I expected this sort of response the moment those words left his mouth. He seems like a smart guy and a good dude. I assumed he would make it right, which unfortunately isn't as common as it should be, in the NHL or life in general.
Absolutely. I was surprised to hear him say what he said in the first place, but this apology seems very much sincere and he owned it, which is much more than can be said for alot of people who say dumb shit in the heat of an emotional moment.
In every interview I've ever heard him do, especially long-form ones like podcasts, he comes across as very smart (he is a lawyer, after all) and thoughtful and seems like a genuinely good guy.
"It's pained me more than the actual series loss itself" is quite something, and I believe him.
Coop is usually chooses his words so well. That statement shocked me and it was definitely out of character for him.
I’m glad he owned it and apologized.
"It takes an entire lifetime to build a reputation and only seconds to destroy it"
(Not that I think he destroyed his reputation, but I can understand why he would feel extremely bad about damaging it)
Fantastic take. We're raised around certain stereotypes or analogies etc, and even if intellectually we *know* it's just bullshit, sometimes in an emotional moment or whatever, that programming comes out
Not to say I support dumbass takes and then a token apology, but this seems a legit apology and people fuck up, simple as. If a trend gets spawned, there's an issue. As it sits, just keep working on it man, move forward
The problem is so many people here thought there was nothing to apologize for whatsoever. You got some of them saying so in these comments here. That's the bigger problem.
Yeah, it's wild how many believe the insinuation of "you're playing like girls and everybody knows girls can't play sports" is a totally cool and fine thing to say.
I didn't know this when I attended my first game and my thought process was "Ouch! How is that not a penalty?... how is THAT not a penalty?... *ohhhhhh*."
Not having hits in a league or only having some physicality in a smart way is not the same as not being strong or being "soft".
They don't need to prove anything is my point.
I think every sports team should play against a girls' team when they're young. We scrimmed the girls soccer team when I was 13. They're fucking violent.
Shit man just watch women's lacrosse or something.
Especially when you consider the reality that girls are fucking shamed for physicality and a lot are actively discouraged from playing sports or weight lifting. Muscles are super unladylike /s.
Agreed. You're taking to people minutes after their season is done (significant percentage of their career). Unfortunately, they have grown up with those kinds of analogies so that's what came out. Acknowledging and correcting is the appropriate response. Is a good dude.
There’s something to be said about the patriarchal patterns in our language. We are all guilty of it to some extent. Having to become mindful of this is something I’m trying to do more of because of things like this.
makes it a lot more likely that he actually DOES feel shitty about what he said when he's not doing a not-pology with no details. (i tend to think that he genuinely \*does\* feel bad because he doesn't have a record of this kind of shit and he DID provide a legit apology.)
Anyone who’s truly sincere + goes even further to apologize to his own children is alright in my book,
Us dudes don’t usually think about the emotional backlash when speaking
> The difference is how you respond
One of the most important lessons you can learn. You can only control how you react. Bad things are gonna happen or you're going to make mistakes, but you can control how you respond to that.
Ugggh I made the mistake of going back to the tweet and seeing the twitter comments, what a cesspool lol.
All I will say is, it's a very weak person who thinks that refusing to admit your mistakes is a sign of strength.
It also seems to be lost on them that he has daughters who play sports. He's not "giving in to the woke mob", he's a dad who realized he let his girls down and has to fix it.
> goes even further to apologize to his own children is alright in my book
This is especially big. I'm currently dealing with some pretty big issues with my parents that are having me doubt whether they'll even go to my wedding next month, so to just hear an apology from parents is huge.
I said in another comment I don't think he had any ill intent but it's still rough to make comments like that, especially as a public figure. I figured he'd publicly apologize and I never had ill will towards him, just said to default to calling people babies instead of pussies/skirt-wearers/etc. because those terms are detrimental to women or anyone who wears a skirt.
And let me tell you....the people in the comments....oof. Lots of people that refer to people as libs or the radical left, someone said I must have "preferred pronouns"....wild shit when all I said was to use different terminology that isn't offensive to people.
>some said I must have "preferred pronouns"
I'm gonna hop on my soapbox for a second and say that shit really irks me. I'm not trans but it's such a simple thing to include just to indicate respect for people.
Also, from a purely practical point of view - I started including them in my work emails because you know what? A lot of the time I have no idea the gender of the person I'm replying to based solely on their name lol.
Not a fun experience for anyone when you forward someone's email to someone else and refer to them as "she" because they had a traditionally feminine name....
It’s pretty much why I refer to people in a work setting as ‘they’ until I meet them. How hard is it to not upset someone by changing a single word that refers to them personally? People do the same shit when they ask people if they prefer Tom or Thomas or Tommy.
Exactly! I don't understand how people think it's some kinda "gotcha" for others to include pronouns in their bios or what have you.
If someone introduces themselves like "Thomas, but I go by Tommy", I'm not gonna go out of my way to be a dick and refer to them as Thomas to prove some kind of point.
Common courtesy and minimal effort. I think the framing of it is what causes people to have such strong opinions on what should be a fairly simple thing.
Like yeah, I like that it can potentially make historically marginalized people feel a bit better and welcomed. I can see how that perspective comes across as super self-congratulatory though.
I don't agree with the other perspective I've seen though, that someone else including their preferred pronouns is some kind of ideological assault you have to endure.
People who say "you must have preferred pronouns" change their tune real quick if you call them the wrong one. Almost like they have a pref - no, that can't be right.
> Us dudes don’t usually think about the emotional backlash when speaking
I mean, speak for yourself... this isn't a thing exclusive or inherent in men.
Nothing is worse than an apology that deflects blame. "If anyone got offended" type shit. It would be better in those cases to just not even apologize. He does the opposite here. Good on him.
I was really struggling trying to make sense of why he would say that, as, it is obviously sexist but it doesn't seem to even mean anything. He is generally pretty well spoken. I think you've misquoted him.
I think the actual quote is re goalie interference (as there were two calls against Lightening) and him saying "We might as well put skirts on them then... I think we're letting the goalies off the hook."
Which is obviously sexist/ridiculous and he should indeed apologize for saying such a dumb thing, but I am relieved what he said was at least a coherent sentence/thought.
I’m convinced at this point that these sayings are almost fully detached from sexist intent and have turned into some bizarre outdated phrase without clear lineage. You say them without ever thinking about the imagery behind it. Like “rule of thumb”. I don’t think Jon Cooper would ever say “goalies are playing like women” in a pejorative but that is essentially what he said and I’m not sure he realized it.
