CHICAGO — NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was ready to talk about Chicago Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz, whose emotional outburst during a town hall Wednesday over questions about former Hawks prospect and alleged sexual assault victim Kyle Beach drew international attention and criticism.
But first Bettman asked to make a statement.
“I think it’s clear that what happened at the town hall was an emotional outburst — that’s the word the media has been using most — and I think it’s fair,” Bettman said Friday during a 10-minute phone interview with the Chicago Tribune. “It’s clear that this whole situation has been weighing on the Blackhawks and on Rocky in particular, and when he had a chance to reflect on what he said, he apologized because, frankly — and this is the ironic part — the franchise is doing the work.
“(Hawks CEO) Danny (Wirtz) and (president of business operations) Jaime (Faulkner) are doing the things that need to be done. They’ve been empowered by Rocky to do it.”
Those things that need to be done were the central issue Wednesday during the team’s town hall at the United Center.
Neither Rocky nor Danny Wirtz had spoken publicly since Chicago law firm Jenner & Block’s independent report faulted Blackhawks management for covering up a sexual assault allegation Beach made in May 2010 against Brad Aldrich, the team’s video coach at the time. Jenner & Block’s review found Hawks upper management failed to act on Beach’s claim until after the team’s championship was secured that year.
In the aftermath of the report, Stan Bowman resigned from his position as Hawks president of hockey operations and general manager.
Aldrich later became the central figure in two negligence lawsuits against the Hawks, one by Beach and the other by a former Michigan High School hockey player with whom Aldrich pleaded guilty in 2013 to engaging in criminal sexual conduct.
The Hawks reached a confidential financial settlement with Beach in December and vowed to make structural and cultural changes in the organization to prevent such incidents from happening again, but when questioned by reporters about those changes during the town hall, Rocky Wirtz became belligerent.
“That’s none of your business,” Wirtz told The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus. “What we’re going to do today is our business. I don’t think it’s any of your business.”
When the Tribune followed up with the same line of questioning, Wirtz said, “Answered it.”
“I answered it and I told you to get off the subject. ... I’m not going to bring up the report,” he said.
Rocky Wirtz later apologized publicly and privately to the reporters.
Shortly before he was to address media Friday in Paradise, Nev., for All-Star Weekend, Bettman discussed his feelings about Wirtz’s comments during the phone interview with Tribune. He was joined by Kim Davis, senior executive vice president of social impact, growth initiatives and legislative affairs.
The following exchange has been edited slightly for brevity and clarity.
— Bettman continued his opening thoughts about Rocky Wirtz.
“I just think he had a moment, as occasionally we all do. I’m not excusing it. I’m really trying to explain it. And I know the organization is committed to doing the right things and doing what’s necessary to deal with what happened to Kyle Beach and the aftermath, which obviously was horrible. And that’s something that very much weighs on Rocky, and for whatever reason, the moment caught him at maybe a vulnerable, emotional point.”
— Have you talked to Rocky Wirtz since the town hall?
“I spoke to him the next day. He had already issued his apology when I spoke to him.”
— What was the content of that conversation?
“Well, I generally don’t reveal the content of my conversations with owners, but we had a discussion about what had transpired in the moment and the franchise’s commitment to move forward, and that Danny and Jaime obviously are going to continue to do work that they’ve been empowered to do. I mean the irony of all of this is the franchise, forget the words that night, the franchise is moving forward and doing the right things, and is in constant — Jaime and Danny are — with Kim (Davis).”
— I think to the general public there’s an optics issue with the tone that he (Rocky) greeted the subject. There are a lot of sexual assault survivors who have taken issue with the Blackhawks. Did you ever consider asking Rocky to step aside from his chairman role and letting Danny take over?
No.
— OK. And what’s your perspective on that?
