Morgan Reilly and girl remark
Reilly has been trending on Twitter much of this day after saying something a lot of us guys have said. It used to be something guys routinely said to exhort one another into more effort, or to tease or even bully another male. But, rightly so, the phrase is being put out to pasture along with the dodo bird, cassette tapes and John Tortorella.
In Raleigh, North Carolina today, where his team is readying to play the Hurricanes tonight, he was asked about what the Leafs might do to turn themselves around, something he and his teammates are often asked these days. They have, you see, lost 22 of 26 games and haven’t won on the road since back when Justin Bieber was still adorable.
“You have to have a positive outlook on it,” Reilly said in part. “You have to be able to put everything that is happening (out of mind) and just worry about doing your job. That’s what you are here to do. You are not here to be a girl about it. You just have to put your head down, do your job, work hard and try to make life easier on the people around you.”
There is a lot of wisdom in what the 20-year-old said. It’s mature beyond his years and suggests he will be a good leader down the road. There was just that one reference, that one word: girl.
The native of West Vancouver meant you can’t be wimpy about it but, well, suggesting girls are wimpy isn’t very smart and there are a host of reasons why, most especially because girls are not wimpy.
Apology for ‘girl’ remark
It is thankfully no longer the kind of world where you say those things but it is also not the kind of world where we must forever vilify people for making an error. It’s thankfully the kind of world where we can forgive and move on, or it should be. Especially when a person steps up and owns their mistake, not only apologizing but indicating that they know why they should
“Obviously, I want to apologize to any people I hurt this morning with my words. I didn’t mean it the way it was taken and I’m sorry for the way it came across,” he began. “It’s a phrase that has to be taken out of today’s society and I know I can’t be using that. It was just careless by me.
“Again, I’m sorry for the way it came across.”
The part where the young defenceman said using “girl” in the manner he did was to use it in a “phrase that has to be taken out of today’s society” is particularly wonderful to hear, and suggests he wasn’t simply coached by the teams PR department but understands his mistake and is genuinely sorry.
After such a great overtime, Cup winning goal it is easy to come out of this with more respect for Reilly than one had before he misspoke. After all, he really manned up.
Or rather, pesonned up.