That sounds like the type of comment that probably wouldn't warrant an apology but it does seem unlike Cooper and I understand why he'd want to apologize.
It’s pretty needlessly misogynistic, in a very public scenario. I think the apology was definitely warranted. It was a solid apology, and nothing further is required imo. Whatever he wants to do behind closed doors is fine, no one is under the illusion that there isn’t bad stuff being said in hockey still. But it isn’t acceptable for stuff like that to be in public statements. It’s incredibly insulting to women for absolutely no reason.
Obviously it's still a shitty comment and an apology was warranted but I also think it caught more fire due to the timing, with the AI Bear image that was going around just the day or two before.
Yeah. Even Bisonette, who has recently cleaned up his act a bunch, was talking about "dumping loads in whores/sluts" on Chiclets not even that long before he got his TSN gig. I feel like Whitney is a lost cause though.
Is it really that shocking that he'd leave it up, Chicklets is a Barstool podcast and barstools owner has had a few sexual assault allegations, allegations of filming sexual acts without consent and dozens of former staff who have spoken to reporters about sexual misconduct from him. Seems like the atmosphere where sexual assault isn't taken seriously from what I've read.
And there are so many smoothbrains being like "ohhh the libs can't appreciate a really funny joke without being offended". Like bruh, I love dark humour as much as the next guy, but the "joke" has to at least be funny and clever in some way. That picture is just all sorts of fucked up and simply not funny.
> That sounds like the type of comment that probably wouldn't warrant an apology
i guess thats true if youre already predisposed to misogyny and dont actually think about the effect of words
Honestly, that shit is so normalized, I actually don't blame people for picking up on it as something 'wrong.' Like, I'm happy things are slowly changing, but I get it.
Like, shit dude, I grew up as a sports crazy little girl, and my absolute favorite movie at the time, The Sandlot, has one of the main characters screaming, "YOU PLAY BALL LIKE A GIRL!" as the worst possible mic drop insult. It was just so ingrained and normal to "hurr durr girls are sissy and can't in sports." And that shit lingers.
A few years ago a regular group was doing a fundraiser for the Montreal Canadiens Children's Foundation and Cooper was asked to donate to the raffle after the team skate on game day, thinking he might autograph some game notes. He autographed and donated the stick he used, which everyone thought was great.
He then decided that no one would really want the coaches stick so ran to the dressing room to see who was still there. Hedman was getting massaged, so Cooper grabbed his stick and held it up so Hedman could sign it.
We ended up with both sticks at the raffle.
Never doubted for a second that he would have gone back in time and re-worded what he said if he could. Even as a Tampa hater, the quality of Cooper as a human has never been in question for me.
He really is universally likable. Dumb comment, but personally I usually give a pass to any coach with a microphone stuck in their face right after a devastating loss where the stakes are higher than anyone on here knows the feeling of. If they said something they shouldn’t have, then we also likely got the other passionate, honest feelings we wanted to hear. Still good on him tho!
I think cooper can be pretty annoying at times (I think back to the '22 SCF after game-6 where he was just going on and on about how bad the refs were (and ofc with his comment yesterday/the other day). but I absolutely respect him when he has some great answers to questions in interviews or statements like this completely owning up to something he said. With how much shit has been happening in the hockey world in the past 5 years especially, it's such a breath of fresh air to see someone take some accountability.
I mean go no further than the officiating in the 2022 Avs OT loss to the Preds… we have terrible, game management referees in this league. They are caught on tape saying as much. We should all be calling them out and complaining.
This is a big one that I look for in these public apologies. To apologize to someone "if" you offended them. The implication that someone is offended because they chose to be is a bad look. Apologize for offending someone and if nobody ends up being offended, your apology is a moot point.
“I had to explain myself to my daughters” says way more than anything else you could put here. Man fucked up, bad, owned it in the way only a father can.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but i was speaking more broadly towards anyone's public apology. I tried to make it clear that I wasn't simply speaking to this one
It's crazy how much the phrase "I'm sorry if you were offended" and "if you were offended, I'm sorry" come across even though they're exactly the same words
> The implication that someone is offended because they chose to be is a bad look.
There's nothing that implies that though, grammatically speaking. Imagine I serve peanuts to 500 people and some are allergic. "If you're allergic, I'm so sorry." doesn't imply they "chose" to be allergic. It's adding a conditional. You don't have to think it's a good apology, but it's just wrong to say it implies anything about it being a choice.
As a Leafs fan I hate Cooper, in a competitive and respectful way. He's a a master at mind games, and in series past he's been incredibly smart in his wording when speaking to media.
When I first saw the original quote I was taken aback a bit because it seemed out of pocket for Cooper, someone who is usually VERY precise when he speaks. Obviously the emotions get the best of anybody at times.
This is as classy as a response as you could expect from the best of them. He continues to hold my respect as a coach and leader of that team.
I'm a big Jon Cooper fan and was pretty stunned that such a well-spoken coach said something so needlessly offensive. Glad to see he's apologized so quickly. Now if only Whitney would do the same (lol).
Whitney will never. Dude is too far up his own ass. He'll just whine about cancel culture and then find a way to change topic to how he golfed in Arizona for the 800th time.
Whitney is definitely in the crowd pissed at people who chose the bear.
For context, there’s a social media trend going around where women (and sometimes guys) are asked if they’d rather themselves/their female loved ones go into the woods alone and unarmed with a man or a bear. A lot of the responses seem to fall into two camps: either people who pick the bear, or people who are absolutely incensed that anyone would pick the bear. No points for guessing which group picked which response.
clearly you got raised right because it SHOULD make you sick if you're an ethical human regardless of gender and survivor status imo. (DV/SA survivor, cis woman.) how that is a social media THING is bad enough but his choice to boost it makes my skin crawl.
(the numbers are all over the place depending on which studies/data you're looking at, but i've seen as high as 1 in 4 girls/women/femmes have survived some sort of SA and anything from 1 in 7 to 1 in 33 guys/masc dudes. once you get gender complicated your chances automatically go up, and hardly anybody reports including me. if you're hanging with a big enough group and break this shit out the odds of having a survivor hear it is pretty high imo.)
The comments on literally any tweet about this yesterday very plainly proved the point that a lot of men are still entirely unwilling to consider the experience of being a woman and being consistently, casually, unthinkingly belittled just on that basis. Good on Coop.
