“@EricSandhu: @darenmillard ARIZONA SUCKS!!!! yotes gonna fail there just like your immigration laws… BAM BAM @tim_micallef @Sid_Seixeiro”
The above tweet was one of the numerous tweets Glendale Councilwoman Joyce Clark had received over the course of the Coyotes saga. Now these types of tweets aren’t anything new for people who support the Coyotes and openly speak up about it; oh, you’re not in the know about this yet? Venture to the “#Nordiques’ or ‘#Quebec” hashtags on twitter but in recent weeks things have heated up.
So much so that the meeting of ‘Inform Glendale’ was canceled due to death threats to one of the leaders of the group.
Something that flew under the radar not only in Arizona but in Canada where even the smallest of actions involving the Coyotes or one of it’s employees makes headline news.
- Glendale isn’t Phoenix -
Glendale is small, how small? Its population is only 226,721 compared to neighboring Phoenix, who tops off at 1,445,632. Maybe that explains some of Glendale’s actions in this Coyotes ordeal. Up until three years ago Glendale was nothing more than a small city in Arizona but after Jerry Moyes tried to break the lease agreement he had with the city of Glendale by placing the Coyotes into bankruptcy, Glendale and it’s Council members were thrust into the spotlight of every hockey and Canadian news publication; leaving some to say that the small city council members were not formally experienced to handle such pressure from the media.
Now I’ll admit, when I saw Joyce Clark’s the tweet heard around Canada, I cringed. I understood what she meant, but also understood where possible animosity would and could come from. Maybe a simpler “The abuse from Canadian Coyotes haters is too much. Blocked.” would have sufficed or maybe just leaving Canada out of it completely would stop this in its tracks, but in Clark’s defense, its hard to ignore where these tweets originate from. Leaving it be would be too easy, so it took TSN’s Darren Dreger to add fuel to the fire with his reply tweet.
Of course thats not who she meant Dreger, I’d think your inside sources would’ve been able to clear this up for you. She was talking more about these guys…hold on, let me find a few…
…Oh yes, here they are, people like this guy, or this guy, or even this guy. This goes over and above any argument of where this franchise should be located at. The replies Ms. Clark has gotten along with the recent death threat has crossed a new line in this whole mess. Now I’d love to see Darren Dreger comment on all this, but judging by the ignored tweets at him about this, he’ll probably just brush it off all together, again only pointing out flaws in the Coyotes’ circle of supporters but that isn’t anything new for Canadian media.
But before I wrap this up, I’d like to say it isn’t fair to just point out the negative in this story. I applaud Ms. Joyce Clark for speaking up and taking any heat shes gotten concerning the Phoenix Coyotes, and theres also been a few neighbors from up north that have taken the time to leave a good word and apology for Ms. Clark.
- Ed Chavez
twitter: @edmchvz
