I've been thinking about this story as I listen to the latest @Steve_Dangle podcast discussion about Babcock (and am weirdly relived to see it broke after the ep recorded) and struggling to articulate a lot of feelings about abusive behaviour in sports culture.https://twitter.com/IanGraph/status/1198770855691591681 …
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The thing about abusers in professional settings is that they seldom abuse everyone. And if they're "good" at their jobs, then a lot of their terrible behaviour is excused as the price of results. This is true in every field, not just sports, but seems to apply especially to men.
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Perhaps this Marner incident is a one-off that was never repeated; but somehow, I find that highly unlikely - especially, as
@AdamWylde often points out, as Babcock has a psych degree. He made a choice to behave manipulatively, abusively, to the detriment of others.Show this thread -
And what that makes me wonder is: how much of the rage being directed at Babs by Commadore and Fraser is not just because he was a bad boss, in the mundane sense, but an abusive one? And how, if so, does that change our perception of who is allowed to speak about him, and how?
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I keep thinking about that awful quotes-of-others piece about the history of Kadri with the Leafs, and how many horrifying red flags it contained for his being subject to abuse. (His dad told the coach to punch him in the head. Naz *cried* at the thought of his dad being called.)
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I keep thinking about how Patrick O'Sullivan's first NHL coach, knowing he'd been violently abused by his dad, proceeded to emotionally and verbally abuse him in turn - all this reported calmly, in an article that (IIRC) didn't bother to identify the coach's acts as abusive.
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The plain fact is, if there *are* players in the NHL who, as Fraser says, want to speak out about Babs but feel unable to do so? That's not at all surprising, and a solid reason WHY his testimony is important. Look what happens to athletes who speak out about toxicity and abuse!
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Regardless of gender (but subject to sexist pushback), regardless of race (but subject to racist pushback), regardless of sexual orientation (but subject to homophobic pushback), players across *all sports* who speak out about cultures of abuse *of all kinds* suffer for it.
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So while I understand that
@AdamWylde,@Steve_Dangle and@JesseBlake were speaking about Babcock prior to this particular story coming out to serve as a concrete example, I do think there should be more reflection as default on the longstanding tolerance of abuse within sports.Show this thread -
I've worked for bosses I've disliked, who I've thought were bad at their jobs or just incompetent or people I didn't gel with, and I've worked for abusive bosses. There is a hardcore difference, and employee morale is one of the biggest red flags for workplace abuse, period.
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When you look at how profound the *emotional* change has been for the Leafs since Babcock's firing, I don't think you can put that down purely to his being a bad boss or someone the team didn't gel with, and I don't think citing his 700 wins or calling him a "good guy" helps.
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If there is EVER a time to sit down and examine the conduct of a high-profile coach like Babcock, it should be right now. But there's a habitual rush to try and cushion the blow because of the good he was seen to have done early on, which makes speaking up even harder.
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I get that it's an uncomfortable conversation to have; that many feel fondly about the guy's history. But how does a league like the NHL hope to ever weed out abusive cultures if people who try and start a conversation about guys like Babcock are told it's not their place?
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ANYWAY. Gonna listen to the rest of the episode now and hopefully feel less skeeved out.
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End of conversation
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