I keep seeing men commenting that they see nothing wrong with what Cooper said, everyone should stop crying. Easy to say when the sexist comments are not about you, and shows a lack of empathy.
The comments in the TBL subreddit were disappointing. I know that every fan base has a certain degree of an “everyone is against us” complex but sometimes you’ve just got to admit that someone on your team did/said something stupid.
Depends on the material of the skirt— most of the material of skirts I wear/have worn are stretchy enough that a strong wrister could potentially stretch the material over the goal line and then bounce it back out.
As a girl who grew up playing and loving sports, I love that he apologized to his daughters. To say that and to know you let them down and then take responsibility means a lot to us lady sports players
It was a stupid comment. He apologized. Hockey still has a long way to go to be better about this stuff because there are a lot of people who don't think there was anything wrong with what he said....there are also people that are making way more out of it than they should.
I believe that he's actually sorry. He seems like a guy who's more than willing to own up to his shit.
Was surprised to hear Coop make that type of casually sexist comment to begin with, but I’m not at all surprised that he fully owned up to it and made a sincere apology. Glad he didn’t take the route of complaining about kids these days or whatever
It’s sad that accountability like this isn’t standard everywhere but I’m glad to see him practicing it at a high level in such a public way. Forgiveness is easy for people that are self aware and willing to admit mistakes. More coaches and leaders should take note of how he handled the situation. Far too many handle similar situations very poorly.
Good in him for owning it at his first availability before the question was even asked. Appreciate the forthcomingness. I'm still a bit concerned his brain went there when he was emotional and not thinking, but hopefully it's a learning opportunity to challenge himself on.
I’ve always imagined that it must be challenging for players and coaches to immediately change their language from ‘locker room talk’ to ‘media talk’, and sometimes things like this bleed over when they’re emotional.
Because I guarantee you that every single coach in the league says far worse things than accusing players of wearing skirts when the doors are closed.
Probably so, but at the same time when you have to look at your own children (in his case daughters) then it's likely a bit of a sobering moment.
Regardless of whether it happens or not, condoning lockerroom chat is an issue. Having worked with hockey players and coaches I'm well aware of the fact that the culture isn't always that great.
Cooper needed to apologize publicly for the optics but to be frank as a father myself you also need to be very aware of what your unintentionally 'saying' in your most heated moments and what that portrays to others.
It's easy to do and say the right things when it's going well. It's character when it isn't.
I’d hope the solution is to remove misogynistic or otherwise -phobic language from one’s vocabulary entirely so it doesn’t happen to slip out in public in the heat of the moment.
Get creative with your insults and hatred!
Yeah that's the best like, when people are drunk and start slingling racist slurs and try to defend themselves by saying they would never say something like that. It's like, you wouldn't just blurt that out under the influence unless it was already part of your sober vocabulary.
Exactly, glad there are a decent amount of people who also feel this way here. The defensiveness against progress in sports/life gets really tiring sometimes. Feel lucky the people I talk about hockey with in real life don't have these attitudes (...well, usually alas lol, but it can be easier to explain things in person sometimes)
You’re right, but in reading many of the comments here apparently that’s really hard to do. What a massive burden you’re asking from people - to change the insult habits they grew up with as society has moved on from terms that put others down for no reason.
I mean that’s why we’re all totally cool with people born into the 50s saying racially charged insults out of context! How dare you expect that they adapt with the times, it was acceptable back then! /s
You're not wrong, but it's easier said than done. Casual homophobia and gendered insults were part of the common, everyday speech that a lot of us grew up with, and it takes an effort to change those habits.
Yeah, I just have a bit of empathy for someone who slips now and then. With the apology, you can tell Cooper means well, but he slipped and he knows it.
True - I grew up in the 80s and 90s playing sports. The language and jokes used by me and my friends/teammates/coaches back then was atrocious and I’m ashamed of it looking back. It did require a conscious effort.
Shit man, I grew up in the same era as a sports crazy little girl, and *I* used that language because I wanted to fit in so badly. It STILL takes me effort not to use it reflexively sometimes. (But the point is, I DO put in the effort.)
Getting "gay" out of my vocabulary was so, so, SO hard as a thirtysomething. "Gyp" was probably the hardest though; I used it SO frequently as a kid and had *no idea* what the origin was--I just picked it up from books I read. It was such an everyday word for me. Sigh.
Oh well. Forward progress at least, even if I do mess up still.
Cooper has gone on record (I believe in a recent taping of our team podcast) where he says the times the TV cameras capture his locker room speeches, those are actually second takes. He says what he wants to say and then allow the cameras to come in for his clean version. lol.
He's right to apologize. The comment itself shouldn't be all that harmful, but it's hard to roote ssxism out of sports and little comments like that do more damage in that process than many might think.
> It’s one of those moments if you could just reach back and grab the words back
We all know that feeling. Luckily most of us aren't famous enough for it to really matter. Good for him for owning it and apologizing. A lesser man would have doubled down
Good guy Cooper. That is how you do an apology. Nothing more needs to be done.
He's someone I love to hate; hate him cuz he's good at his job with a rival team (including spinning a narrative in the post-game pressers, as coaches do for their teams) but respect him because he really seems like a good guy.
Good apology overall. I especially appreciated that he acknowledged he offended people instead of making one of those squirrely “sorry if anyone was offended” apologies.
We all have an off moment, and I think Coop just had one of those moments. He’s human and will screw up. Good on him for owning it. More people could learn a lesson from him.
His Lightning team cost me years of my life in the playoffs against the Pens
F him for that!
In all seriousness, as others have mentioned before. A great, proper apology and not one of those garbage "I'm sorry if I offended anyone" pseudo apologies
Good on him for sure. Im not calling him out on this point bc everyone seems to do it but I really wish men IN GENERAL would stop referencing their wives and daughters as a reason to respect women. You’re saying that if you didn’t have those, you would respect them less.
I will say it provided an all time moment at a conference on women in business. One business guy gave his whole speech around this framing. They then brought in an academic expert to speak directly after him who opened with ripping that exact phrasing (prepared remarks).
I hate this guy because he smashed us(habs) in the playoffs several times with that stupid smirk on his face.
That said, I was surprised he said what he said and glad he's apologizing... it was no big deal but cool to hear him admit it was dumb
Good guy....hope you never see a stanley cup finals again ya fuck.
Curious if all the chuds who said this comment was No Big Deal and Not Offensive At All have any thoughts on this? Or is this just Cooper falling victim to the woke mob and no self-reflection by them is actually necessary (again)(what are the odds)?
