The Ontario Hockey League isn’t going to tolerate any Internet tomfoolery.
The OHL announced Wednesday that Greg Betzold of the Peterborough Petes and Jake Marchment of the Belleville Bulls each has been suspended 15 games for what the league determined to be “inappropriate” social network behavior.
“These suspensions follow recent social networking activity that has come to the League’s attention,” OHL commissioner David Branch said in a statement. “This most inappropriate and concerning activity contravenes the League’s social networking policy and a number of other policies including Respect in Sport (Harassment and Abuse) and diversity.”
Marchment and Betzold both apologized via Twitter, though it appears Betzold has since deleted his account. It’s worth noting that, according to the players, their inappropriate comments were made in private, even though that does nothing to justify their actions.
[tweet https://twitter.com/JMarch11/status/529750847404916736 align=’center’]
[tweet https://twitter.com/JMarch11/status/529751086262145024 align=’center’]
“The OHL takes issues related to respect, diversity and harassment very seriously,” Branch continued in the statement. “The social networking conduct displayed by these players goes against what the League stands for and serves to highlight a sense of entitlement that we, as a League, have worked hard to try to eliminate. We believe these suspensions, going forward, will reinforce to our players that all activity, be it in person, on the ice or online, must be in keeping with our policies. These events further illustrate that the League and our teams must continually work with our players to ensure they understand and appreciate our social networking policy. The League will also look to our current programs, outlined in our Players First Guide, to see where improvements may be made in terms of communications and respect for others.”
(h/t to NBC Sports’ ProHockeyTalk blog)
