At this point, I think we are all aware of what former Ranger Sean Avery said a few weeks ago in regards to other NHL players dating his (celebrity) ex-girlfriends. If you need a reminder, you can click here.

Since then, the league has given Avery a six-game suspension for his comments, which doesn’t matter in the long run because the Dallas Stars (Avery’s current team) have suspended him indefinitely. Here’s my question: Does he deserve it?

Any team owner is entitled to do whatever they want in terms of what players they put on their team, and it’s absolutely reasonable to applaud the Stars for making it clear that sexist and demeaning comments about women won’t be tolerated. But to kick a guy off the team for good for that? Doesn’t that strike anyone as a little over the top?

I’m not condoning what Avery said. Not at all. But is it SO much worse than when Antonio Pierce said his favorite part of Texas Stadium is the Cowboys cheerleaders because, “They got the best cheerleaders in the league. Six-foot stallions. Six-foot things. Whatever they feed ‘em, it’s working.”

Six foot things? Really? In case you were wondering, Pierce received no reprimand at all from the league and no public admonishment from the Giants. None.

Here’s my point: Avery said something stupid. No doubt about it. And those who know him or have followed him in the past know he’s done it before. But NHL commish Gary Bettman didn’t talk about how the suspension was for a litany of offenses and, to my knowledge, neither did the Stars. They focused only on this incident.

And, in this incident, I’m just not sure the punishment fit the crime.

CARP SAYS:

… and yet, you can get busted for speeding with marijuana in your car and still be the hero the very next NFL Sunday. Or you can get caught with a militia’s worth of firearms in your home and still be allowed to play in the Super Bowl. Or you can fire a 95-mph fastball into the small of an opponent’s back and only have to surrender first base.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Avery—an ugly, nasty person who I am on record as having said, before his Rangers stint, that I wouldn’t want on my team—is being punished for his entire body of work, which includes alleged racist remarks on the ice, a physical fight with an assistant coach in Los Angeles, and many, many punk-like transgressions.

The actual comment he made wasn’t a suspendable offense. But the fact that he made it against a particular player, and the fact that he sought out the camera and then made sure the camera was rolling when he said the idiotic phrase gave NHL commissioner Gary Bettman enough ammo to punish him. Was the punishment too harsh? Absolutely.

Was it also obvious by then that the Dallas Stars players wanted this guy out, and probably Dallas management—run now, by the way, by Brett Hull, who was always one for firing off a dumb remark without thinking—regretted signing him to that big contract over the summer.

You know who comes out of this looking best? The New York Rangers, who saw past Avery’s abrasive benefits on the ice and decided they didn’t want such a terrible person poisoning their lockerroom.

Incidentally, those who worship Avery for his first-round wackiness in the last two playoff seasons, against Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk and the Devils’ Martin Brodeur, conveniently forget how Avery became a pedestrian in the second rounds of those playoffs, in which the Rangers were eliminated.

So long, punk.