Don Cherry, Part One of Many

We will never see the likes of Don Cherry again. I found out from a hot, funny chick in a furry hat.
On one of those inane but apparently necessary New Year's Eve Ball Drop and Lip Sync Extravaganzas, comedian Natasha Leggero cracked an innocuous joke that, of course, someone had to jump all over as the most outrageously offensive thing that's ever happened to U.S. Armed Service members since Roger Staubach lost a Super Bowl. If you don't know what she said, read it here.
If her joke offends you, I guarangoddamntee you I will offend you, probably before this post is over, so run. Her "apology", or lack thereof ,letter is spot on.
Society is too sensitive, IMHO, which is an acronym that might be something sacred in Esperanto, but I really don't care.
What does a Natasha Leggero have to do with Don Cherry ?
We already know that Don Cherry is truly one of a kind. The only sports figure even in his phylum (marginal player turned beloved cultural icon) is Bob Uecker and he actually calls the games.
Through one lens, Don Cherry is a brash, arrogant, violence glorifying ethnocentric buffoon who dresses like a clown. Fortunately, that lens is an obscure one kept inside a dusty camera bag that is not allowed within 500 yards of my person. Yep, he has his detractors, I've acknowledged them, now let's move on.
Don Cherry in the same Coaches Corner segment, can say exactly what the relatively knowledgeable fan at home has been screaming at the screen and point out a strategic approach or nuance that even the most Howie MorENzSA candidate lifer might have missed. He does it in suits louder than the first row at Hammersmith Odeon during a Motorhead show, he cuts off the professional and vastly under-appreciated Ron MacLean, and occasionally crosses lines of dinner party politeness, like the now infamous "chicken (shit) Swede" comment.

                              The Swedish Chef invites you to sample some of his Aspen Wheat Grass
                                                       and try to fuckin' relax
I'm sure he repeated on air exactly what he thought. He cares about hockey, he cares about Canada, and I'm sure most of all he cared about the dozens of small-town Canadian kids who were losing their jobs to Europeans that played a different style of hockey than the NHL was used to (but has now embraced). I don't believe for a minute that it's all schtick, other than his pushing people's boutonnières
with the trademark Syd and Marty Krofft inspired wardrobe.
And a network will never have another guy like him, real or invented. In the U.S. and even now Canada, with Sportsnet taking over the rights to Hockey Night in Canada from the CBC, there is simply too much competition for someone to risk bad blood, a sponsor pull out or any sort of boycott. I'm willing to predict that a struggling sports program could subtly choreograph a bit of faux controversy to boost their numbers, but they will never give another "personality" a gaping A gap* (or "eh gap" as the case may be in the CFL) to scamper through, pontificating on any topic like Grapes does on HNIC.
I know this because a comedian, late in the evening, made a joke about dentures, for Christ's (who may or may not have been the son of God's) sake {Yeah, I just said that. It's either fair to both sides or someone's offended now. I don't have any sponsors, or a boss}.

Does Don Cherry have to say things that may or may not be offensive to certain nationalities, interests, ethnicities, generational, or lifestyle groups to exist ? No. But when people truly speak their mind, those things can occasionally come out. Howard Cosell might have had his mustard yellow Monday Night Football blazer stripped from him after describing an African American Washington Redskin (you cannot invent that brilliant irony, kids) as a "little monkey" had it not been for the characteristically vocal support of Muhammad Ali. And there is no one left with half an iota of the cross cultural juice Ali has to save anyone's job today.
So when Don Cherry hangs up his Windsor knot and retires to Mississauga, not only will it be the end of a legends career, it will be the end of an entire broadcasting species. So enjoy him while you can. Unless you're easily offended, in which case you can go fuck yourself right now.

* This refers to a football blocking/rushing maneuver. Watch Jon Gruden for 10 minutes and he'll probably say it.