Fan Tosses Banana At Black Hockey Player Wayne Simmonds
Wayne Simmonds is one of the only few African American players in the NHL, so racial slurs and obstacles will always be there for the athlete.
However, when a fan in the John Labatt Centre threw a banana peel at Simmonds as he skated in alone on a shootout attempt during a 4-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the line was crossed.
Simmonds said,
“I caught it from the side of my eye, it was a banana. Hopefully, that wasn’t directed towards me being black because if it was, that’s just somebody being ignorant.”
The banana peel, thrown from the upper deck, landed directly in Simmonds path toward Red Wings goalie Jordan Pearce during the shootout.
After the game, some of Simmonds’ teammates quietly whispered inside the locker room, shaking their heads in disgust.
“I would have went and kicked that fan’s a*s myself,” one teammate said, asking to remain nameless.
After the banana was tossed onto the ice at the 9,000-seat Comcast-Spectacor-managed building, an announcement was made to have fans refrain from throwing things.
The spectator who threw the banana was not caught, with the incident happening so late in the game.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to identify the individual,” Comcast-Spectacor president and COO Peter Luukko said in a statement. “We certainly don’t condone such a foolish act [like this] as a player could potentially be seriously injured. This is ninth time we have played here in London and the fans have always been wonderful to us. The Flyers consider this our ‘home away from home’ and that’s because this city, the fans and this spectacular arena have been so supportive of the Philadelphia Flyers.”
