Simmonds blasts 'gutless' tweeters
Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds was sickened by the dozens of racist and vulgar comments that Twitter users directed at his close friend, Washington’s Joel Ward, after he scored an overtime goal to defeat host Boston, 2-1, in Game 7 of their first-round series Wednesday.
Simmonds blasts 'gutless' tweeters
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
Flyers winger Wayne Simmonds was sickened by the dozens of racist and vulgar comments that Twitter users directed at his close friend, Washington’s Joel Ward, after he scored an overtime goal to defeat host Boston, 2-1, in Game 7 of their first-round series Wednesday.
“It’s the Internet. They can say whatever they want, and they don’t have to show their faces,” said Simmonds, who, like Ward, is one of 28 black players in the NHL. “It’s disgusting. Things like that have happened to me before. It’s not something you want to happen, but it’s sad in this day and age that it continues to happen.”
Simmonds, 23, and Ward, 31, both grew up in Scarborough, Ontario, but they didn’t meet until about five years ago. They have trained together in the last two off-seasons.
“We’re good buddies and it was nice to see him score. You could see the relief on his face,” Simmonds said after the Flyers’ practice Thursday in Voorhees. “The celebration was classic. He just smashed his stick into the ice, and it was pretty funny.”
Simmonds, who denied tweets that he received racial slurs during the Flyers’ recent games in Pittsburgh, said social media is getting out of hand.
“It is what it is. People can be as gutless as they want,” he said. “They don’t have to show up. They just throw a comment out on the Internet and it’s getting kind of ridiculous. Social media is not meant for that. It’s for ‘Say, hey, nice score. Congratulations.’ You’re not supposed to throw things out like that.”
In the preseason, a fan threw a banana peel at Simmonds during a Sept. 22 exhibition in London, Ontario, against Detroit. The 26-year-old man was fined $200 for “provincial trespassing,” but police said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him with a hate crime.
“I guess it is what it is, but it’s sad I have to say that, though,” Simmonds said of the latest incidents.
Ward told USA Today the slurs were “shocking to see, but it didn't ruin my day. It doesn't faze me at all. We won, and we are moving on. … People are going to say what they want to say.”
Ted Leonsis, the Capitals’ owner, wrote on his blog that “there should be zero tolerance for this kind of hate mongering. Their messages should now stay glued into the algorithms to place a forever warning and a mark upon these people and their actions.”
Leonsis called Ward “a great teammate and a great citizen. He is now the star of stars in our city for his heroics” on Wednesday night.
Ward said he thought it was “just kids” who tweeted the comments.
Contact Sam Carchidi @scarchidi@phillynews.com, or on Twitter @BroadStBull.
Boston has been known for it's racist side. In years past, why were the Celtics so popular...because of the white players they fielded. A sad commentary of our social misfits today.— unclejed- These racists cowards want to get you pissed off. The way to defeat them is to ignore them. Don't let them get you, otherwise they win.— ej610
- Sidewinder7- no of course, not. And that's not what he said. At all. Love how take a small shot to defend free speech. He said their words should be forever imprinted...they won't be. people can delete the Tweet and it's gone. Sure, if might come up on a search engine or screen shot, but it's deleted from Twitter then the original is gone. He did not suggest, in that quote above, that blogs filter out those comments period. Sounds like a typical right wing conversative Republican creedo that there should be no rules on guns, speech, or capitalism, just on gays, marriage, adoption, birth control, my bedroom, and taxes on the poor. Bravo.— MichaelZoe
- with every positive thing in life, there is a negative side to it...such as social networking and the people who live cyber lives— jamarder
- hey jed where have you been? celtics had a pretty good center who was black and if i am not mistaken was the first black coach in american sports.— wildgreenman
- While the racist slurs make me sick, you ideally don't want to suppress speech (although I guess private companies are free to ban users). Plus, some posters want to stay anonymous not to throw out insults, but to maintain privacy ... which is why Facebook and G+ are so unappealing to some.
I'm sorry you have to bear such vulgarity Simmonds. We're all rooting for you! Go Flyers.— econ07 - Hey, if you can play with all these racist fans at the games in Philly, you can handle the tweets. Just wait, make a crucial mistake, and all the Flyer Klans, I mean Flyer fans will show their true colors, minus the hoods of course.— wawa22
- simmons is da man. and some of the brothas are starting to watch hockey now because of it. a friend of mine was wearing a simmons shirt last week and a brotha bought him a beer cuz he liked it. hilarious.— Zero
- They're are A-holes born every minute, part of life, all we can do is ignore it, they'll get theirs somewhere along the line! Just sayin'...— DJ
- BwaHaaaaHAA! A bunch of racist sore losers! Boston got beat in the worse way possible: at home in game 7 and in overtime. Go on and spout any thing you want, you still LOST! See you next year...— Getinline
- I am very pleasantly surprised to see the positive support from the posters here today. Bigotry is alive but maybe not as well as it has been. Props to you Philly fans. Go Flyers - 4 for 4 Philly guy!!!— kaya jj
- reminds me of that great david chapelle bit about racism in boston: "when i visited boston, i saw an irish guy beating up an italian guy. and i thought, man, these guys are specific!"— tockeyhockey
- The majority of the time, racial issues are always black. There are white, latino, and asian racial issues that happen but no one cares or makes a big deal about it unless it involves black people. Watch the SNL Jeremy Lin skit and it hits it on the head. Black people can make racial slurs and jokes but as soon as one is used on a black person they go psycho and blow it out of proportion. This double standard has existed for years and will continue too.— hahasonny
- its funny, all Simmonds had to do to find some bigotry was browse through the comments once in a while on Philly.com ... the right wing here lets it fly with reckless abandon! kind of how Simmonds plays the game...— recoveryroad
- It was probably Tim Thomas's Mom!— quigly46
