Having gotten the PC nickname debate going 10 days ago after the Miami
incident at MSU, I was going to let it run its course and keep my mouth shut.
But a couple thoughts:
-- If Redskins works for the Miami tribe, it certainly works for me.
-- If the hockey team says IT doesn't use the term scalping (although
I know differently), that's fine with me.
-- Miami has said that it won't scalp/scrape the ice anymore if it's
perceived as taunting, and that's fine with me.
-- When this whole thing happened, Miami assistant AD Steve Cady, who
is a Ron Mason disciple, was horrified and stepped in because he did not want
the program to be perceived wrong. He's a class guy, and I respect his
intervention.
-- As for the incident, it was taunting. A couple Miami back in the
Gwozdecky days would remain on the ice after the game with some kind of tool
to scrape the ice and a cup; that was all there was to it.
-- After both MSU-Miami games, most if not all of the Miami players
got in a big circle near their bench, skated in a circle, and scraped ice. It
was a show, and THAT'S how MSU became aware of the practice.
-- MSU players asked/told the Miami players after the second game not
to scrape the ice. Obviously, after winning two games at Munn, the Miami
players weren't going to do anything the MSU players told them to do. They
probably figured they had earned the right.
-- Someone in the Miami lockerroom wrote the word "scalp" on a
blackboard. I saw it myself.
-- If Miami were the Lions or Tigers or Bulldogs and not the Redskins,
do you think the word "scalp" would have ever come up? Same thing in football
with the Seminoles. For that reason, I feel the Miami team was not honoring
the Miami tribe's heritage, even if it was unintentional. And I think Steve
Cady understood that.
Which is why I hadn't planned on saying any more on this issue. The
practice is finished, everyone has learned from it, and I'm really not looking
to belabor it.
Hope that makes some sense.
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