Blue Jackets on Babcock hire: ‘We got it wrong’
-
Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
Columbus Blue Jackets management admitted it made a mistake in hiring former head coach Mike Babcock, apologizing privately to players and publicly to critics.
Babcock resigned from the Blue Jackets over the weekend — days before the start of training camp — after an NHLPA investigation into claims that he violated players’ privacy when he asked to see photos on their cellphones. He had been hired in July.
“We went through a process earlier this summer prior to hiring Mike Babcock as our head coach, but we got it wrong and that’s on us,” team president John Davidson said Monday at a news conference to introduce Pascal Vincent as the team’s new head coach.
Vincent had previously been the associate head coach.
The NHLPA interviewed players in Columbus on Thursday about Babcock’s behavior. Executive director Marty Walsh met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Friday and shared his findings. They both reached out to the Blue Jackets later that day.
“They were very transparent with the information we received. In talking with Mike Babcock, we decided there was no going back,” Davidson said. “The resignation went forward from that point on.”
Babcock was on the first year of a two-year contract. The team declined to share details of his contract settlement.
General manager Jarmo Kekalainen spoke with the players Monday morning and apologized for “any inconvenience or awkward situations” Babcock’s hiring might have created.
Kekalainen also said Babcock had asked to see photos on his cellphone.
“That was his way of introducing his family [and] having me introduce my family to him,” Kekalainen said. “Personally, I had no problem with it, but I can understand that it could put somebody in an uncomfortable and awkward situation.”
Davidson refused to get into specifics about what the NHL and the NHLPA revealed regarding Babcock’s interactions with players that led to his resignation.
“Sometimes when things happen, there’s players involved and that’s a private world and sometimes you need to leave it there,” Davidson said. “But I do know that there were things that happened and it’s led to this point where we’re at right now.”
Veteran players such as captain Boone Jenner and star winger Johnny Gaudreau said they had no issues with Babcock asking to see their camera roll, but several sources indicated to ESPN that younger players were not as receptive to the request and felt much more uncomfortable about it.
“I do not believe there were any ill intentions on Mike’s part in the way he conducted interviews with our players to get to know them,” Kekalainen said. “However, whether there was intent or not, some of our players weren’t comfortable with his methods and that was concerning. As we gathered information and had numerous discussions both internally and externally, it became very clear that the distractions caused by this were too great and were having a negative impact on our players.”
Rather than going to management or team leadership, players reached out to former NHL player and current TV analyst Paul Bissonnette, who shared the initial accusations about Babcock on the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast.
Kekalainen said that while he has had players come to him in the past with problems, “it’s a complex relationship with the management and the player” because of power dynamics.
“It is not as simple for the players to always be honest about how they’re feeling or what’s going on through in their lives and show I guess vulnerability to us that are in this position to decide about their future in hockey,” Kekalainen said.
After Babcock resigned, there was speculation about the status of Davidson and Kekalainen. On Monday, Blue Jackets ownership indicated that team management would not pay a price for the Babcock debacle — for now.
“We do not anticipate further changes to our hockey leadership team at this time,” the owners, led by majority owner and governor John P. McConnell, said in a statement. “… Additional disruptions would be detrimental to our players and coaches.”
Babcock was once considered one of the NHL’s top coaches, having won a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008 and two Olympic gold medals with Team Canada in 2010 and 2014.
This was Babcock’s first NHL job since being fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in November 2019 after five seasons. After that dismissal, allegations about Babcock mentally or verbally abusing players surfaced, in particular incidents with then-rookie Mitch Marner in Toronto and with veteran Johan Franzen when Babcock coached the Detroit Red Wings.
After Babcock was fired by Toronto, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said his coaching tactics were not “appropriate or acceptable,” given how times had changed in the NHL.
Despite all of that, Babcock had interviewed for multiple NHL coaching openings in the past year. Kekalainen said he believed Babcock “deserved another opportunity to coach” in the league, having been behind the bench for 1,301 regular-season games since 2002.