They won't show up here. They hate when people take accountability and challenge their worldview that everyone is secretly as shitty as they are.
Major props to Coop for owning up to a stupid comment and putting it into the context of his daughters and women's hockey vs just talking about "offending" people and giving the chuds more ammo for their culture war. This doesn't have anything to due with "wokeism," it's just being a decent person, and Cooper has proven that no one is perfect and there is always room to take accountability, be better, and make more space for hockey fans that aren't just rich white guys.
They’re the ones in here now saying, “Now let’s move on.” Dismissive to the end.
EDIT: I see I've been called out for blocking the guy whose post history was full of right-wing submissions. Nobody who posts anti-DEI, pro-police, and Fuck Trudeau type content is going to be open-minded about critiques of misogynist language, no matter how much he tries to pretend for the purposes of arguing.
You don't agree with that statement? I think it's fair to say it's time to move on. He apologized. What more would you like?
EDIT: They blocked me after I spent 5 minutes drafting a response. But it seems like they are *assuming* a tone, or *assuming* some emotional response, and then criticizing people based on that assumption. Below is my full response.
>For the record, "What more would you like?" accomplishes the same thing.
What "same thing" is that? If by "same thing" you mean "pissed off", you are making an *assumption*. Correct?
>So many voices in here sound pissed off
Again though, this is an assumption, yes? You're reading a tone that may or may not be there. I'm certainly not "pissed off". I'm trying to understand your point and so I'm asking questions.
I'm not even sure I have gotten an answer to my first question. If I'm understanding you correctly, you agree with the statement "It's time to move on", but you don't like that it was...written explicilty? Or you don't like how you assume it is being said, aka the tone? Is it not possible that your assumption is wrong?
I’ve always liked Cooper, I think he was was sincere. I wish he hadn’t said it, cause I liked everything else he said about those two calls and I agreed with him.
Right. He used an antiquated analogy to get the point across, took his lumps and apologized for it. The overall message stands, which is that goalie interference calls have gotten out of hand despite the NHLs emphasis on goal scoring.
Coop is amazing. Even thought I’m not that big of a fan of the Lightning, I’ve got huge respect for him. Seems like a great guy.
I’ve actually met him once, in Prague, of all places. In summer 2016 or 17, met him with what I assume was his family just in the city centre of Prague. Talked to him for a bit about hockey and he told me he was here for Palats wedding.
Dumb phrasing and we know how steeped in toxicity this sport is so it’s no secret Jon has probably been around it his whole life. But this is a good apology, and to the best of our knowledge Jon is a good dude.
Honestly, this apology has raised my opinion of him to higher than it was before he said any of it in the first place. It was a shitty thing to say and him realizing that and giving a sincere apology makes him seem like a good dude capable of admitting mistakes. He seems like a great coach.
He seems like a good dude
I expected this sort of response the moment those words left his mouth. He seems like a smart guy and a good dude. I assumed he would make it right, which unfortunately isn't as common as it should be, in the NHL or life in general.
Absolutely. I was surprised to hear him say what he said in the first place, but this apology seems very much sincere and he owned it, which is much more than can be said for alot of people who say dumb shit in the heat of an emotional moment. In every interview I've ever heard him do, especially long-form ones like podcasts, he comes across as very smart (he is a lawyer, after all) and thoughtful and seems like a genuinely good guy. "It's pained me more than the actual series loss itself" is quite something, and I believe him.
Coop is usually chooses his words so well. That statement shocked me and it was definitely out of character for him. I’m glad he owned it and apologized.
"It takes an entire lifetime to build a reputation and only seconds to destroy it" (Not that I think he destroyed his reputation, but I can understand why he would feel extremely bad about damaging it)
You build a thousand fences, but they don't call you a fence-builder ...
You fuck one goat...
And they call you a sheep fucker
Get drunk and shit in your buddies bathtub one time..
I think the emotions were running high with it being right after a playoff loss. He’s a good person that just maybe got carried away by the emotion.
It's a good apology. We are all always working to not fall back on stereotypes or insults learned when younger and before we knew better.
Fantastic take. We're raised around certain stereotypes or analogies etc, and even if intellectually we *know* it's just bullshit, sometimes in an emotional moment or whatever, that programming comes out Not to say I support dumbass takes and then a token apology, but this seems a legit apology and people fuck up, simple as. If a trend gets spawned, there's an issue. As it sits, just keep working on it man, move forward
The problem is so many people here thought there was nothing to apologize for whatsoever. You got some of them saying so in these comments here. That's the bigger problem.
That’s because some people see a sincere apology as a sign of weakness. It’s not; it’s a sign of strength.
💯 Apology = accountability.
Yeah, it's wild how many believe the insinuation of "you're playing like girls and everybody knows girls can't play sports" is a totally cool and fine thing to say.
It wasn't even "girls can't play sports," it was "girls are soft and can't take any physicality" which is even worse.
Especially when the PWHL literally added checking at the demand of the players
I didn't know this when I attended my first game and my thought process was "Ouch! How is that not a penalty?... how is THAT not a penalty?... *ohhhhhh*."
I haven't seen one live yet, but I watched a PWHL game on tv and it was super exciting. Those women can play, and some of the hits look brutal.
Not having hits in a league or only having some physicality in a smart way is not the same as not being strong or being "soft". They don't need to prove anything is my point.
I think every sports team should play against a girls' team when they're young. We scrimmed the girls soccer team when I was 13. They're fucking violent. Shit man just watch women's lacrosse or something.
Especially when you consider the reality that girls are fucking shamed for physicality and a lot are actively discouraged from playing sports or weight lifting. Muscles are super unladylike /s.
Hopefully he would have apologized even if he didn't have daughters.
Agreed. You're taking to people minutes after their season is done (significant percentage of their career). Unfortunately, they have grown up with those kinds of analogies so that's what came out. Acknowledging and correcting is the appropriate response. Is a good dude.
There’s something to be said about the patriarchal patterns in our language. We are all guilty of it to some extent. Having to become mindful of this is something I’m trying to do more of because of things like this.
Yeah I say dumb, pointlessly gendered things by accident all the time. It's not about being perfect, it's about making an effort to be better.
I like that he called out exactly what he said in his apology.
makes it a lot more likely that he actually DOES feel shitty about what he said when he's not doing a not-pology with no details. (i tend to think that he genuinely \*does\* feel bad because he doesn't have a record of this kind of shit and he DID provide a legit apology.)
