I personally
did not hear what Mike Milbury said on Thursday’s (August 20th) NBC’s
Islanders-Capitals broadcast; however, I did read about it. Yes, it’s taken me
a few days to figure out what I wanted to say about this. I have never been a
fan of Mike Milbury and there have been times where I have either muted my TV
when he’s on or changed the channel until the opening face-off.
This is not the
first time that Mike Milbury has made asinine comments like the one he made Thursday
night. Everyone who watches hockey knows that. He’s made several since the NHL
playoffs began back on August 1st. The two that stand out to me were
his comments about Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin (who was taken off the
ice on a stretcher during a game with the Columbus Blue Jackets) and Bruins goaltender
Tuuka Rask (who left Toronto to go back to Boston to be with his family and was
later announced there was an undisclosed medical emergency involving one of his
three kids). I’m not even going to quote what he said about those two because
it’s not worth repeating in my opinion. He was out of line on both of those
comments. Luckily, Jake Muzzin was not seriously injured and was released from
the hospital the next day.
Then, there was
Thursday night and his asinine comment about women. After I read what he said,
my first thought was why does NBC Sports still have this guy on the air? NBC
Sports was real quick to fire Jeremy Roenick earlier this year after comments
he made about an on-air colleague. Why didn’t NBC Sports do the same to Mike Milbury?
The Athletic’s
Katie Strang summed it up the best in her article “Do We Honestly Have No
Better Options than Mike Milbury? (The link to her article is ).
“The way he spoke about women being distractions is pretty coded
language for what he feels women are good for, and that’s abhorrent.
Think about
how insulting and insidious those comments are. Does Milbury not understand how
many women probably were integral in making sure this whole bubble hockey
experiment works? From the league? The NHLPA? The NHL clubs? His own broadcast?
There are women doing advance scouting and using data analysis to ensure their
teams are prepared to play. There are women working to handle every logistical
nightmare within this bizarre environment and every awkward Zoom press
conference we see. There are likely women gathering, distilling and providing
him with the very information he uses each broadcast!
And let’s
not forget those who are sacrificing and doing the yeoman’s work outside the
bubble, too. There are women who are balancing school and work while plagued by
uncertainty about a partner who will be gone for an unknown length of time and
incurring risks we probably have not even begun to understand. There are women
who are supporting entire families on their own without a partner to help
shoulder the exhausting work that entails, especially amid a global pandemic.
Women are
not distractions. They are essential.”
Even though the NHL was quick to condemn Milbury’s asinine comment with an official statement on Friday, all NBC Sports stated that the network was “disappointed with Mike’s insensitive comment.”
Mike Milbury did issues a statement that read like someone else wrote it, stating that he “didn’t want my presence to interfere with the athletes as they try to win the greatest trophy in sports” after stepping aside for the remainder of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Mike Milbury apparently has a history of making “misguiding
remarks” about gender sexuality and sexual assault, according to Deadline.com’s
Tom Tapp, even though Tapp didn’t go into further detail (which is probably a
good thing at this point). It’s obvious that he has never learned from his
As someone who has grown up around hockey, has seen a women’s
college hockey powerhouse form (at the University of Minnesota), and whose
first job while still in high school was working at the old Met Center in
Bloomington, MN before the North Stars moved to Dallas and become the Dallas
Stars—I was disgusted in Mike Milbury’s comment from Thursday night. If it were
my call, Milbury would have been fired the next day. However it’s not my call.
It’s time that NBC Sports step up and fire Mike Milbury. In
today’s world, there is no place for the asinine and disrespectful comments regarding
women, players, etc. Hockey fans watching these broadcasts deserve better and
it’s obvious that Mike Milbury isn’t going to change and learn from this when
he’s been given plenty of opportunities to do so over the past several years.
To put it simply, it’s time for Mike Milbury to go.
Sources:
Katie Strang: Do We Honestly Have No Better Options Than Mike Milbury?
Deadline.com NBC Sports Benches Mike Milbury
