TORONTO (June 29) -- This is not intended to be an "I told you so" lecture, but I've got to get something off my chest. In the absence of any notable character flaws during his tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs, defenceman Bryan McCabe was repeatedly kicked in the nether regions by too many people to count over the past three weeks. A couple of days ago -- on June 27 -- I concluded a column on this site by cautioning:
"A further word on Bryan McCabe. Those among media and fans who are questioning the severity of his family medical crisis will be put to shame once the details emerge. While the Leafs obviously have a plan for next season -- and have thus taken steps that could lead to the withdrawl of their lucrative, multi-year extension -- in no way is McCabe pulling some stalling ploy with the hockey club. Any man with a young wife, and a child less than one year of age, would react similarly to McCabe, who simply hasn't been able to summon the ardor for thinking about his hockey future. Not with the emotional stress he's enduring. McCabe also happens to be an honorable, up-standing person, which further illustrates why he will not commit to the Leafs' generous offer until he can properly wrap his mind around it. Don't sell this guy short -- as a hockey player or an individual."
I truly hope that some of the shame I refered to rose to the surface earlier today, when McCabe broke down and wept while discussing his wife Roberta's medical plight during a news conference announcing his official signing of the Leafs' five-year extension. Anyone who regularly peruses this site, listens to The Fan-590 here in Toronto, or reads Ken Campbell's Leaf-related stories in the Toronto Star, would have been well aware of a conversation I had with McCabe on the afternoon of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final (June 19). During that phone chat, McCabe divulged the details of his wife's illness and impending surgery, though both he and Roberta asked that I simply refer to the situation as "a serious family medical issue". Roberta, in particular, wanted to maintain her right to privacy in a non-hockey related matter, while Bryan emphasized that seeing his wife so ill was dwarfing anything that pertained to his hockey career. It's difficult to fathom that any reporter would contrive such a story, or that any athlete would make up a family illness to explain something so comparatively irrelevent as the delay in signing a contract. Yet, nine out of every ten e-mails I received on the subject (not to mention hundreds of posts on Leaf-related Internet chat sites), chose to castigate McCabe for what they were sure was a fabrication.
The common theories among these people had McCabe "toying" with the Maple Leafs, while secretly waiting until the New York Islanders could offer him a deal after July 1st, so his "bitch-wife" could get her way (an exact depiction of Roberta in at least a half-dozen e-mails). While the Islanders theory, minus the boorish reference to Roberta, was somewhat plausible during the initial delay of McCabe accepting the Leafs' offer, it held no water at all once he revealed his family illness. The senseless allegations that followed were particularly disgraceful given that Bryan openly admitted on several occasions that in a perfect world, Roberta would indeed prefer living closer to her family and friends on Long Island, but that her desires had absolutely nothing to do with hockey business between himself and the Maple Leafs. How much more honest does a guy have to be?
We now know why Roberta had profound difficulties in the weeks and months after her first child (daughter Stevie) was born last October. Along with the common, but debillitating post-pardum issues that were previously discussed, she had a physical handicap that confined her to a walker for three months. Through all of this, she soldiered on, mostly alone, raising an infant, while her husband traveled with the Leafs. And, just as commendably, Bryan was able to cast aside his emotional trauma to put up superb numbers on the ice, until a partially-torn groin muscle slowed him in the second week of January.
So, I ask: Under what circumstance did honorable people like the McCabes deserve to be crapped on by so many hockey "observers"? Was it a perverse backlash from those who felt Bryan unworthy of the contract terms the Leafs offered him? It would be encouraging to believe that the so-called "most loyal fans in the NHL" (an otherwise accurate depiction of Leaf supporters) aren't quite that shallow, but who knows? Surely, the McCabes deserved better.
Perhaps the same people that were so confident Bryan was lying about his family medical issue will now throw their support behind him, as he ventures to justify the lucrative deal he accepted from the Leafs. Maybe fans who ridiculed his character will take a step back, and try to comprehend why his most prominent Toronto teammates -- Mats Sundin, Tomas Kaberle and Darcy Tucker -- publicly ached for his return, even with the knowledge that big-name rivals like Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Ed Jovanovski, Nik Lidstrom and Pavel Kubina were potentially up for grabs in this summer's free agent market.
Every so often, even in our cynical society, a collective apology is richly deserved. This is one such occasion.
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