More bits and pieces of what happened starting to surface around the Internet. We posted already a version of what happened from a friend of Milbury. Weigh that however you wish.
Looks like one of Mike’s son has come forward on a Phish forum (props to DOY Reader Andrew Johnson for this find; we’d make fun of him for being a Phish fan but he gets a pass this time). We’ve confirmed with our earlier source that it’s one of Mibury’s sons, Owen. Apparently he’s quite the jam-band fiend. Wonder if Mike knows about that. Anyways, feel free to keep that context in mind when reading the following and everything else in this post.
» Ashaman200 • Fri Dec 16, 2011 02:49 PMQuote:
| Originally Posted by jasonp: “why should we trust you?” |
Because Mike Milbury is my father.
I just got off the phone with him and here’s the story:
He personally rented an outdoor rink so his son (my half brother) and his team could play in a “Winter Classic.” It was a fun, family event, just a scrimmage game, but fun for the kids. Part way through the game, a kid on the other team starts harrassing my brother pretty bad, telling he’s going to kick his ass for being a Milbury. Typical hockey BS. Eventually the two get in a fight. My dad talks to the other coach about calming the kids down. My dad talks to my brother and tells him to igorne the other kid.
The game ends without (apparently) further incident. Families come on the ice for a skate. It all ends with a shootout/skills competition. At some point, my dad looks up and sees the other kid and my brother in a fight again. The coaches jump in, someone grabs my brother, my dad grabs the other kid and yells “What the fuck is going on?” The fight is stopped. No one is hurt. The shootout continues. The other kid in fact scores the winning goal in the shootout.
Today he gets a call that a complaint against him has been filed with the Brookine police.
So, take it how you want. Feel free to insult the trades and all awesome stuff, and I look the other way because it’s a losing battle to fight everyone on the internet about my father, but a personal attack, and accusations that he “beat a child” are where I draw the line.
For the record, he has never hit me or any of my brothers and sisters, or any kid, or anyone outside a hockey rink (jokes about the stands at MSG notwithstanding).
After the jump there’s more quotes from parents of players that were at the game. Things get real interesting. Apparently there’s video.
Parents the night of the incident were complaining about what went down at Larz Anderson on Dec 9th on Hockey DBoard. Props to Chemmy (@felixpotvin) for sharing this link with us. One poster — “hockey parent” — claiming to be a parent of Mike’s team:
“Did anyone else see the show tonight….mike milbury assaulting another teams player at the larz anderson rink tonight…this guy is a disgrace on so many levels, as a player, parent, and coach. what a treat for all to see. my kid is so done playing for him.”
And another from “observer”:
“Son plays like it is MMA on ice and uses language fit for a city park hoodlum. Milbury stops game and instructs a player from the bjr Blackhawks to get off the ice screaming this several times. The bjb coaches tell him to mind his own team. game continues with his son getting 3 penalties for his antics. At end of game a shootout is conducted for fun. The son then goes after a BJB player trying to fight him and Millbury grabs and shakes the BJB player screaming what did you say to my son? BJB coaches and his own assistants ran over and began to scream at Milbury. Milbury’s Son was kicked off ice and began to tell the Mother F-off. The poor woman wanted to disappear. after several tense moments and BJB coaches in his face the situation ended. Parents from both sides were disturbed at the language and his actions. i believe there is video available but parents to classy to post. Mr Boch is also very respected and would not condone this type of behavior. As a parent I am ashamed by his actions. This is the true story.”
Getting told to fuck off by a 12-year-old is pretty embaressing, if true.
And another poster claims Milbury has threatened a 12 year old before, prior to this incident. You kinda get the picture. You can read the full thread here. It somehow gets into talk about Mike going into an MMA ring (no idea), calling Milbury’s son “Dingleberry,” and looking to extort Milbury (mostly coming from handle “anon” who’s super fired up about the whole thing).
The kicker comes from “hockey parent”:
“glad others saw what I saw. I hopw someone posts the video on youtube—better yet give it to the other teams coaches—let the authorities deal with it.”
Video? Goddamn. That would put a lot of things into light. The he said/she said stuff gets messy, but a video can be a bit more objective — though not always entirely. Doubtful that this will surface on YouTube, though. If video does exist it’s probably in the hands of Brookline police. Not sure if something like that would read public viewing unless someone leaks it. Maybe “anon” will find it for everyone.
And because it’s been released, here’s the official statement from Mike Milbury’s attorney, Daniel Rabinovitz, via Tonight’s Healthy Scratches:
“Mike Milbury denies any allegations that there was an assault of any kind. He simply intervened in an altercation between his son and an opposing player. No one was struck, no one was injured and no one was threatened.”
No surprise in the denial.
There’s definitely parents at that game damning Milbury; it’ll be interesting to see if there are any that’ll defend him. Not sure any would go to a forum to do so, but who knows. The video would definitely put things into context. That’ll probably be “for court eyes only.” It would be hard to mistake Milbury lifting the alleged victim off the “ground and shook him, yelling obscenities all the while, before dropping him roughly to the ice,” as DeadSpin puts it. At the moment the argument seems heavily against Milbury but the investigation is still new — we’re sure new things will come to light one way or another.
What’s also sad is that a couple of pee wee kids were going at it to begin with and to the point that something even escalated this far that parents got involved. Ugly.
We’ll keep trying to keep people update as much as we can.
Update: Apparently Milbury and NBC have decided that Mike should remain off air until this matter resolves one way or another. Not surprised.
If you know more of what went down, email us at [email protected].
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
