By Jamie Crawley
One of the biggest constants these last few months in the world of sports is the stand against violence regarding women. A large number of football players have lost their jobs just from the mere thought of being involved in any type of scandal involving abusing or causing any type of harm to a woman. Greg Hardy lost a full season plus additional games from a case in which he was fighting for his innocence (whether he was or not isn’t the point). What do these cases have in common? Whether they were allegations or charges filed, they were all lead stories on every sports show.
This leads me to Patrick Kane. For those of you who don’t know, Patrick Kane is a star hockey player for the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. Apparently, there have been allegations levied against him claiming he raped a young woman after meeting her at a bar. Let me make this clear now. In no way, shape or form am I insinuating he’s guilty. Truthfully, there’s not enough information here to form a constructive opinion. With that said, why isn’t this case being discussed at all? As I write this, I’m watching “SportsCenter,” and I have yet to see them mention this story. Even the Buffalo News framed the story to paint the picture that the girl was the problem and Kane was the victim. If I could speak candidly, if this was a football or basketball player (I’m willing to throw in baseball as well), I’ll bet this incident makes front-page news and he’s therefore guilty until proven innocent. We’ve seen this before with Kobe Bryant and even Ben Roethlisberger. Why is it like that?
This story, or lackthereof, shows blatant hypocrisy in sports coverage. Many people may say, “Well, hockey is rarely talked about in the states anyway,” and this may be true, but it was only a few months ago when Kane and his team were celebrated heavily for winning the Stanley Cup. What’s worse is that many people on these sports shows are seemingly put on notice to not speak on it. Why is it like that all of the sudden? I’m going to let you all draw your own conclusions, but to me this seems rather fortunate for Kane. If only we afforded other athletes the same benefit of the doubt.
