That’s some Broad Street Bullshit.
Philadelphia Inquirer Flyers beat writer Sam Carchidi, who refers to himself as the Broad Street Bull, performed the monumental task of making himself the most tone-deaf white guy in a league and sport full of them.
Carchidi, infamous for tweeting out breaking news two hours after his competitors and for falling for really bad fake Twitter trade rumors, chose this moment to ask this pressing question:
“Yeah, uh, thanks for doing this. Can you guys forget about all the social issues for a second and just focus on hockey? What does delaying the game two days do to momentum you built from the overtime win?”
Let me reiterate: At a press conference intended to give the players a platform to talk about why they must do more to help the cause to end racial injustice, why that’s more important than games, Carchidi wants to just talk about hockey in the most cliched hackneyed terms possible.
To their credit, the players seemed to roll their eyes.
One thing you’ll notice about the “don’t make sports about politics” crowd is that they sure seem to have very specific and predictable political views.
Carchidi covers a team in the Flyers that has tangential ties to several stories that have surfaced about racism in the hockey world this season. That includes the Akim Aliu story, who was violently abused in hazing rituals by his juniors teammate, Steve Downie. The Flyers drafted Downie in the first round in 2005, and reacquired him in 2013.
Carchidi also covered Brandon Manning for years, and the former Flyer was suspended for dropping the N-word in an AHL game this year. Manning, who is a fringe player given the “scrappy, hard-working treatment” by the Philadelphia press despite his subpar play, said in his exit interview in 2018 that he thinks he was a good teammate. The Flyers are notorious for being detail-oriented in their scouting and development and being committed to “character.”
After getting dragged on Twitter, Carchidi offered this response:
Do you think Carchidi ever inquired as to why the team has a connection to two racists? Nah, but he did write stories mourning the removal of the Kate Smith statue from the Wells Fargo Center grounds after her racist past came out.
As far as I can tell, Kate Smith never scored a goal for the Flyers, so it seems like Carchidi is comfortable writing about sports-adjacent social issues that can be found at the intersection of “white people talking about white people.”
Carchidi’s publication, incidentally, is the same one whose top editor resigned this year after his paper ran the headline, “Buildings Matter Too.”
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