In a new article by The Athletic, it appears Don Cherry believed he was going to get let go from Sportsnet with or without the actual incident that led to his dismissal. In the story, written by Sean Fitz-Gerald, he made it clear that he believes the network was out to get him. Here's what Cherry said:
“I think that they were after me, if you want my true opinion. That's the way I feel about it. I don't whine about it. I lost my job. I don't have any income, and I don't whine about it.“I have no regrets. I'm still sailing along. And that's the way it should be. I didn't go out quietly, let's put it that way.”
He's certainly right about the not going quietly part. Cherry dominated not just the sports pages, but news in general in Canada for more than a week after his rant about immigrants and poppies on November 9th. He was hosting Coach's Corner on Hockey Night in Canada at the time, something he had done for close to 40 years. When the dominoes started to fall, they toppled quickly, and Cherry was let go--ironically perhaps--on Remembrance Day, November 11th. He would remain in the headlines for days after that, though.
Perhaps Cherry is right and the network was just waiting for an opportunity to push him out the door. Sportsnet did have the chance to not renew his contract after last season, but decided to do so over the summer. There was technically nothing stopping that from happening again this coming summer, though had the November 9th incident never happened. That's something we'll never get the chance to find out now.
In The Athletic's article, Scott Moore, who worked with Cherry for over a decade and was president of Sportsnet for a while before the Cherry incident, summed up the divisive commentator pretty well.
“There's no question his legacy will have been that he was the most influential hockey commentator of his time,” Moore said. “Influential doesn't necessarily mean that everyone agreed with him, but that he had a great influence.”
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