You have to love this fight. Two cranky, loud, rich guys fighting over nothing. It's a fight no one will win which is what makes it so much fun. You just' know that eventually they will both lose interest in each other and move on to battle others. It's their nature.
The latest encounter has Don Cherry accusing Brian Burke of going behind his back to CBC management to censor him. Burke is in turn angry that the meeting had been leaked. Cherry takes a few more shots at Coach Ron Wilson. He notes how he had lost a few times to Montreal (while coaching the Bruins) in the Stanley Cup finals and semi-finals but Wilson hasn't lost a playoff game since coming to Toronto. Ouch!
Part of the silliness in the feud is that Cherry is clearly a big Leaf fan. Fans across the country would have to agree with that Cherry is clearly a homer. He just doesn't like how Wilson tends to throw his players under the bus. And who would disagree with Grapes. The other silly notion is that after 30 years somehow the CBC is going to start censoring Cherry. How ridiculous is that?
Burke is pretty strategic. He's not a stupid man. This is about backing up his coach and players who are in a tough battle to make the playoffs. You create a bunker mentality to motivate the troops. Its "us" against all of "them." In this case them is the "anti-Leafs" media. Pretty lame but it works.
But it also gets me thinking about the future. The Leafs are now owned by media giants who will be broadcasting Leafs games. I can see a day when the CBC will no longer be part of Leafs telecasts and the entire broadcast rights will be owned by the Leafs owners, Rogers and Bell. What happens then when the Leafs management is not happy with what is being said with their team? Will the broadcast team be required to wear Maple Leafs clothing on air?
Pretty scary.
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