“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning,” Sir Winston Churchill once famously said.
The oft-quoted sentences could describe the current situation between the Chicago Blackhawks and Patrick Kane. There is still so much that has to happen before we truly see what direction this is really going, but the first two steps have been taken. It’s not the beginning of the end, it’s the end of the beginning; for both sides.
An abrupt cancellation of grand jury proceedings into the Kane sexual assault case has many experts believing settlement talks are in the works. People who know way more about legal issues than us sportswriters believe an out of court settlement could be in the works.
There’s a reason most rape cases never go to trial. The whole legal process can be just as horrifying, if not more so, for the accuser. If the Patrick Kane camp and the Kane accuser camp settle, it will then expeditiously move things along.
Cancellation of the grand jury was the first step, the second was the Blackhawks leaking that they’ve had multiple trade offers for Kane. Make no mistake, the Blackhawks wanted that out there as much as possible.
President John McDonough is the master of message control. He’s a tried and true expert propagandist, and the news that the Hawks are taking calls on trading Kane is an attempt to repair the damage done to Kane’s trade value. As well the front office should. They made a huge investment in the guy, and that investment’s value has been severely damaged.
Also, the Hawks have released the names of 30 players who will report to South Bend for training camp a week from tomorrow, and they haven’t commented on whether or not Kane will join them. Kane may not even be charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one in this situation. However, Kane is a very public figure and he works in an industry that generates a lot of publicity. So how the court of public opinion rules on Patrick Kane is pretty influential on the direction the Blackhawks will take with him.
The court of law is a slow, detailed, deliberate process. The court of public opinion is shallow, reactionary, reflexive, and waits for no man.
That’s where we are right now. For where we’re going, I suggest you read this thought piece from Committed Indians’ Sam Fels after you finish scrolling through the page you’re on now.
Some choice passages:
There will be talk of a suspension or rehab, and likely one of those. The thing is, Kane can make this awfully hard on the Hawks if he wants to. He has a no-move clause. He has a players’ union. He doesn’t have to accept a trade or suspension lying down if he doesn’t want to. I’m sure it will be quickly illustrated to him that if he wants any chance of rehabilitating his image (whether he cares about such a thing is not a question I can answer) he’ll take whatever punishment from the league or team without a word…If I had to guess, there’ll be something of at least a 25- or 40-game suspension, buying the Hawks and possibly league enough time to get a finger in the wind to see what they want to do from there…There’s certainly no reason to trust Kane, because exactly one month after his $84 million extension kicked in they got this.
I whole-heartedly agree with the author Sam Fels, in that I never want to see Patrick Kane see another minute of ice time in the United Center again. Yes, even if he’s on the opposing side, because Fels is right, time heals all wounds and sports have a transcendent power to overwhelm people’s hearts and minds, and bring them into a morally bankrupt parallel universe.
He’s right about how large numbers of fans will always be there to potentially give Patrick Kane a standing ovation, regardless of how the rape accusations are resolved in the legal system.
I’ve seen this before. In 2007, Illinois had a shooting guard named Jamar Smith who defied Coach Bruce Weber’s orders about not going out (he wasn’t the only player) on the worst weather night of the year. Smith drove drunk in the blizzard, crashed his car, knocking his teammate/passenger unconscious and he then fled the scene when he thought that he had killed his teammate.
So you have a basketball player who thought he accidentally killed someone within his proverbial band of brothers, and his response was to just leave him there. And I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of Illini fans give Jamar Smith a standing ovation after he returned from this.
Blackhawks fans don’t need to witness that with Patrick Kane.
You know the Hawks have reached their boiling point with him. How would you feel if you gave someone $84 million, and this happened exactly a month later?
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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