When Bruins general manager Don Sweeney opened his mouth on Friday, unleashing a cascade of impotent, nasty, baffling words that had congealed into the shape of an excuse, it got a little easier to forget the statement his team had released a bit earlier in the day.
They’d signed Mitchell Miller, a 20-year-old USHL star defenseman who was available only because, as a teenager, he’d racially abused and bullied a Black classmate with developmental disabilities. It’s a matter of public record, what Miller did to Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, and it didn’t stop the Arizona Coyotes from drafting him in 2020. The public backlash is what stopped them (and the University of North Dakota) from keeping him around; the public backlash is the only reason he was available.
The statute of limitations on that, for the Bruins and the NHL at large? Two years, a bit of time served in Tri-Cities, a whole bunch of points and a tossed-off Instagram apology. That should do it.
In 2016, Miller, in juvenile court, admitted to dipping a candy push pop in a urinal and tricking Meyer-Crothers into licking it. For years, he’d called Meyer-Crothers the N-word and bullied him physically, according to Meyer-Crothers and other students at their suburban Toledo, Ohio, school. The school suspended Miller and the other responsible classmate, according to court documents, but Miller’s punishment was greater because he lied repeatedly to school administrators, who confirmed the reports of other students by using the school’s security cameras. Meyer-Crothers’ mother Joni told The Athletic that the abuse by Miller started in second grade and involved repeated racial slurs, such as calling her son a “n—–” and telling him to “go pick cotton.”
The Bruins, just like the Coyotes before them, want you to believe that Miller’s actions were youthful indiscretions. Horrific, yes, but a one-off, and something Miller has grown from and moved beyond. They want you to look at Miller and see yourself, maybe, or your son. It’s an appeal to empathy — for Miller, not the person who actually deserves it. They don’t want you to look at Meyer-Crothers and see yourself, maybe, or your son. They’re betting that you can’t, especially if you’re a White man who does not live with a disability.