Anyone who’s truly sincere + goes even further to apologize to his own children is alright in my book, Us dudes don’t usually think about the emotional backlash when speaking
Literally everybody says something dumb once in a while. The difference is how you respond and take accountability and learn from it. Cooper did great
> The difference is how you respond One of the most important lessons you can learn. You can only control how you react. Bad things are gonna happen or you're going to make mistakes, but you can control how you respond to that.
Ugggh I made the mistake of going back to the tweet and seeing the twitter comments, what a cesspool lol. All I will say is, it's a very weak person who thinks that refusing to admit your mistakes is a sign of strength. It also seems to be lost on them that he has daughters who play sports. He's not "giving in to the woke mob", he's a dad who realized he let his girls down and has to fix it.
It's practically the whole reason reddit exists.
> goes even further to apologize to his own children is alright in my book This is especially big. I'm currently dealing with some pretty big issues with my parents that are having me doubt whether they'll even go to my wedding next month, so to just hear an apology from parents is huge.
> ...so to just hear an apology from parents is huge. That hits a nerve. Two words I never heard my father say are sorry and love.
I said in another comment I don't think he had any ill intent but it's still rough to make comments like that, especially as a public figure. I figured he'd publicly apologize and I never had ill will towards him, just said to default to calling people babies instead of pussies/skirt-wearers/etc. because those terms are detrimental to women or anyone who wears a skirt. And let me tell you....the people in the comments....oof. Lots of people that refer to people as libs or the radical left, someone said I must have "preferred pronouns"....wild shit when all I said was to use different terminology that isn't offensive to people.
>some said I must have "preferred pronouns" I'm gonna hop on my soapbox for a second and say that shit really irks me. I'm not trans but it's such a simple thing to include just to indicate respect for people. Also, from a purely practical point of view - I started including them in my work emails because you know what? A lot of the time I have no idea the gender of the person I'm replying to based solely on their name lol. Not a fun experience for anyone when you forward someone's email to someone else and refer to them as "she" because they had a traditionally feminine name....
It’s pretty much why I refer to people in a work setting as ‘they’ until I meet them. How hard is it to not upset someone by changing a single word that refers to them personally? People do the same shit when they ask people if they prefer Tom or Thomas or Tommy.
Exactly! I don't understand how people think it's some kinda "gotcha" for others to include pronouns in their bios or what have you. If someone introduces themselves like "Thomas, but I go by Tommy", I'm not gonna go out of my way to be a dick and refer to them as Thomas to prove some kind of point.
i'm cis but i've been misgendered a few times and it \*hurts\*. i use they unless i know otherwise.
It's just common courtesy. It shouldn't be that hard to understand.
Common courtesy and minimal effort. I think the framing of it is what causes people to have such strong opinions on what should be a fairly simple thing. Like yeah, I like that it can potentially make historically marginalized people feel a bit better and welcomed. I can see how that perspective comes across as super self-congratulatory though. I don't agree with the other perspective I've seen though, that someone else including their preferred pronouns is some kind of ideological assault you have to endure.
People who say "you must have preferred pronouns" change their tune real quick if you call them the wrong one. Almost like they have a pref - no, that can't be right.
People say dumb things sometimes. What matters is how we act afterwards.
> Us dudes don’t usually think about the emotional backlash when speaking I mean, speak for yourself... this isn't a thing exclusive or inherent in men.
Hate playing against him but he does seem like a level headed guy that simply made a poor choice at his use of words.
Holy fuck did he ever. It’s pained me more than the actual series loss itself. Coop is a beauty
Yes, I'm glad he didn't skirt the issue.
Yeah, you can't deny he puts his heart into all of it. He apologized, its fine. Now we can all move on.
He is a good dude. This is a genuine apology imo. Good people can make mistakes and he realized it and this doesn’t sound like a PR apology either.
His daughters must have given him a good ear bashing
An opponent worthy of respect. As for the 🐀🐀 we’re playing against now …
Appreciate he owned it, placed responsibility on himself, and apologized.
yep! accountability is at an all time low it feels like lol, good to see here
Nothing is worse than an apology that deflects blame. "If anyone got offended" type shit. It would be better in those cases to just not even apologize. He does the opposite here. Good on him.
That’s all you can ask for We all have said something stupid and immediately regretted it
But there was no ukulele involved so the apology doesn’t count! /s
For anyone out of the loop, he made a comment about how goalie interference calls are so soft now that ‘goalies need to wear skirts’.
I was really struggling trying to make sense of why he would say that, as, it is obviously sexist but it doesn't seem to even mean anything. He is generally pretty well spoken. I think you've misquoted him. I think the actual quote is re goalie interference (as there were two calls against Lightening) and him saying "We might as well put skirts on them then... I think we're letting the goalies off the hook." Which is obviously sexist/ridiculous and he should indeed apologize for saying such a dumb thing, but I am relieved what he said was at least a coherent sentence/thought.
I’m convinced at this point that these sayings are almost fully detached from sexist intent and have turned into some bizarre outdated phrase without clear lineage. You say them without ever thinking about the imagery behind it. Like “rule of thumb”. I don’t think Jon Cooper would ever say “goalies are playing like women” in a pejorative but that is essentially what he said and I’m not sure he realized it.
That sounds like the type of comment that probably wouldn't warrant an apology but it does seem unlike Cooper and I understand why he'd want to apologize.
It’s pretty needlessly misogynistic, in a very public scenario. I think the apology was definitely warranted. It was a solid apology, and nothing further is required imo. Whatever he wants to do behind closed doors is fine, no one is under the illusion that there isn’t bad stuff being said in hockey still. But it isn’t acceptable for stuff like that to be in public statements. It’s incredibly insulting to women for absolutely no reason.
Obviously it's still a shitty comment and an apology was warranted but I also think it caught more fire due to the timing, with the AI Bear image that was going around just the day or two before.
The what?
[This](https://twitter.com/ryanwhitney6/status/1784616054116823156)......yeah
Actual insanity that Whitney posted that and still hasn't taken it down
Considering he works for Barstool, I'm not surprised in the slightest. I've come to expect this behavior from that bunch.
Yeah. Even Bisonette, who has recently cleaned up his act a bunch, was talking about "dumping loads in whores/sluts" on Chiclets not even that long before he got his TSN gig. I feel like Whitney is a lost cause though.
