Sometimes, things don’t work out no matter how hard you try.
Rocky Thompson has been a highly touted young hockey coach for years. Starting with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL, where he won a Memorial Cup, he moved up to the AHL Chicago Wolves, where he had the Wolves playing as Calder Cup contenders. That success at each stop led to a job in 2020 with the San Jose Sharks as an assistant coach.
Thompson, unfortunately, has a medical condition that prevents him from taking the Covid vaccine. Since the NHL requires all staff, including coaches, who are within 10 feet of the players to have the vaccine (but there is no requirement for the players themselves), Thompson had to resign. There are no medical exemptions in the NHL policy.
He resigned relatively quietly, stating he had to resign because he was unable to take the vaccine, and he would not be taking further questions.
A sad story.
It should not be a divisive one.
We all know vaccines and vaccine mandates are divisive. Almost everyone has a strong feeling on at least one of these issues. This isn’t the topic here though, nor is a sports blog the place to discuss it.
The topic is a promising young coach has left his job, through no fault of his own. Collateral damage of a pandemic, as many people are becoming.
You would think the reaction on social media would be supportive, telling him to take care of his health. And to be fair, a lot of the comments were. But there were also a lot of comments telling him he had made a stupid “choice,” how he was selfish for not getting vaccinated, all the usual stuff.
Some extremists even suggested people who can not take the vaccine for medical reasons - the ones who have no choice - should be denied any further health care for any issue. I’m pretty sure Amnesty International would have something to say about a country that did that. And there’s no chance the U.S. will do that, thankfully, there isn’t that much hate to go around.
I should note at this point - not one negative comment came from USHL territory, and there was a geographic theme to a lot of the comments. Not from a San Jose rival either, but I’ll leave it at that.
Again, he has a medical condition that prevents it. Not even a medical condition that makes it more difficult. One that prevents it.
Was he supposed to choose to be healthy? I mean, if you can, I choose that too. I choose not to have the Chronic Lyme that nearly killed me about five years ago. I choose not to have celiac disease so I can again eat wherever I like and whenever I like without concerns about cross-contamination. Or just be able to eat a thin crust or deep dish pizza again from a pizza joint.
It’s not that simple. I didn’t make any choices to get the illnesses I have. In fact, nobody is more careful around vegetation than me, since I’m allergic to half the earth it seems. I haven’t stepped on a lawn since 2005 - people find that hard to believe, but a highly regarded allergist said that’s how sensitive I am to grass, so I listened to him.
Yet of all people, I end up with Chronic Lyme disease. If it happened to me, it can happen to anyone. Health is fragile for all of us.
I listen to my doctor when he tells me something I need to do or not do. An appointed government official with no medical background and who doesn’t know me speaks, at best, in generalities. The CDC speaks in generalities. The head medical people speak in generalities. They have to. They don’t know each one of us personally.
Thompson’s doctor knows him personally. And if he says that means he can’t take the vaccine, he can’t take it.
It is not selfish to not take it because of a medical issue. What is selfish is to insist someone should take it, even when it is likely to cause them harm.
Some elements of society seem to have lost that understanding, along with civility, during the pandemic. Let’s hope it returns to them sooner rather than later.
