NHL forward Nazem Kadri claimed in his new book that when he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, he and a teammate confronted coach Mike Babcock for reportedly making one of the rookies cry.The incident surrounds Maple Leafs player Mitch Marner during his rookie season with the Leafs in 2016-2017. According to Sportsnet, Kadri wrote in his new book, "Dreamer: My Life on the Edge," that Babcock got Leafs trainers to rank players based on their effort in the gym.Based on those rankings, Babcock apparently approached Marner about his alleged laziness on and off the ice. The coach then asked Marner to create his own list ranking each of his teammates' effort levels. Marner apparently obliged, even putting his own name on the list.Babcock then reportedly showed the list to both Kadri and teammate Tyler Bozak. 'You just don't do that to a rookie.'According to HockeyFeed, and other outlets at the time, Marner cried over the incident."Marner was in tears after the details of his list were shared, while his teammates were furious," the Athletic's Ian Tulloch recalled.Kadri, who played for Babcock for his entire coaching stint with the Leafs, said he and Bozak "stormed into Babcock's office and laid into him.""He tried to defend what he'd done, to explain the thought process behind the exercise," Kadri wrote. The center then claimed he and Bozak forced the coach to apologize."There wasn't much he could say, and in the end I think he realized he's made a mistake. After that he apologized to Mitch. We'd pretty much made him." He added, "You just don't do that to a rookie."Babcock later denied many of the details in a 2021 interview, around a year after he left Toronto. While confirming that he was to blame for the incident, he called it "crazy" to suggest that he showed the list to other players as a psychological tactic.Babcock specified that he met with Marner and told him to make a list but said that Bozak later accidentally saw it when he came into the coach's office. Babcock then said he asked Marner if he wanted him to straighten out the incident in front of the team, which he admitted he shouldn't have asked the young player about but said that rather he should have done it of his own accord.Kadri, now with the Calgary Flames, saw it differently in his book:"The whole point was to embarrass guys, and it made for some awkward conversations between the players and the training staff," the 34-year-old wrote. "Once you break that trust, it's hard to come back."Babcock went on to coach the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023 but left just two months into the role. That stint wasn't without controversy.During the "Spittin’ Chiclets" podcast, former NHLer Paul Bissonnette said that Babcock asked Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner if he could see the photos on Jenner's cell phone. Babcock then allegedly displayed the photos on his office wall.Player Johnny Gaudreau, however, recalled a similar meeting with Babcock but described it as simply sharing aspects of his life with the coach.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan vilified as "racist" by the sports website Deadspin will have his day in court, a Delaware judge ruled on Monday.The controversial blog, once part of the now-defunct Gawker empire, had filed a motion to dismiss the defamation suit against it. The judge quickly denied it, noting that there was sufficient evidence for the suit to proceed.‘Someone who makes his livelihood through vicious race-baiting.’As Blaze News reported in November 2023, Deadspin attempted to stoke outrage over the image of Holden Armenta wearing Chiefs face paint while attending a game against the Las Vegas Raiders last November.Half of Armenta's face was painted black, half was painted red. He was also wearing a native American headdress. Race-baitingUsing a photo of Armenta in which only the headdress and the black face paint was visible, Deadspin writer Carron Phillips accused the boy of racism."It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate black people and the Native Americans at the same time," Phillips wrote. He went on to accuse the NFL of "participating in prejudice":While it isn’t the league’s responsibility to stop racism and hate from being taught in the home, they are a league that has relentlessly participated in prejudice. If the NFL had outlawed the chop at Chiefs games and been more aggressive in changing the team’s name, then we wouldn’t be here.In a since-deleted post on X, Phillips defended his somewhat dubious accusations. “For the idiots in my mentions who are treating this as some harmless act because the other side of his face was painted red, I could make the argument that it makes it even worse. Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco.”Family faced 'barrage of hate'Armenta's parents, Raul Armenta Jr. and Shannon Armenta, filed a defamation lawsuit against the website in February 2024. The lawsuit was filed in Delaware, where Deadspin’s parent company G/O Media resides.One month after the lawsuit was filed, the entire Deadspin staff was abruptly fired after G/O Media sold the website to Lineup Publishing. The suit described Phillips as “someone who makes his livelihood through vicious race-baiting.”The Armentas said they have been inundated with "a barrage of hate, including death threats" as a result of the article smearing their son. One person even threatened to kill Holden “with a wood chipper,” according to the lawsuit.“It intentionally painted a picture of the Armenta Family as anti-black, anti-Native American bigots who proudly engaged in the worst kind of racist conduct motivated by their family’s hatred for black and Native Americans," read the lawsuit.Last resortThe Armentas claim to have made repeated requests for Deadspin to retract the article and apologize. Instead, Deadspin revised to take the focus away from Armenta while retaining the allegations that the boy was racist. The headline was changed from "The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in black face, Native headdress" to "The NFL Must Ban Native Headdress And Culturally Insensitive Face Paint in the Stands."The family noted that Holden's grandfather was on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California. In their bid to have the case thrown out, Deadspin lawyers argued that the claims against Armenta amounted to opinion, which is constitutionally protected speech. Crossed the lineHowever, Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg vehemently disagreed"Deadspin published an image of a child displaying his passionate fandom as a backdrop for its critique of the NFL’s diversity efforts and, in its description of the child, crossed the fine line protecting its speech from defamation claims," Judge Lugg wrote. "Having reviewed the complaint, the court concludes that Deadspin’s statements accusing [Holden] of wearing black face and Native headdress ‘to hate black people and the Native American at the same time,’ and that he was taught this hatred by his parents, are provable false assertions of fact and are therefore actionable," Lugg noted.A spokesperson for G/O Media told the Associated Press that the company had no comment regarding the lawsuit.Watch Sara Gonzales — host of "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered" — skewer the woke media for attacking the 9-year-old Chiefs fan. - YouTube www.youtube.com Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The online world reacted with perplexed horror at a very bizarre video released of Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer feeding a Dorito chip to a kneeling left-wing podcaster. The brief eight-second video was posted to the Instagram account of Liz Plank, apparently to publicize her interview with the governor. It shows plank on her knees being fed a tortilla chip by Whitmer, who then stares at the camera. Doritos are the favorite junk food of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. 'This Gretchen Whitmer video is so bizarre that I’m at a loss for words.' The video went viral as people commented with confusion. "Whitmer feeds the actress a Doritos chip - the favorite snack of Harris - in what appears to be slightly pornographic and a mockery of the Catholic view of Holy Eucharist. What is the point here?" asked podcaster Doug Billings. "Very rarely do I come across a political video that I have no comment on. This Gretchen Whitmer video is so bizarre that I’m at a loss for words," read another response. Some, like Liz Wheeler, believed the video was meant to mock the Catholic rite of communion. "Democrat Gov Gretchen Whitmer blasphemes the Eucharist, feeding a Dorito to a leftist podcaster as if it’s Holy Communion. Wearing a Kamala hat," she posted. "It’s wild that some Christians refuse to vote when Democrats obviously loathe you… because you’re Christian." One critic noted that on their interview, Plank and Whitmer joked about killing the governor's two daughters in "post-birth abortions." In the description of the video, Plank claims that it is in support of the CHIPS Act that authorizes federal spending to support the manufacture of semiconductors in the U.S. "Chips aren’t just delicious, the CHIPS Act is a game-changer for U.S. tech and manufacturing, boosting domestic production of semiconductors to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers! Donald Trump would put that at risk," she writes. Michigan is one of the pivotal battleground states that may determine whether the presidency stays in Democrat control or is regained by former President Donald Trump. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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JACKSON, MI — Local man Jim Bradley was just caught in a sticky social dilemma after he forgot the proper protocol for how to greet a neighbor in the grocery store whom he'd already smiled and nodded at.