at an upscale hotel after he allegedly assaulted the guard. According to the police report, officers had to spray Belfour with mace to force him to release the guard from a headlock.
A Denver judge granted Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov permission to travel with the team while he faces felony charges that he drunkenly attacked his girlfriend in the downtown Denver apartment they shared. She told Denver police he came home drunk Monday and kicked her, knocked her down, dragged her by her hair and told her in Russian that “if this were Russia, he would have beat her more.”
On Feb. 4, 2005, Dany Heatley pleaded guilty to four of six charges in the vehicular homicide case against him. He received a sentence of three years of probation. In addition, the court ordered him to deliver 150 speeches about the dangers of speeding. “The mistake I made that night was speeding,” Heatley said at his sentencing hearing. “This mistake will stay with me the rest of my life.” Although he suffered major injuries in the high-speed accident that led to his teammate’s death, Heatley recovered and resumed his NHL career. He played 31 games for the Thrashers during the 2003-04 season.
Then there’s Billy Tibbets. In 1994, Tibbetts plead guilty to rape, based on a 1992 interaction between a 17-year-old Tibbetts and a 15-year-old girl, that the convicting judge called “brutal” in nature. His sentence was suspended for 42 months. However, in 1995, while on probation for the rape case, Tibbetts was convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a BB gun), disorderly conduct and witness intimidation. As a result, Tibbetts served 39 months in prison; the sentence on the assault and battery charges was 30 months, but it was served concurrently with the previously suspended sentence for statutory rape. As a result of the convictions, Tibbetts had to register as a sex offender and could not play games in Canada. On August 13, 2000, Tibbetts signed a professional tryout (PTO) contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL. For Tibbetts to reach the NHL, even after three and a half years of jail time and adversity, Penguins owner Mario Lemieux considered this to be “a great accomplishment” and that it was “a great story”. He played nine games with the Flyers, averaging less than seven minutes a game.
In 2021, the Montreal Canadiens drafted a junior player who had shared with teammates photos of his consensual sexual encounter with a woman and was convicted and fined by a court in Sweden.
In the 2018 sexual abuse case in Canada, in which all the names have been sealed by a court, a woman said in a court filing that she had been repeatedly sexually abused in a hotel room in London, Ontario, by eight members of the national junior team after a Hockey Canada fund-raising golf game and dinner. Guess where those players are now. The National Hockey League?
Yes, race is the primary issue here, and because of that, everyone tossing Miller under the bus is dead wrong. Including Bettman.
Does Miller have a valid court case against the National Hockey League and Boston Bruins? Yes. Because in the court of law reality matters. Public opinion and social justice should never get in the way of law and facts. The league has allowed adult players to continue playing after criminal transgressions and serious allegations.
The ONLY thing different between all the above cases and Miller is race. All the others made ADULT choices that are criminal in nature. Meanwhile, Miller’s childish transgression occurred as an actual child. And for that reason alone, Miller has the unique opportunity to send a strong message to everyone, be careful letting race be the determining factor while reacting to mob rule.
Doing so can result in a very expensive legal precedent.
Stephen Heisler 