John Steigerwald: Sidney Crosby isn't being selfish by staying silent

Evander Kane needs to mind his own business.

Kane plays left wing for the San Jose Sharks, and he’s black.

And Canadian.

Here’s what he had to say on ESPN’s First Take on Friday following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis: “We need so many more athletes that don’t look like me speaking out about this, having the same amount of outrage that I have inside, and using that to voice their opinion, to voice their frustration. Because that’s the only way it’s going to change.

“We’ve been outraged for hundreds of years, and nothing has changed. It’s time for guys like Tom Brady and Sidney Crosby and those type of figures to speak up about what is right and clearly in this case, what is unbelievably wrong. That’s the only way we’re going to actually create that unified anger to create that necessary change, especially when you talk about systematic racism.”

How about Crosby and Brady speaking out about it when they’re ready? Or not.

And how much credibility does a Canadian have when he says nothing has changed in hundreds of years? I know Canada is way up there in the frozen north, but you would think, by now, word would have reached Evander that America elected a black president 12 years ago. And then re-elected him four years later.

That was considered a pretty big change.

Maybe Crosby is smart enough to know he can’t win no matter what he says about what Kane perceives as systemic racism. And maybe he knows he’s a Canadian and should butt out.

Jacob Hancock of the Sporting News couldn’t let a major virtue-signaling opportunity go to waste. That opportunity presented itself when rioters defaced the Mario Lemieux statue in front of PPG Paints Arena on Saturday.

“Crosby has never revealed much about his personal life. He isn’t on social media and has never taken a stance on matters of circumstance. But with the nudge from Kane and the violence that’s taking place in the city that has helped make him an NHL icon, it seems selfish for him to say nothing.”

What Hancock is really saying is Crosby is being selfish by not serving up some inflammatory quotes to help him write a story and show how woke he is.

“Imagine what he could do for a league where fewer than 6 percent of the players are black, if he decided to stand with black Americans. Imagine what he could do for Pittsburgh, where the officer who killed unarmed 17-year-old Antwon Rose was acquitted on all counts four days after being charged with criminal homicide, if he spoke out against police brutality.

“Crosby has been served an opportunity on a silver platter to weigh in on an extremely tangible issue that matters to his hockey hometown. The question is, will he step up and attempt to score, or will he pass to someone else?”

When did the latest upheavals on the geopolitical landscape become opportunities for people who play sports for a living?

Maybe Crosby doesn’t agree with Kane when he says nothing has changed. Maybe he knows he doesn’t know enough about the subject to have a strong, credible opinion. Kane showed he doesn’t know enough about it to have an opinion that deserves any attention.

Or Crosby might agree with Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports, a former college football player and a black man, who said this about LeBron James’ comments on the killing of Ahmaud Abery by two white vigilantes in Georgia, “These athletes today who are trying to be Muhammad Ali for the most part, to me, are making fools of themselves,” he said. “Ali was not worth $500 million like LeBron James. He was not attached to a $100 million corporation like Nike.”

Here’s what James had Tweeted: “We’re literally hunted EVERYDAY/EVERYTIME we step foot outside the comfort of our homes!”

Again, credibility. James is literally hunted every time he leaves the comfort of his home? No, he’s not. It’s a ridiculous exaggeration that destroys all credibility.

Crosby is doing just fine. He has been an adopted Pittsburgher for 15 years, and he’s done everything right. You won’t find anybody who has a bad word to say about him.

He does his job and minds his own business.

Leave him alone.