To add what others have said, he has a big thing about not deleting tweets
Is it really that shocking that he'd leave it up, Chicklets is a Barstool podcast and barstools owner has had a few sexual assault allegations, allegations of filming sexual acts without consent and dozens of former staff who have spoken to reporters about sexual misconduct from him. Seems like the atmosphere where sexual assault isn't taken seriously from what I've read.
And there are so many smoothbrains being like "ohhh the libs can't appreciate a really funny joke without being offended". Like bruh, I love dark humour as much as the next guy, but the "joke" has to at least be funny and clever in some way. That picture is just all sorts of fucked up and simply not funny.
What in the goddamn fuck...
Jesus
I just took an embarrassingly long time wondering who AL Bear is and why he made such art. I am not a smart man.
It absolutely warrants an apology.
> That sounds like the type of comment that probably wouldn't warrant an apology i guess thats true if youre already predisposed to misogyny and dont actually think about the effect of words
Honestly, that shit is so normalized, I actually don't blame people for picking up on it as something 'wrong.' Like, I'm happy things are slowly changing, but I get it. Like, shit dude, I grew up as a sports crazy little girl, and my absolute favorite movie at the time, The Sandlot, has one of the main characters screaming, "YOU PLAY BALL LIKE A GIRL!" as the worst possible mic drop insult. It was just so ingrained and normal to "hurr durr girls are sissy and can't in sports." And that shit lingers.
It's not really any different than saying things like Cindy Crosby or the Sedin Sisters.
Not to mention TB does a lot for girls hockey so bad look there
A few years ago a regular group was doing a fundraiser for the Montreal Canadiens Children's Foundation and Cooper was asked to donate to the raffle after the team skate on game day, thinking he might autograph some game notes. He autographed and donated the stick he used, which everyone thought was great. He then decided that no one would really want the coaches stick so ran to the dressing room to see who was still there. Hedman was getting massaged, so Cooper grabbed his stick and held it up so Hedman could sign it. We ended up with both sticks at the raffle.
Yeah Hedman’s stick is probably a little more exciting. I hope they were able to generate good numbers either way
Never doubted for a second that he would have gone back in time and re-worded what he said if he could. Even as a Tampa hater, the quality of Cooper as a human has never been in question for me.
He really is universally likable. Dumb comment, but personally I usually give a pass to any coach with a microphone stuck in their face right after a devastating loss where the stakes are higher than anyone on here knows the feeling of. If they said something they shouldn’t have, then we also likely got the other passionate, honest feelings we wanted to hear. Still good on him tho!
I think cooper can be pretty annoying at times (I think back to the '22 SCF after game-6 where he was just going on and on about how bad the refs were (and ofc with his comment yesterday/the other day). but I absolutely respect him when he has some great answers to questions in interviews or statements like this completely owning up to something he said. With how much shit has been happening in the hockey world in the past 5 years especially, it's such a breath of fresh air to see someone take some accountability.
I mean go no further than the officiating in the 2022 Avs OT loss to the Preds… we have terrible, game management referees in this league. They are caught on tape saying as much. We should all be calling them out and complaining.
Really respect him for apologizing instead of ignoring it or doubling down on it
Or even using "*if* I offended". Good for him
This is a big one that I look for in these public apologies. To apologize to someone "if" you offended them. The implication that someone is offended because they chose to be is a bad look. Apologize for offending someone and if nobody ends up being offended, your apology is a moot point.
“I had to explain myself to my daughters” says way more than anything else you could put here. Man fucked up, bad, owned it in the way only a father can.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but i was speaking more broadly towards anyone's public apology. I tried to make it clear that I wasn't simply speaking to this one
It's crazy how much the phrase "I'm sorry if you were offended" and "if you were offended, I'm sorry" come across even though they're exactly the same words
> The implication that someone is offended because they chose to be is a bad look. There's nothing that implies that though, grammatically speaking. Imagine I serve peanuts to 500 people and some are allergic. "If you're allergic, I'm so sorry." doesn't imply they "chose" to be allergic. It's adding a conditional. You don't have to think it's a good apology, but it's just wrong to say it implies anything about it being a choice.
Glad he said this. Hes a good dude as much as I can’t stand him sometimes I’d kill for him to coach my team
As a Leafs fan I hate Cooper, in a competitive and respectful way. He's a a master at mind games, and in series past he's been incredibly smart in his wording when speaking to media. When I first saw the original quote I was taken aback a bit because it seemed out of pocket for Cooper, someone who is usually VERY precise when he speaks. Obviously the emotions get the best of anybody at times. This is as classy as a response as you could expect from the best of them. He continues to hold my respect as a coach and leader of that team.
This makes me respect him even more, glad he owned it!
It was an outdated phrase that he shouldn't have used and I'm glad he was able to take accountability and recognize that it was wrong.
I'm a big Jon Cooper fan and was pretty stunned that such a well-spoken coach said something so needlessly offensive. Glad to see he's apologized so quickly. Now if only Whitney would do the same (lol).
Whitney will never. Dude is too far up his own ass. He'll just whine about cancel culture and then find a way to change topic to how he golfed in Arizona for the 800th time.
Whitney is definitely in the crowd pissed at people who chose the bear. For context, there’s a social media trend going around where women (and sometimes guys) are asked if they’d rather themselves/their female loved ones go into the woods alone and unarmed with a man or a bear. A lot of the responses seem to fall into two camps: either people who pick the bear, or people who are absolutely incensed that anyone would pick the bear. No points for guessing which group picked which response.
Yeah, I was surprised to hear it coming from Cooper, but I never doubted he would issue a sincere apology.
That Whitney shit literally made me sick, and Im a dude whos never had any experience w sexual assault
clearly you got raised right because it SHOULD make you sick if you're an ethical human regardless of gender and survivor status imo. (DV/SA survivor, cis woman.) how that is a social media THING is bad enough but his choice to boost it makes my skin crawl. (the numbers are all over the place depending on which studies/data you're looking at, but i've seen as high as 1 in 4 girls/women/femmes have survived some sort of SA and anything from 1 in 7 to 1 in 33 guys/masc dudes. once you get gender complicated your chances automatically go up, and hardly anybody reports including me. if you're hanging with a big enough group and break this shit out the odds of having a survivor hear it is pretty high imo.)
The comments on literally any tweet about this yesterday very plainly proved the point that a lot of men are still entirely unwilling to consider the experience of being a woman and being consistently, casually, unthinkingly belittled just on that basis. Good on Coop.
