Cam Janssen’s Controversial Interview

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6oB30igna0k

They have removed the video from YouTube. A brief recap of the video is below. Cam Janssen is typically not at the center of controversies. For starters Janssen is a fourth line player that usually only registers a handful of minutes a game. He is known for his epic fights and being one of the last remaining true “enforcers” left in the modern NHL. During his time with the St. Louis Blues, Janssen was known for his classy and respectful nature away from the rink. He often spent time with fans, working with various foundations and charities. However, it only took one interview to forever tarnish Janssen’s reputation.

Update: Janssen has released a statement apologizing for his actions on New Jersey’s official site which you can read here. Janssen apologized for his vocabulary as well as his homophobic comment. Interestingly enough, the enforcer fails to apologize or mention his comments on trying to hit players with their head down and how he wants to hurt them.

Janssen’s interview (all 14 minutes of it) can be found on YouTube – if you can find a place where they haven’t removed it. Plenty of NSFW language.

First, say what you will about profanity in an interview. Thom and Jeff of the Thom & Jeff show are known for pushing the envelope. It’s not surprising to hear plenty of profanity and controversial topics on one of their shows. Janssen’s interview is no different. It’s actually quite odd to hear a professional athlete that represents the New Jersey Devils act in such a way when he’s well aware the interview is bound to be seen by a decent amount of viewers/listeners.

Then there’s the actual quotes from Janssen. At 8:40, Janssen mentions how he wants to catch a player with his head down to hurt him because he knows the opponent won’t know he is coming. Janssen’s comments are a bit difficult to listen to considering the plague of concussions in the NHL. This includes a guy like David Perron, a former teammate of Janssen, that missed more than a year thanks to a dirty hit.

His comments don’t end there. Janssen reveals that when he is chirped by an opposing team he informs them that he will attempt to injure whichever player has his head down with the puck. A current player in the NHL directly admitted that he aims to injure players with their head down when he is out on the ice. Idiocy, thy name is Janssen.

Janssen also comments on the film “Goon”, a movie that centers around the idea of an enforcer’s role in hockey. Without going too far into his comments, heard around the 11-minute mark, Janssen is not a fan of the film. Perhaps because the main character in “Goon” is an enforcer yet a polite one and not a true thug as Janssen makes himself out to be in the interview above?

Finally, and perhaps worst of all, Janssen makes a derogatory comment about what he did to a player if a player was of homosexual orientation.

Got all that? Janssen did a great job of throwing his respectable reputation out the window. All his charity work, all of his work he has done for the fans, gone. Janssen now has the image of being exactly what the NHL doesn’t need – a thug trying to hurt someone as opposed to playing the game.