Not a Black and White Issue

Overshadowed by the NFL Draft and NBA playoff basketball, Rangers coach John Tortorella got into an explosive and potentially dangerous altercation with a fan after said fan poured a beer on him. Sound familiar? Luckily, this time there was a barrier to separate the team and the crowd.
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Of course, this incident is drawing comparisons to the Ron Artest “Malice at the Palace” fracas that was a non-stop news story for several weeks in 2004.
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It is tempting to chalk the lack of attention paid to the Tortorella incident to the obvious race differences between hockey and basketball. The mostly black NBA has an image problem, as their players are often branded as thugs (sometimes rightfully so) stemming from violent on and off the court troubles. The largely Canadian and European NHL meanwhile, has a more clean-cut image despite being a more violent product with plenty of off-ice altercations. However, race has very little to do with the coverage of these particular incidents. The bottom line is that the NHL isn’t popular enough among American fans to solicit any measure of outrage. Something like this may as well have happened on a WWE Pay Per View. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Vince McMahon offered this fan a contract.