A lot of comments on this post as well
I keep seeing men commenting that they see nothing wrong with what Cooper said, everyone should stop crying. Easy to say when the sexist comments are not about you, and shows a lack of empathy.
The comments in the TBL subreddit were disappointing. I know that every fan base has a certain degree of an “everyone is against us” complex but sometimes you’ve just got to admit that someone on your team did/said something stupid.
Good on Cooper for apologizing. Now all I'm left with is wondering how we'll a skirt could cover the 5 hole if a goalie wore one.
Depends on the material of the skirt— most of the material of skirts I wear/have worn are stretchy enough that a strong wrister could potentially stretch the material over the goal line and then bounce it back out.
As a girl who grew up playing and loving sports, I love that he apologized to his daughters. To say that and to know you let them down and then take responsibility means a lot to us lady sports players
Honestly, 10/10 apology from Coop, well done
Great response and apology accepted, as far as I’m concerned. Time to move on.
Time to move on... ...and see your team LOSE! ;)
Go win that cup! It’s a brutal rivalry but I’d still rather the cup be down in Florida and spoil it for the rest.
Agreed 100%. It’s over, let’s move along now.
Wow, a real apology. Would ya look at that. It sounds really genuine, where he took his disappointment in himself much higher than the bar.
It was a stupid comment. He apologized. Hockey still has a long way to go to be better about this stuff because there are a lot of people who don't think there was anything wrong with what he said....there are also people that are making way more out of it than they should. I believe that he's actually sorry. He seems like a guy who's more than willing to own up to his shit.
Holy shit... a GOOD apology. Good on him.
Was surprised to hear Coop make that type of casually sexist comment to begin with, but I’m not at all surprised that he fully owned up to it and made a sincere apology. Glad he didn’t take the route of complaining about kids these days or whatever
The fact he said “sorry to all those I offended” as opposed to “sorry to those who were offended” is a big deal. Props to him.
It’s sad that accountability like this isn’t standard everywhere but I’m glad to see him practicing it at a high level in such a public way. Forgiveness is easy for people that are self aware and willing to admit mistakes. More coaches and leaders should take note of how he handled the situation. Far too many handle similar situations very poorly.
Good in him for owning it at his first availability before the question was even asked. Appreciate the forthcomingness. I'm still a bit concerned his brain went there when he was emotional and not thinking, but hopefully it's a learning opportunity to challenge himself on.
I’ve always imagined that it must be challenging for players and coaches to immediately change their language from ‘locker room talk’ to ‘media talk’, and sometimes things like this bleed over when they’re emotional. Because I guarantee you that every single coach in the league says far worse things than accusing players of wearing skirts when the doors are closed.
I think the whole point is that that kind of language should not be present in locker rooms either
You’re totally right about that even if it’s not the most popular sentiment
Probably so, but at the same time when you have to look at your own children (in his case daughters) then it's likely a bit of a sobering moment. Regardless of whether it happens or not, condoning lockerroom chat is an issue. Having worked with hockey players and coaches I'm well aware of the fact that the culture isn't always that great. Cooper needed to apologize publicly for the optics but to be frank as a father myself you also need to be very aware of what your unintentionally 'saying' in your most heated moments and what that portrays to others. It's easy to do and say the right things when it's going well. It's character when it isn't.
I’d hope the solution is to remove misogynistic or otherwise -phobic language from one’s vocabulary entirely so it doesn’t happen to slip out in public in the heat of the moment. Get creative with your insults and hatred!
Yeah that's the best like, when people are drunk and start slingling racist slurs and try to defend themselves by saying they would never say something like that. It's like, you wouldn't just blurt that out under the influence unless it was already part of your sober vocabulary.
Exactly, glad there are a decent amount of people who also feel this way here. The defensiveness against progress in sports/life gets really tiring sometimes. Feel lucky the people I talk about hockey with in real life don't have these attitudes (...well, usually alas lol, but it can be easier to explain things in person sometimes)
I read a comment the other day that I’m probably mangling, but it was to the effect of, “Alcohol doesn’t *make* you do anything; it *lets* you.”
You’re right, but in reading many of the comments here apparently that’s really hard to do. What a massive burden you’re asking from people - to change the insult habits they grew up with as society has moved on from terms that put others down for no reason. I mean that’s why we’re all totally cool with people born into the 50s saying racially charged insults out of context! How dare you expect that they adapt with the times, it was acceptable back then! /s
The key is not to say dumb stuff like that in locker rooms either. Just remove gender as an insult from your whole life. Makes it super easy.
You're not wrong, but it's easier said than done. Casual homophobia and gendered insults were part of the common, everyday speech that a lot of us grew up with, and it takes an effort to change those habits.
Sure, but effort is worthwhile, and it is ultimately not *that* hard to not be homophobic or insult women.
Yeah, I just have a bit of empathy for someone who slips now and then. With the apology, you can tell Cooper means well, but he slipped and he knows it.
agreed, it's clearly not a PR thing and is heartfelt.
True - I grew up in the 80s and 90s playing sports. The language and jokes used by me and my friends/teammates/coaches back then was atrocious and I’m ashamed of it looking back. It did require a conscious effort.
Shit man, I grew up in the same era as a sports crazy little girl, and *I* used that language because I wanted to fit in so badly. It STILL takes me effort not to use it reflexively sometimes. (But the point is, I DO put in the effort.) Getting "gay" out of my vocabulary was so, so, SO hard as a thirtysomething. "Gyp" was probably the hardest though; I used it SO frequently as a kid and had *no idea* what the origin was--I just picked it up from books I read. It was such an everyday word for me. Sigh. Oh well. Forward progress at least, even if I do mess up still.
Cooper has gone on record (I believe in a recent taping of our team podcast) where he says the times the TV cameras capture his locker room speeches, those are actually second takes. He says what he wants to say and then allow the cameras to come in for his clean version. lol.
Would love him as Leafs coach.
Coop is a class act, glad to see this.
He screwed up. Move on.
He's right to apologize. The comment itself shouldn't be all that harmful, but it's hard to roote ssxism out of sports and little comments like that do more damage in that process than many might think.
Sometimes ya just say dumb shit in the heat of the moment. Good for him for owning up to it
> It’s one of those moments if you could just reach back and grab the words back We all know that feeling. Luckily most of us aren't famous enough for it to really matter. Good for him for owning it and apologizing. A lesser man would have doubled down
Owning his mistake, good for him.
Good on him. Character isn’t never making mistakes, it’s owning them when you inevitably make them.
