(670 The Score) Disgrace remains a complicated feeling to process for sports fans, much harder than others.
A Blackhawks fan can feel disenchantment over not winning a playoff series since 2015, disappointment from the front office lacking a clear direction since then and even despair about the Hawks playing the first six games of this season without a lead. Those reactions to results are much more visceral and easier to express. Boo your hearts out. Tweet on your computer. Yell at your television sets. Vent.
But how do you react to something that makes you question everything about a hockey organization you have come to admire?
Why does the Blackhawks’ disgraceful behavior feel like a personal lapse in judgment to me? Do others feel the same way about the blockbuster news?
I struggled with those questions Tuesday while sifting through a devastating 107-page report prepared by Jenner & Block, the law firm commissioned by the Hawks to complete an independent investigation into sexual assault allegations against former video coach Brad Aldrich during the 2010 Stanley Cup run. Any concerns that a firm paid by the Hawks would get to the truth quickly became moot. Reid Schar, a former assistant U.S. attorney, led the investigation and publicly and precisely presented remarkable findings Tuesday, one of the darkest days in franchise history.
President of hockey operations Stan Bowman resigned in shame, issuing a statement that frankly could've been more contrite. Senior director of hockey operations Al MacIsaac beat Bowman out the door, surely with his head down. Hawks owner Rocky Wirtz and his son, Danny, the team’s CEO, who claimed not to know about the allegations until two lawsuits were filed this past May, apologized “to the individuals who suffered from these experiences." Meanwhile, a hockey city reeled reliving an ugly episode that an exhaustive investigation revealed was perhaps worse than many thought -- and much worse than necessary.
The report relied on interviews from 139 people, describing the allegations in graphic detail and unearthing information as damning as it was disturbing.
On page 47, to cite maybe the most egregious example, the account describes a meeting on May 23, 2010, an hour or so after the Hawks had just won the Western Conference title at the United Center. In the room were the three most powerful men in the organization -- then-president John McDonough, then-general manager Stan Bowman and then-coach Joel Quenneville – along with four other men gathered to discuss the allegations made by John Doe against Aldrich. Those men were MacIsaac, former executives Kevin Cheveldayoff and Jay Blunk and mental skills coach James Gary.
According to the investigation, John Doe and Aldrich had a sexual encounter two weeks before that meeting, on May 9. John Doe said it wasn’t consensual while Aldrich contended it was. This was the soonest the Hawks brass saw fit to bring everyone together to address the matter, two weeks later in an impromptu meeting an hour after the franchise’s biggest victory in decades. Distractions loomed. Excuses became too convenient. So instead of vowing to get to the bottom of something so serious, the Blackhawks neglected to give the allegation the weight it deserved and nobody did anything.
Nobody. Did. Anything. There was a championship to win.
"Bowman stated that when the meeting ended, Bowman believed the issue was in McDonough’s hands and everyone else should focus on the upcoming Stanley Cup Finals," the report stated.
Exactly 22 days passed. Twenty-two days. McDonough took the incident to human resources on June 14 – five days after Patrick Kane’s overtime goal in Game 6 against the Flyers gave the Hawks their first Stanley Cup title in 49 years. Think about that. The Hawks let three weeks go after a meeting that brought a player’s sexual assault allegation against a video coach before the team’s management. Not only that, but Aldrich continued to be treated royally, hoisting the Cup on the ice in Philly, riding in the parade, being introduced at the Grant Park rally, partying like a champion. Photos documenting Aldrich’s involvement in all those celebrations appear at the end of the report’s appendix, in case the first 69 pages didn’t turn your stomach enough.
Oh, and in the midst of all the revelry, Aldrich allegedly sexually assaulted an intern on June 10.
It gets worse, if possible. Even after the Hawks inexplicably gave Aldrich the choice to resign after McDonough informed human resources, the team paid him through August and gave him a $15,000 playoff bonus. It’s what Aldrich did after leaving the Hawks organization that likely caused every man in that meeting more than a few sleepless nights over the last 11 years. In 2013, Aldrich was convicted in Michigan of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a high school student. He received a nine-month prison sentence with five years probation, which ended in 2019, and appears on Michigan’s registry of sex offenders.
What if somebody with a conscience had intervened sooner in Chicago? Would Aldrich have been involved in that June 10 allegation or later gone on to become a sexual predator of youth hockey players elsewhere?
Suddenly these days, the hockey answers seem easier to come by for the Hawks, and they have yet to win a game this year.
Damn the Blackhawks. My emotions range from anger and disgust at the Hawks to sadness and sympathy for any victims who suffered as a result of a hockey organization placing winning above all else the way this one did. Damn every one of them with an office at 1901 W. Madison.
I’m a hockey dad before I’m a writer or sports-talk show host, and during that 10-year span I watched my son, Blair, fall in love with hockey partly due to the Hawks. I fell for it too, hook, line and sinker. I interviewed Rocky Wirtz at an event honoring the Hawks for having one of Chicago’s best workplaces. I considered McDonough a man of tremendous character incapable of doing what this report alleges. I gained respect for Bowman for beating cancer, raising a family and succeeding in the shadow of a famous father. In my various roles, I got to know people in the organization well, identifying with their professionalism, admiring their commitment and applauding their achievements. Honestly, I let myself become a fan of the Hawks more than any other team I covered as a sports journalist. Now, I feel duped. Now, I feel mad, at them and myself. Now, I also feel a little complicit too, to be honest, wondering if all I really did in covering this team all those years during the glory days was perpetuate a myth. One Goal? Yeah, sure, right.
One Goal became McDonough’s master slogan and the mantra everyone embraced, on the ice and off, quickly creating ambition that was blinding. Eventually, it blinded the folks so badly that, when it was time to do the right thing, the Hawks didn’t because they couldn’t see the line they had crossed.
For a decade in Chicago sports, the Blackhawks symbolized integrity and excellence, a model for other pro sports organizations to emulate. We debated whether they were a dynasty. We praised their business model.
Now, we can study how they fell so far so fast. Was it ego? Insecurity? A combination of both?
What the Blackhawks did in winning three Cups in six seasons made history and established a legacy. What they did in neglecting to take a sexual assault allegation seriously now becomes part of the same legacy. It’s a stain every bit as indelible as the names engraved in the Cup.
The NHL fined the Hawks $2 million for “inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response in the handling of matter related to former video coach Brad Aldrich’s employment.” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman plans to schedule meetings with Quenneville, now coach of the Panthers, and Cheveldayoff, now the Jets general manager, with discipline a possibility. Coach Q has some explaining to do.
The Wirtzes have an organizational crisis on their hands, from dealing with repercussions from this scandal to addressing a hockey team bad enough that fans have stopped coming enough to end the home sellout streak at 535 games. They appointed Kyle Davidson as interim general manager, but Davidson’s unlikely to make coach Jeremy Colliton’s hot seat any hotter. As soon as possible, they need a home run hire at the top of the Blackhawks organization – Danny Wirtz should start by interviewing Eddie Olczyk – to begin slowly regaining popularity and rebuilding trust they squandered.
It won’t be easy. Doing the right thing never is.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.