Avery, Simpson

First, Sean Avery received a six game suspension for his disgusting "sloppy seconds" remark and he was ordered into anger management which could make it longer. Some say Gary Bettman overplayed his hand here, but I say the suspension was nowhere near harsh enough. I would have benched Avery for the rest of the season and the playoffs, and if by chance the Dallas Stars win it all I would not allow his name to appear on the Stanley Cup.

Avery was a bad enough boy to begin with as a player (his "screening" stunt and his yelling at a female spectator, both earlier this year, are just two examples); but saying something like that, even off the ice, has no place even in crude private conversation. I'm all for freedom of speech but I would never say that about an ex-girlfriend and her current paramour -- it shows a complete lack of class. Say what you will about Elisha Cuthbert and Rachel Hunter but they and their respective current boyfriends, Dion Phaneuf and Jarrett Stoll, deserve better. No amount of anger management will ever wipe out any latent misogyny either.

For what it's worth, the Stars may try to fire Avery all together citing the CBA's "morals clause" and I hope they do.

Second, O.J. Simpson got 9 to 33 years for the armed robbery last year in Las Vegas, where he claims he was trying to take back stuff stolen from him. With good behaviour he could possibly be out in as little as five. Even if he didn't "know" he was breaking the law, he knew he was acting with depraved indifference towards his victims (in this case a pawn broker and his associates).

I have to wonder though if there was extra time added on only because he is still perceived in most quarters as having "gotten away with murder," namely the deaths of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman Most jurisdictions I'm aware of in the States, the max for armed robbery where no one dies or is disabled is fourteen, tops. Simpson has no chance of overturning his conviction but I think he has an argument on sentence especially if others have gotten less for similar crimes.

It's a weird comparison, I know, but fifty years after Louis Riel was hanged for treason, one of the jurors who convicted him -- Edwin Brooks -- and who along with his colleagues unanimously pleaded for mercy from John A. MacDonald, said, "We tried him for treason, but he was hanged for the execution of Thomas Scott."

It's a well established principle you're sentenced for the crime on which you were convicted, not for the stuff you were not convicted for.

I don't wish Simpson well -- he got what was coming to him in this case, at least on the conviction, and I also think he should be kicked out of the Hall of Fame -- but the sentence could set a bad precedent for others who aren't an actor / athlete / comedian / journalist.

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