“Obviously, that was a mistake and that responsibility is mine,” Kekalainen said. “We understood the dynamics of hiring Mike before we did so and understand the criticism now that it didn’t work out the way we had planned. Mike was hired based on personal relationships we’ve had with him, the feedback we’d received from numerous people in the game that we respect, and extensive conversations with Mike.
“It’s obviously fair to question our due diligence, but I can assure you that it was done thoroughly.”
Babcock’s hiring by the Blue Jackets was met with criticism by many in the hockey world, who were skeptical about him having changed his tactics since his last NHL job.
When asked what he’d say to those critics today, Davidson replied: “Maybe they were right.”
-
Adam Rittenberg
The Nebraska–Tennessee football home-and-home football series scheduled for 2026 and 2027 will not be played after Nebraska opted out of the agreement.
Tennessee athletic director Danny White posted on X that Nebraska called off the series and added that Tennessee is “very disappointed” by the cancellation, especially so close to the initial game in 2026. The teams had been set to play in 2026 at Nebraska and at Tennessee the following year.
In a statement, Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen explained renovations to the team’s stadium, which will temporarily lower seating capacity, ultimately led to the decision.
“We are making plans to embark on major renovations of Memorial Stadium that may impact our seating capacity for the 2027 season,” Dannen said. “The best scenario for us is to have eight home games in 2027 to offset any potential revenue loss from a reduced capacity. The additional home games will also have a tremendous economic benefit on the Lincoln community.”
The Cornhuskers announced they will host Bowling Green in 2026 and Miami (Ohio) in 2027 on the dates when it was originally set to play Tennessee. Nebraska has never faced either school. The team will play eight homes in 2027 for the first time since 2013.
The cancellation ends a nearly two-decade process around a Nebraska-Tennessee series, which was originally agreed upon in 2006 and set for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In 2013, the two schools agreed to delay the games for a decade. Nebraska will pay $500,000 to get out of the scheduling agreement.
White told Volquest that the “buyout implications need to be much steeper” with an “old contract,” and the cancellation puts Tennessee in a bind. Tennessee, which opens the 2025 season against Syracuse in Atlanta, had its nonleague schedule set through the 2030 season. The school either must find an opponent who can fill the 2026 and 2027 dates for a home-and-home series, or explore neutral-site options.
“You really can’t pull an audible this late in the game,” White told Volquest.
Nebraska’s stadium renovation, the first phase of which had been set to begin after the 2024 season, has been delayed until after the 2025 season, at the earliest.
Tennessee and Nebraska have played only three times before, most recently in the 2016 Music City Bowl, won by the Vols. Nebraska beat Tennessee in the 1998 Orange Bowl to secure a share of the national title that season.
Tennessee has been on the other side of a similar situation. The Vols in 2021 canceled a game against Army for the next season in 2022 and added Akron instead.
Information from ESPN’s Chris Low was used in this report.
-
Jorge Castillo
TAMPA, Fla. — The New York Yankees‘ facial hair and grooming policy, an infamous edict in place for nearly 50 years, was formally amended for the first time Friday.
In a statement, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said the organization will allow “well-groomed beards” effective immediately, changing a rule his father, George, established in 1976.
“In recent weeks I have spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees — spanning several eras — to elicit their perspectives on our longstanding facial hair and grooming policy, and I appreciate their earnest and varied feedback,” Hal Steinbrenner said in the statement. “These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years.
“Ultimately the final decision rests with me, and after great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward. It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”
George Steinbrenner implemented the mandate before the 1976 season, leaving players with a choice of being clean-shaven or wearing a mustache. Hal Steinbrenner kept the policy in place after becoming chairman and controlling owner of the franchise in 2008.
Players overwhelmingly obliged with the order over the next five decades, from spring training through October, often before letting themselves go during the offseason, though a few have pushed the limits.
In the 1990s, for example, star first baseman Don Mattingly was fined and benched by manager Stump Merril for refusing to trim his mullet. Four years later, Mattingly wore a goatee for part of his final season in 1995.
This year, All-Star closer Devin Williams, acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers in December, reported for his spring training physical with a beard before shaving it down to a mustache for the team’s first workout the next day. On the other end, former Yankees Gleyber Torres and Clay Holmes reported to camp with their new teams sporting full beards.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway