I remember the moment, yes, as if it were yesterday. Those of us who were Edmonton Oilers fans back then will always remember. It was early in the third period in Game 7 of the Smyth Division final between arch Alberta rivals – the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers – in the 1985-86 season. And I remember stalwart CBC TV play-by-play announcer Don Whitman’s call vividly. His surprise and shock spoke for us all.
“Grant Fuhr clears, behind his own net,” he described rather calmly. But then, reacting to Oilers’ defenceman Steve Smith taking the puck, looking up ice and attempting a pass, Whitman continued, “They scored! Oh! Steve Smith, attempting to clear the puck out of his own zone, put it in his own net.”
Calgary Flame Perry Berezan was credited with the goal, because he was the last Calgary Flame to touch the puck, but it was poor Steve Smith firing the puck off Grant Fuhr’s left skate into the Oilers’ net that everybody remembers. The arena – then the Northlands Coliseum suddenly went silent. Steve Smith collapsed to the ice in embarrassment and anguish. The Calgary Flames went on to win that seventh game and advance to the conference final. They lost to St. Louis in that playoff round.
It always bothered me. Not that the accident had happened, but that it was the only thing about that season anyone cared to remember. Of course, in the game of hockey (except for goaltender errors) the mistakes most remembered are those that defencemen make. Just the other night roughly the same thing happened to Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Reilly. I was actually watching that game against the New York Rangers. The Leafs had just tied the game late in the third period and had some momentum. But that’s when Reilly bobbled the puck in front of his own net. The Rangers took advantage, scored and went on to win 4-2. You could hear the boos echoing through the ACC. And while it wasn’t as important as the Steve Smith error, I wondered why we dwell on such things.
And look what’s been going on in Montreal the past week. Same thing. In a game versus the Colorado Avalanche last Wednesday night, Canadiens’ defenceman and personality P.K. Subban, attempting to pinch in from the offensive blue line, lost an edge on his skate, gave away the puck and during the play that followed, the Avalanche scored the winning goal. Montreal fans and even some of the Habs’ brass, in the days since, have all but keelhauled the man, perhaps the team’s most charismatic player, and some have even demanded he be traded away. Why? Because he fell down once and caused a loss. As an amateur oldtimer player, all I can say is, how many times did Reilly’s or Subban’s teammates on the forward lines make gaffs in the same game? How many plays did they not make? And nobody called for them to be traded.
I really worry about professional sport, when all we can think about when somebody makes a mistake is abusing them verbally, or getting rid of them. Didn’t getting rid of people go out with the Second World War?
Oh, but then there was Andrés Escobar. Remember that unfortunate fellow. He’s the Colombian soccer defenceman playing for his country in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He had played for Atlético Natcoinal, BSC Young Boys, and the Colombian national team. But in the FIFA match against the United States, on June 22, 1994, he stretched to cut off a pass from an American midfielder, and in so doing, deflected the ball into his own net. It put Colombia out of the tournament.
Escobar returned home. And early in July, after a night of drinking and arguing, Escobar found himself alone in a parking in Medellin, where two men shot him six times. The murder was believed to be mob punishment for the goal. A drug gang bodyguard later confessed to the killing. Horribly, the day after the murder a BBC football announcer covering a match between Argentina and Roumania commented: “The Argentine defender warrants shooting for a mistake like that.” The BBC immediately issued a public apology.
Clearly, we take our sports far too seriously. Or stupidly, else why would we be considering paying a man, as talented a baseball player as José Bautista is – $20 million a season or more for belting baseballs out of Rogers Centre? No. Paying them that kind of cash and indeed pillorying them when they’re show they’re human and make mistakes, doesn’t make sense.
By the way, there are two remarkable footnotes to the Steve Smith story. The night he scored into his own net, April 30, 1986, was actually Smith’s 23rd birthday. More memorable, but often lost in the shuffle of pro sports hype, the following season, when the Edmonton Oilers came back and won their third Stanley Cup, the first person team captain Wayne Gretzky handed the trophy to was his teammate Steve Smith.