Morgan Rielly, Maple Leafs defenseman, apologizes for misogynistic remark

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly was asked on Friday morning about the emotional toll playing for this sinking franchise as taken on the 20 year old. 

“You just worry about doing a job. That’s what you’re here to do,” said Rielly.

Well, there you go. Head down, sleeves up, doin’ work. Great message of perseverance.

“You’re not here to, you know, be a girl about it.”

[Insert screeching tires noise and/or record scratch here.]

The comment quickly went viral, and the backlash was palpable from respected women in the hockey community, as well as others. Some defended Rielly as being young, dumb and full of some [unfortunate comments about gender stereotypes]. 

Later in the day, Rielly apologized for his comment in an interview with TSN, saying:

“I want to start by apologizing to anybody I hurt with my words. It’s a phrase that has to be taken out of today’s society. And I know I can’t be using that with the media. It was careless by me. I didn’t mean it the way it was taken at all. And I want to apologize for the way it was taken across.”

Here’s the clip:

“And I know I can’t be using that with the media” isn’t the most convincing phrase insofar as Rielly seeing the error of his ways, but hey, at least it’s an apology.

Of course, the ultimate irony here is that if he was trying to be “like a girl” about his tenure with the Leafs, he’d have been able to identify a toxic relationship with no hope for success and dumped the loser by now …