Richards holds the Cup in front of a sign in Murray Harbour erected in his honour. Photo: From the Brad Richards Day website

When Brad Richards helped the Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup last Spring, his home town of Murray Harbour and the province of Prince Edward Island united in celebrating the victory of their native son. Two months later, the joy turned into a full-scale controversy that centered on Richards' decision not to sign autographs for fans at an event in his honour, and an editorial in the Summerside Journal-Pioneer criticizing his decision.

The story began about 2,500 kilometers down the east coast from Summerside on June 7, when Richards’ Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Calgary Flames 2-1 in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals. Richards not only became the first Island-born player to win the Stanley Cup, but his 12 goals and 26 points led the NHL in playoff scoring and won him the Conn Smythe trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs.

Every winner of the Stanley Cup gets 24 hours to take the cup wherever he chooses, and Richards announced that he would take it home to the red sands of Murray Harbour . His already-popular stock soared to new heights during the playoffs, and a week of celebrations, fundraisers and other events were scheduled to honour the 24-year-old. The party reached its peak on Aug. 3, when the town of Murray Harbour swelled from 356 to 10,000 people for Brad Richards Day and cars filled local farmers' fields to keep the parade route clear for viewers.

With the streets teeming with onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of their hometown hero, Brad Richards steamed into Murray Harbour with his family and the Stanley Cup on board his family's lobster boat, the Brad and Paige (named after him and his sister). At the wharf, the boat was scooped up onto an oversized red truck and hauled through the streets to the cheers of parade-watchers. As Brad hoisted the cup and spoke to the crowd, the day was deemed a personal and town triumph.

And this is where managing editor Darlene Shea and the Summerside Journal-Pioneer enter the fray. The day before the parade, a news release had been handed out to all media outlets in Prince Edward Island stating that due to the expected size of the crowd for the festivities, Richards would not be signing autographs. The Journal-Pioneer staff discussed the release and decided it called for an editorial rebuke. The editorial, published on the day of the big parade, said: “Kids with stars in their eyes might now begin to entertain the first fleeting thought that their hero might have skates of clay.” It accused Richards of “unsportsmanlike conduct” to those who supported him. It also mentioned that a signed 8 x 10 photo of Richards sells for $59 U.S., too pricey for most Island families, it said.

Darlene Shea, managing editor of the Journal-Pioneer , explains the paper's thinking: “Here is this small town sports star planning this big day for himself and his fans, and yet he won't sign autographs for those who show up to see him. That was our mindset when we [wrote] this editorial. We had some idea that this wouldn't be popular, but we never thought it would get national attention.”

The Journal-Pioneer also never anticipated how long the controversy would last. A phone call to the paper  a month after the dust-up was answered  with a sigh and a nervous laugh: “Oh  no, I thought that was dead.”

“A knife to the back”

The editorial put the publication at the centre of a media firestorm, with Richards declaring that he would no longer speak to the paper, demanding an apology, and mentioning possible legal action. Richards later backed off some of his fiercest rhetoric, but at the time of the incident he told Canadian Press it was “the worst thing that has ever been written about me personally” and that it was “a knife to the back.” Richards did not return calls to his home in Murray Harbour on the matter.

When the national media showed up at the door of the Journal-Pioneer the next day, Shea told reporters that the purpose of editorials is to get people talking. As managing editor, she took responsibility for the editorial and said the paper stood by it, regardless of the outcry from Richards and his supporters. Shea now says it was Richards' parents, Glen and DeLite, who turned the story into national news by speaking to CBC PEI about the editorial. Without their involvement, Shea feels this would have had the impact of every other editorial at the Journal-Pioneer : some positive feedback, some negative feedback.

“This was the first piece of negative publicity Brad had received, and it came from a paper in his home province,” she says. “His reaction was a bit overblown, but I think he'll get a little bit thicker skinned in the future.”

Shea says 50 per cent of responses to the editorial were in favor of its viewpoint, but many of these letters used profane language to describe Richards and his decision not to sign autographs, and were libelous and couldn't be printed. A letter from Blair Arsenault of Summerside argued that the paper showed “considerable grit” and “integrity” by standing up to Richards and even asked for the editor's autograph. David Smallman of Charlottetown wondered if the editor would like10,000 lined up at her door looking for autographs. While Shea feels the incident is now behind the paper, PEI journalists haven't quite forgotten the piece.

Bill McGuire, news editor at the cross-province Charlottetown Guardian, speaks about the matter frankly, but the whispering tone of his voice suggests scandal. McGuire feels there is more than a viewpoint on displayed in the article.

“I think the editorial was a croc of shit,” he says. “They had a couple of charity events scheduled for over there [in Summerside], and Brad couldn't make it to them. Then they saw that he wasn't signing any autographs at this thing, and decided that this was a way to take Brad down a peg.”

"Grossly unfair"

The editorial raised a question for journalists, especially in small markets: How do you balance what you see as a defence of your community with the need to avoid offending readers? Carl Fleming, who's been writing opinion columns for 23 years and is sports editor for the Halifax Daily News, says he found the article “grossly unfair” to Richards. Still, he says negative feedback is an essential part of opinion writing. Every publication must be prepared to take the heat every time it prints a viewpoint. But just as columnists and editors risk harsh comments from their readership and those they write about, their subjects also run a risk of attack: the politician who breaks election promises, the coach whose team has lost five in a row, or anyone else in the public eye.

“The smaller the town, the tougher it gets to write these editorials and columns,” says Fleming. “I've had coaches stop speaking to me in the past over something I've written, and at times it can make getting stories more difficult. But you can't sit on the fence when writing editorials and columns. And you better make sure that if you are criticizing someone or something, you can back up what you say.”

Did the Richards piece cross the line from discussion-starter to unjustified criticism? Both Fleming and Bruce Rainnie, a veteran sports reporter and host of CBC's Canada Now in Charlottetown, say it did. Rainnie says the Journal-Pioneer didn't have a firm grasp on the logistics of the Brad Richards Day celebration. The fact that the media were notified through a press release in advance that Richards wouldn't be signing autographs meant nobody showing up had reason to be disappointed with the policy, Rainnie says. In fact, the Summerside Journal-Pioneer printed that release the day before the parade.

“What did this editorial accomplish?” Rainnie asks. “If Brad had started signing autographs that day, it is conceivable that he could still be there today. It was a day that reeked of celebration, and I feel this wasn't the time for an editorial of that nature given the advance notice about the signing policy.”

Darlene Shea agrees that fans knew about the rule before they arrived. But to her, the point was that Richards wasn't signing autographs on a day when his hometown fans came to support him. Whether the public knew in advance or not, Richards was neglecting them after all their support.

As for Richards' reaction to the editorial and refusal to speak to the Journal-Pioneer , Shea says it won't change much at the paper. She says Richards wasn't accessible to the paper in the past, so they'll continue to use stories from the Guardian (the two papers are owned by Transcontinental Media) on Richards' career until the hockey star's feelings begin to thaw.