A nasty rumor about Taylor Hall started to make the rounds over the weekend. It turned out being untrue, but some damage had already been done. It shows the landscape of sports journalism in 2018.
It’s been almost two years since the trade that sent Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for Adam Larsson. Since then, Edmonton Oilers fans and analysts have been trying to find an underlying reason for why that trade happened. Some say it had to do with positional need and defensemen costing more, while others claimed the Oilers had to make room for Connor McDavid.
Then, there are the crazy theories that it had to be something more.
One of those theories peaked it’s ugly head over the weekend. That erroneous report ended in an apology from the source that leaked it.
It all started with an unknown source. An “agent” that gave Georges Laraque information about a rehab stint for Hall in the offseason in which he was traded.
Laraque was using the information to say that’s why the Oilers got what they got for Hall. He made it seem like Hall was damaged goods, and was more trouble than he was worth. Whether he was trying to do that or not, that’s how his interview came off, and perception is reality.
Here’s the big issue here, an apology won’t make this go away. There will be those who either A) only see the initial report and miss him saying it was wrong or B) choosing to believe the original story. Fake news is a term that comes up in politics all the time, but is a major problem in the sports world.
Look at this article by Bryan Curtis of The Ringer. The article comes with the national anthem controversy in the NFL. People were using their online platforms to push some kind of agenda. There’s one line in the article that’s really sticking with me.
"Fans (mostly) acknowledge the official results of games. But there are plenty of gaps in the journalistic record where conspiracies can flower."
That being said, I will commend the hockey sports following for not jumping on this. After it was released, I struggled with what to do with the information. On one hand, I wanted to come out against what Laraque said, airing someone’s dirty laundry is never okay. On the other hand, I didn’t want to give his conspiracy theory unnecessary publicity.
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It didn’t spread like some other sports theories, but it was definitely a talking point on Twitter. There were some fans that said “oh, that makes sense” while others just bashed Laraque for saying it at all. Laraque then told some of those fans to “say it to my face.” (Let’s all just appreciate the irony in that statement.)
There are a million issues with what Laraque said, but most of all it was to push an agenda. Laraque is a known Oilers apologist. This is the number one thing that fans of all teams use against Edmonton and GM Peter Chiarelli. They only got an above average defenseman for a Hart Trophy candidate. It would make things much easier for Chiarelli and the Oilers if Hall needed rehab before last season.
It wasn’t true. None of it. And now, Hall is forced to deal with the cleanup. Laraque may think his apology is enough to make this go away, but it’s not. It’s the sports landscape we live in today. This story will live on in some fans’ minds. Just a moment of misinformation turns into a lifetime of conspiracy theories.