NHL Star Sean Avery Target Of Anti-Gay Slur During Hockey Game
Sept. 27 2011, Published 10:00 a.m. ET
by Breaking Celebrity News Staff
Hockey players are notorious for bloody fist-fights and cruel heckling, but a player took the 'anything goes' nature of the sport too far during a preseason game on Monday, Breaking Celebrity News has learned.
New York Rangers star Sean Avery revealed that Philadelphia Flyers player Wayne Simmonds called him a homophobic slur during the match-up between the historically rival teams, reported ESPN.com.
The ugly epithet was uttered to Avery while he was on the ice near the Philadelphia team's bench, and a video reply recorded the angry words.
"To be here now having to answer the questions about what he did is disappointing for me. I'm disappointed for him," Avery said after the game.
While he by no means apologized for the distasteful comment, Simmonds claimed he didn't remember the exact words he used in his angry exchange with the rival player during the heated exchange, explaining that he felt Avery sucker-punched him early in the first period and said the two continued to verbally spar after that.
"Honestly, we were going back and forth for a while there," Simmonds said. "I don't recall everything that I did say to him but he said to me some things I didn't like and maybe I said some things that he didn't like. I can't recall every single word I said," said the 23-year-old Flyers player.
No stranger to the spotlight, Avery is an outspoken advocate of LGBT rights and a strong supporter of same-sex marriage. In May of this year, he filmed a video for the New Yorkers for Marriage Equality Campaign.
“The places I’ve played and lived the longest have been in West Hollywood, California, when I played for the L.A. Kings and when I moved to New York, I lived in Chelsea for the first four years,” the fashion-conscious player t