Philadelphia Flyers Wayne Simmonds targeted Racially yet again -NHL Update
It is definitely sad to see that despite living in the 21st century, there are still a number of people out there who judge people on the basis of their colour and creed and unfortunately, one of the best forwards of the National Hockey League
(NHL), Wayne Simmonds, was targeting yet again.
While playing in an overseas game with the Liberec team, with whom he recently signed on to, the Philadelphia Flyers forward was subjected to racial slurs by members of the home team’s crowd in the Czech Extraliga, chanted the word “monkey” in their local
language after the player was involved in a late fight during the matchup.
The home team, Chumotov, later on issues an official apology to Simmonds on their behalf and seriously condemned the incident.
It went on to read:
Dear Mr. Simmonds,
We would like to express regret about chanting that sounded from part of audience at the end of the match between Pirates Chomutov and White Tigers Liberec. We d**n this behaviour and do not identify with it. We do not consider as our fans people that
participated in racist chanting. We do not agree with racism in any form. Please accept our honest apology for this behaviour.
It was a condemnable act, without a doubt, and should not happen with any person, but Simmonds has matured over the years and does not let incidents like these put him down in any way or demoralise him from continue to play with dedication.
"When you're a black man playing in a predominantly white man's sport, you've got to come to expect things like that. Over the past 23 years of my life, I've come to expect some things like that. But I'm older and more mature now, I kind of just let things
roll off [my back]. I try not to think about stuff like that," Simmonds said.
Simmonds, a 24-year-old native of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings as the 61st overall back in 2007. He has a total of 322 games under his belt in the North American major league and boasts 142 points (67 goals,
75 assists).
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