“I just explained to you how I interpreted what happened. I understand that the language may have in the moment been hurtful and offended some people, but look at actual actions that are taking place, including Rocky’s actions on behalf of the Blackhawks and empowering Jaime and Danny. At end of the day, he had a moment. It was an emotional outburst. Not everybody says the right thing at the right time. But if you judge by the deeds of what’s going on, they are doing the right things.”
— I think people judge by deeds and words. So I would ask you, for someone who’s looking at that and seeing the tone — and I understand that he apologized later — but that was something that was an expression from his heart. How is a player supposed to feel empowered to speak up about secrecy and abuse in hockey culture when you have an owner of an Original Six franchise — a very powerful man — angrily say, “Shut up, we’re not talking and addressing this subject”?
“Well, I think you need to look at the context. This was a context where what they were trying to do with that town hall was talk about all the ways that they were trying to do the right things to move forward. And, as I said, the frustration and the emotion of the moment got an emotional response. And I don’t think it’s indicative of how anybody feels or what the organization is doing. If you look at the acts, which are more important than the words, they’re trying to do all the right things to move forward and deal with what was a horrific situation with Kyle Beach.”
— And what are some of those acts? The Blackhawks alluded to working with league initiatives. Can you be specific about what the league is working with with the Blackhawks?
Kim Davis: “I can talk about that work because I’ve been working directly and Danny and Jaime around the specifics. You may know that a couple (of) months ago we rolled out a leaguewide initiative called Respect Hockey. And embedded in that are what we call training around ‘BAHD’ behaviors, the acronym ‘BAHD’ standing for bullying, abuse of all kinds, harassment and discrimination. And Sheldon Kennedy is one of our partners in that. As you know, Sheldon Kennedy went through a similar situation of sexual abuse many years ago and he started a company in Calgary that helps organizations, specifically hockey in this case, work through and train and create learning around this. The Blackhawks were one of first teams to step up to be part of this. But they’ve gone even further than the work that they were doing around Respect, which is not just training but also providing mental support, abuse counseling for both victims and their families, and so they have been very intentional about making sure that there are services that are wrapped around this so that this never happens again.”
Bettman: “Actually, there are two other points I’d like to make about this. I’m not sure if you were there, but Kim at the media availability at the board meeting in December made about a 40-minute presentation to the media about all the steps that we’re taking.
More specifically on the Blackhawks, tons of people are no longer with the organization. New people have been brought in, there are training programs in addition to ours, activation in the community, they’re creating a wellness department for anybody who has a problem to get help. And they are really doing everything that you would hope that an organization that has had the trauma that they have had would be doing.
— Do you have an issue with the three potential lawsuits, the three potential plaintiffs who have emerged, that they also fault the Blackhawks for the repercussions of the Blackhawks, including a former prospect that has been identified as Black Ace 1 in the Jenner & Block report?
“I don’t want to comment on prospective or threatened litigation. That’s obviously something that we will continue to monitor.”
— People have said you should step in and ask Rocky to step aside or that you’ve been too lenient when looking at the ($2 million fine) or (not forcing out) Kevin Cheveldayoff and such and say these are not harsh enough punishments. What is your response?
“I do what I believe — when all the facts and circumstances (are considered), I do what I think is the right thing. Not everybody’s going to agree with me on every decision I make.”
— I do want to push back on one thing. I can say that with the line of questioning that Mark Lazerus and I presented to Rocky, we were trying to ask about some of those things that the Blackhawks are doing to push things forward, and Danny was about to answer. It wasn’t that we were focused on Kyle Beach, so the kind of things that you’re talking about that Rocky was ‘emotional’ about, why ... ?
“So there’s context there. I don’t want to have a conversation about any of this without mentioning our sympathy and our support after the fact now, with what happened to Kyle Beach. I don’t want (people) to ever think that were losing sight of that. And the irony and the emotion of the moment is that Danny could very well have answered the question — that’s why anybody looking at this could reasonably reach the conclusion that this was an emotional moment. And sometimes emotional moments just are emotion and don’t lead you to the actual facts of what’s going on.”
