The Philadelphia Flyers are in London, Ontario for a preseason game, and it hasn't gone so well. As the Flyers faced the Detriot Red Wings on Thursday, Wayne Simmonds, who is black, stepped up to take a penalty shot. As he did, someone in the crowd threw a banana onto the ice in what can only be describe as a sick and reprehensible taunt.
Here's the word from Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News.
Someone threw a banana from the stands at Wayne Simmonds as he was going in on a shootout. Totally uncalled for and wrong. He still scored. And I'm not kidding you, it was a banana. I need to get confirmation when I go down to the locker room. #stunned
Even worse, it happened more than once, says Danny Gray, a fan who was at the game.
There was a banana thrown at Simmonds when he tied it up. Didn't make it to the ice. Hit someone I was sitting with
While nobody has a clue who threw the bananas, it just doesn't matter. There's never a reason to throw a banana onto the ice as a racist taunt. The same can be said about soccer, where the same type of incident has been in the spotlight before, or any other sport. These types of taunts simply have no place in sport, ever.
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