Bruins’ Sweeney praises Bergeron, Chara for their efforts to promote change
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
With the United States of America in the midst of its largest 21st century push for social change in the wake of the George Floyd murder, Boston Bruins captains Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara took their leadership beyond the rink.
Not one for expressing his opinions online, Bergeron did exactly that with a powerful statement calling for change, and pledged a total of $50,000 to the Boston chapter of the NAACP and the Centre Multiethnique de Quebec. Chara, meanwhile, used his (always inspirational Instagram) to make a statement of his own, and marched with protesters in Brookline.
Their efforts were not lost on Bruins general manager Don Sweeney.
“From an organizational standpoint and a personal one, I applaud each and every players’ individual efforts in their own lives that’s outside the realm of hockey,” Sweeney said. “They’re human beings and they’re reacting very, very well from the standpoint of humanity. I think they both acknowledge the listening aspect of this and the realization that we all can continue to do a much better job of that to mobilizing our efforts to support any form of injustice.”
And not that this is at all surprising given their importance to the organization, and the validity of their efforts, but Sweeney made it point that both players (and all players for that matter) had the organization’s blessing to make their opinions known.
“If our players want to be more socially available in that regard to comment and voice their opinions and — in Zdeno’s case, support a protest and march — I applaud their efforts,” Sweeney reaffirmed. “I think it’s a testament to their leadership; not as hockey players, but as human beings and family men and people that know that they have to listen and allow this to resonate deeply within us all.
“They have the complete backing of the Boston Bruins.”