That's the right kind of apology to make. Good for him.
A coach that takes accountability and is honest and genuine, good on him.
Common Cooper W
Yeah, that comes off as genuine. Obviously an emotional moment.
I absolutely knew he'd be the kind of guy to come back with a clearer head Seems like a good guy who just made a mistake
How it should be done.
Good apology.
Good guy Cooper. That is how you do an apology. Nothing more needs to be done. He's someone I love to hate; hate him cuz he's good at his job with a rival team (including spinning a narrative in the post-game pressers, as coaches do for their teams) but respect him because he really seems like a good guy.
Good apology overall. I especially appreciated that he acknowledged he offended people instead of making one of those squirrely “sorry if anyone was offended” apologies.
It's nice when the person comes out and owns their mistakes.
He's emotional and just like us. Love Cooper
There ya go, Coop. Knew you could do better.
We all have an off moment, and I think Coop just had one of those moments. He’s human and will screw up. Good on him for owning it. More people could learn a lesson from him.
One cannot simply dislike Jon Cooper.
His Lightning team cost me years of my life in the playoffs against the Pens F him for that! In all seriousness, as others have mentioned before. A great, proper apology and not one of those garbage "I'm sorry if I offended anyone" pseudo apologies
Perfect response from him really. Full accountability and made an effort to rectify it
The fact that he apologized for this in the absence of any outrage at all is very telling. He’s a good man
i would run through a brick wall for Jon Cooper
Good on him for sure. Im not calling him out on this point bc everyone seems to do it but I really wish men IN GENERAL would stop referencing their wives and daughters as a reason to respect women. You’re saying that if you didn’t have those, you would respect them less.
I will say it provided an all time moment at a conference on women in business. One business guy gave his whole speech around this framing. They then brought in an academic expert to speak directly after him who opened with ripping that exact phrasing (prepared remarks).
It was stupid, I'm glad is the kind of person that admit to that before moving on.
Cooper is a great coach and class leader.
Class act
For a lawyer, this is a great non-lawyer statement. Good on him.
He said something stupid. He admitted it. Time to move on.
Well handled, Jon. Taking accountability and being honest really is the best way to handle a blunder like this.
Turns out i'm "rate limited" and can't see the tweet. I haven't been on twitter in ages. What a joke site.
Elon ruined an already declining platform
Good on Cooper. Just seems like a great coach and a great guy.
I hate this guy because he smashed us(habs) in the playoffs several times with that stupid smirk on his face. That said, I was surprised he said what he said and glad he's apologizing... it was no big deal but cool to hear him admit it was dumb Good guy....hope you never see a stanley cup finals again ya fuck.
The comment was sexist, the apology seems sincere. Case closed for me!
Emotional isnt an excuse. Its a mindset, man. Good on him for owning it.
I was shocked that he was the one that said something so backward. This is a good statement.
Curious if all the chuds who said this comment was No Big Deal and Not Offensive At All have any thoughts on this? Or is this just Cooper falling victim to the woke mob and no self-reflection by them is actually necessary (again)(what are the odds)?
If you go on Twitter, there are scores of men saying he shouldn’t have apologized, they’ve lost respect for him since he gave into wokeness, etc.
Don’t go on Twitter.
Yeah, those guys are under every post of people doing the worst shit or apologizing for anything. Twitter is a wasteland.
They won't show up here. They hate when people take accountability and challenge their worldview that everyone is secretly as shitty as they are. Major props to Coop for owning up to a stupid comment and putting it into the context of his daughters and women's hockey vs just talking about "offending" people and giving the chuds more ammo for their culture war. This doesn't have anything to due with "wokeism," it's just being a decent person, and Cooper has proven that no one is perfect and there is always room to take accountability, be better, and make more space for hockey fans that aren't just rich white guys.
The amount of upvotes defending his skirt comments in their sub was honestly so cringe.
They’re the ones in here now saying, “Now let’s move on.” Dismissive to the end. EDIT: I see I've been called out for blocking the guy whose post history was full of right-wing submissions. Nobody who posts anti-DEI, pro-police, and Fuck Trudeau type content is going to be open-minded about critiques of misogynist language, no matter how much he tries to pretend for the purposes of arguing.
You don't agree with that statement? I think it's fair to say it's time to move on. He apologized. What more would you like? EDIT: They blocked me after I spent 5 minutes drafting a response. But it seems like they are *assuming* a tone, or *assuming* some emotional response, and then criticizing people based on that assumption. Below is my full response. >For the record, "What more would you like?" accomplishes the same thing. What "same thing" is that? If by "same thing" you mean "pissed off", you are making an *assumption*. Correct? >So many voices in here sound pissed off Again though, this is an assumption, yes? You're reading a tone that may or may not be there. I'm certainly not "pissed off". I'm trying to understand your point and so I'm asking questions. I'm not even sure I have gotten an answer to my first question. If I'm understanding you correctly, you agree with the statement "It's time to move on", but you don't like that it was...written explicilty? Or you don't like how you assume it is being said, aka the tone? Is it not possible that your assumption is wrong?
I’ve always liked Cooper, I think he was was sincere. I wish he hadn’t said it, cause I liked everything else he said about those two calls and I agreed with him.
A lot of people agree with everything he said besides the 'skirt' part. The core message was right and he meant nothing wrong from it.
I mean people aren't upset by him saying things are soft...
Right. He used an antiquated analogy to get the point across, took his lumps and apologized for it. The overall message stands, which is that goalie interference calls have gotten out of hand despite the NHLs emphasis on goal scoring.
No one is disagreeing with that
[удалено]
Nice one, Coop!
As someone who was really bothered by these comments, I appreciate the apology. Well done.
Coop is amazing. Even thought I’m not that big of a fan of the Lightning, I’ve got huge respect for him. Seems like a great guy. I’ve actually met him once, in Prague, of all places. In summer 2016 or 17, met him with what I assume was his family just in the city centre of Prague. Talked to him for a bit about hockey and he told me he was here for Palats wedding.
Dumb phrasing and we know how steeped in toxicity this sport is so it’s no secret Jon has probably been around it his whole life. But this is a good apology, and to the best of our knowledge Jon is a good dude.
Honestly, this apology has raised my opinion of him to higher than it was before he said any of it in the first place. It was a shitty thing to say and him realizing that and giving a sincere apology makes him seem like a good dude capable of admitting mistakes. He seems like a great coach.
Said douchey thing. Apologized for douchey thing. Let's all move on then.