Brendan Shanahan and Player Discipline in Sports

Well, I know, its been a month almost since I last posted, but school has gotten in the way so far.  As most of you know, I'm a huge sports fan, and this is a topic that is hitting home right now, because one of my favorite teams is affected by the topic of this post.  This past Saturday, rookie Andrew Shaw of the Chicago Blackhawks hit Goalie Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes, and today, Brendan Shanahan, the NHL Senior VP of Player Safety, suspended shaw for three games.  The ridiculous part of this is not suspension itself, but the length of suspension, and the fact that it was decided by just one person.  I am not arguing that the hit was not worth a penalty, but to give a man a 3 game suspension, which is really a 4 game suspension, due to the fact that he was ejected from the game, almost halfway through the game is ridiculous.  I personally am all for a recently retired former player being the head of discipline, rather than the commissioner as it is in football, but these should not be decided by just one person.  Brendan Shanahan is a former Detroit Red Wing, easily the biggest rivals of the Chicago Blackhawks, and while I am not saying that played a role in the length of suspensions for both Shaw and Duncan Keith shortly before the end of the regular season, the writing is on the wall.  Both players received longer suspensions for their hits than other players in the league, and some of those players did worse offenses than Shaw and Keith.  For instance, Shea Weber, of the Nashville Predators received a measly $2,500 fine for boarding Henrik Zetterberg repeatedly, not a single game missed, and hardly a dent in his pocket book for a star like Weber.  This is not the only example in this first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers series has been marred by questionable hits and fights, but there have been exactly 0 suspensions so far.  The San Jose Sharks-St Louis Blues series had a fight with 180+ minutes of penalties assessed at the end of the 2nd game, and there was no fines or suspensions, I have to ask where the justice for Andrew Shaw is?  As I mentioned, hockey is out in front of the other major leagues in that they do not have disciplined decided by the commissioner, who in most cases has never played the game at the professional level.  I would suggest strongly that all of the leagues join the NHL in using a recently retired player as their head of discipline, but instead of just one person deciding discipline, I say that they should have a committee, made up of recently retired former players.  With this solution, you would not have the possibility of bias or the impression of the single player having bias based on his former team.  While the commissioner would have final say as to the suspensions or fines, this would provide more than one set of eyes to the question of suspensions or fines.  Quite honestly, I believe that this needs to apply to coaches as well as players, coaches unlike players do not have unions to appeal their suspensions, and just have to accept suspensions, even if they shouldn't be as harsh as they are.  If anyone does not believe that there are former players and coaches who could provide an unbiased opinion and have the time to perform these duties, just look at ESPN, NBC, CBS, and the MLB, NHL, NBA networks, all of their analysts are former coaches and players.  One could also argue that this would take longer to announce fines and suspensions, but at least it would be done more thoroughly, and with today's technology, each member of these committees could easily communicate their opinions, without needing to travel great distances.  I know that the discipline issue will come up in the CBA because of these issues, and it would be proactive of the NHL and the NHLPA to make this change.  A perfect example of this applying to the NFL is the New Orleans Saints situation, with "bountygate" we know that unless something drastic happens Roger Goodell is going to suspend a few players, probably not for the year that he suspended Sean Payton, but they will be substantial.  The problem with this is that Roger Goodell is not just the judge jury and executioner for the suspension in the first place, he is the appeals board too.  At the very least there needs to be another committee for appeals, that sends their opinion to the commissioner.  Well, thanks for reading this post, my Blackhawks are on, so I'm gonna be a little preoccupied, but I believe that I got my points across pretty well.


Shaw Suspension video


Mike Smith and Brendan Shanahan, prior to about 10 minutes ago Public Enemies No 1 and 2, but I'll blog about the new one once I calm down.