Ron MacLean breaks his silence and reveals what his relationship is like with Don Cherry
One of the biggest talking points in recent memory was when Don Cherry was fired from CBC after certain comments he made on air regarding Remembrance Day and wearing the poppy. Don stuck by what he said and has doubled down on the comments and MacLean tried to offer up apologies on his behalf, but that did not go over too well.
MacLean gave a 5-minute monologue on the very next edition of Hockey Night in Canada that almost made it seem like he was trying to save his own hide while throwing his ex-colleague under the bus. It didn't go over too well on social media, the media itself ran with the story, and Don Cherry was rather perturbed by the comments, at one point even mentioning that he didn't know if he and MacLean would ever be friends again.
Over the years it has been a topic of conversation but one that needed to be tip-toed around. Now it seems like the hatchet has been buried and both MacLean and Cherry are back on talking terms - although a different variation as opposed to customary friendships.
When John Shannon asked if they keep in touch still, Ron responded with:
"Sure, the way we speak is I phone, then he usually phones back but you know Don is not big on technology. So we phoned him from the All-Star Game in Sunrise, Florida... we all said greetings and then I phoned him again when Mayor, Hazel McCallion passed, I offered to take Don to the funeral but it would have been an event if he was there so he asked not. I phoned him again on June 1st, the anniversary of Rose's passing, and we also share Leafs seats."
Ron then mentioned that they were never truly friends off the camera and part of that is because they were so different in how they lived their lives:
"We don't talk, we never did, you know this... We were always polar opposites in terms of our politics... we would sit after Stanley Cup playoff games in our final years watching Fox News and Trump's speeches, and Don loved those and took great inspiration in the way Trump marketed. I was the other guy...but we still got along as opposites who attract but we couldn't have done it all summer long. We functioned beautifully as work colleagues but we were never the kind of friends just because we were so different." MacLean on his relationship with Cherry
It's been almost 4 years since Don Cherry was fired from Hockey Night in Canada but at the very least at least the long-time colleagues are still on talking terms, no matter how the situation unfolded.
Previously on MapleLeafsDaily
POLL |
SEPTEMBRE 6 | 297 ANSWERS Ron MacLean breaks his silence and reveals what his relationship is like with Don Cherry Do you believe Don Cherry was wrongfully terminated? |
Yes | 233 | 78.5 % |
No | 41 | 13.8 % |
His time had long passed anyway | 23 | 7.7 % |
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