Hockey can be a heated game. Players don’t always talk nice. If you’d put a microphone on them, you’d hear tons of expletives and plenty of things you wouldn’t want your kids to hear. Sometimes, the words players say trying to get opposing players rattled up can go too far. New Jersey Devils enforcer Jordin Tootoo said Vancouver Canucks Alexandre Burrows’ remarks during a recent 4-3 Devils overtime win crossed the line.
“Burrows when we were in the penalty box, he said some personal remarks regarding my family and it’s just unacceptable,” Tootoo told Tom Gulitti of Fire and Ice. “The penalty box guys even rolled their eyes like. ‘Is this guy really saying this (expletive)?’ I don’t have any respect for him. I don’t need an apology for him or nothing. It’s just classless. We’re all professionals and everyone fights a fight no one knows about and when you dive into personal issues, it’s just classless. To me, that’s cowardly.”
Tootoo would not say specifically what Burrows said to him. When asked if Burrows brought up his Inuit heritage or his and his family’s battles with alcoholism, Tootoo replied, “I’m not going to get into it. You can ask him about it. He knows what he said and it’s just BS.”
Now, there’s no way to be certain what Burrows actually said, but if what Tootoo is alluding to is true, it’s absolutely despicable. I do want to give Burrows the benefit of the doubt and hope he’d never stoop that low, but he has a reputation for running his mouth on the ice. He’s the guy who taunted Mike Richards for his drug use.
Going after someone’s family, especially the hardships Tootoo has endured, should be off-limits, and if Burrows did go after him for that, he’s human garbage. But, before crowning Burrows guilty we’ll have to wait what else is said on the matter. There’s two sides to every story.
