Ron MacLean deserves game misconduct for misleading Don Cherry post

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Somebody needed to call a penalty on this play.

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The photograph posted to social media had the look and presentation of Canada’s most iconic TV duo being back together again like they were for 35 years on Coach’s Corner.

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You can almost hear the famous theme jingle introducing them on Hockey Night in Canada.

With the two thumbs up it certainly had the appearance of seeming like they had let all bygones go by and everything is rosy again.

However, sometimes a picture does not tell a thousand words.

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This one posted to X by Ron MacLean of he and his legendary TV partner Don Cherry was not photoshopped like the one with the Princess of Wales and the royal kids.

But like that one in the news, what you are seeing here is not quite what it may be trying to look like.

For many, it may have looked like a reconciliation between two TV legends has occurred that could lead to getting the band back together again.

Not so fast.

Turns out, it was the coach who was cornered.

MacLean and Cherry had not been in the same room together since the cheap shot heard around the hockey world that was seeing Grapes fired on Remembrance Day Nov. 11, 2019 after his “you people” like our “milk and honey” and the “least you can do is buy a poppy” to support our veterans rant that saw the knives come out and plunged into Cherry — who merely just said what he always says at that time of year.

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There was a lot of Shakespearean betrayal witnessed at that time, from the political leaders to hockey industry friends, but none more gross and disappointing than that of MacLean, who was on that same soundstage but managed to stay on the boat while the pack not only threw Canada’s biggest TV star and sports commentator overboard but took turns pushing him under the water to drown for good.

Cherry needed MacLean to throw him a rescue line to save his historic career but instead the sidekick chose the Judas route and ’30 pieces of silver’ to keep his job going while the star that helped him rise to high places, and high income, was thrown on the trash heap.

As the politically correct mob rejoiced in bagging the biggest free speech, call-it-as-he-sees-it name in their unfair bigotry witch hunt, anybody who knows these two understands just what an ugly and unforgivable betrayal of Cherry this was by MacLean.

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You almost had to feel bad for Ron because I knew it was going to be hard for him to live with what he did to Don. He didn’t stand up to try to cancel the political freight train coming at Grapes and he got out of the way with no external wounds. But the internal wounds and guilt, and the desire to heal both, are on display with this photograph he posted.

It was taken at Grapes’ 90th birthday party — a couple of days before the actual Feb. 5 date. I have reached out to Ron to hear his side of it but those in attendance told me MacLean “crashed” the family party he wasn’t invited to and brought a birthday card for his long-time pal.

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The two had not been in the same room together since the execution and flogging and there has been no burying of the hatchet.

“We can never be friends again,” Don told me last year when we did a special Cherry’s Corner video for the Toronto Sun.

That said, Grapes made it clear “Ron is a good guy” and he personally doesn’t hold serious grudges other than the normal hurt that comes with such a stabbing of the back.

But it’s not the same for some in his family who likely will never forgive MacLean.

While it is understandable that MacLean would want to repair the relationship and portray an image to the public that they are still friends, this is an incorrect assumption. For that to happen, MacLean would have to properly and publicly apologize to Cherry for instead of holding him from going overboard, effectively helping push him while staying dry himself.

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This photograph with the birthday cake is not what it may look like. Things are not resolved. It was not lost on most of the X commenters on MacLean’s post that there was a knife in that picture which offers the richest of symbolism in this Canadian tragedy — some even asking if that was the actual blade used to do the deed.

That said, it would be good for Ron and Don, and the country and for hockey, to patch things up and the two get back together on Hockey Night in Canada again in the first intermission and continue off where they were before being so rudely interrupted.

It can happen. Elon Musk brought Donald Trump and Alex Jones back to Twitter and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been forgiven for many far worse sins including often wearing blackface.

Cherry should never have been fired for asking Canadians to purchase poppies and MacLean should never have let him take the brunt of that alone.

It would be great to see Ron and Don back together again but only if it’s something Grapes agrees to. Photobombing him at a party he wasn’t invited to and then more than a month later posting a picture without permission is not only not putting things back together but in a way another betrayal.

MacLean is a hockey referee and knows that would be a game misconduct.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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