Tortorella: "My Heart Was in the Right Place"
The final coda of the Rangers-Caps series: John Tortorella today finally issued a heartfelt mea culpa for his water bottle toss in Game 5, admitting that he turned himself into a distraction and apologizing for his behavior.
And yet....
"My heart was in the right place," he said, during a wrap-up press conference that lasted more than 30 minutes. "I was protecting my players. At least I felt I was. But I stepped way out of bounds."
Say what you like about the man, he does give an excellent sound-bite.
"It can't happen," he also said. "I preach discipline. I preach team concept. I am disciplined. I am a team-concept guy and I stepped out of bounds and I made a huge mistake. Do I have warts? You're damned right I do."
Ten years from now, Outside the Lines better arrange the first-ever face-to-face meeting between John Tortorella and Ron from Nevada, where they can go back to the empty cavern of the Verizon Center and make their amends, with some black-and-white stick-brandishing clips spliced in. And now, thanksfully, we can all move on from silly stuff like umbrellas and ponchos, and put the attention back where it's deserved: on pacifiers.
By
Dan Steinberg
|
April 30, 2009; 1:55 PM ET
Categories:
Caps
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Posted by: sitruc | April 30, 2009 2:56 PM | Report abuse
He's such a jerk. He learned how to apologize from Nixon. He deserves to be out of a job. Soooo glad he wasn't chosen to lead Team USA.
Posted by: AleksanderOMunchkin | April 30, 2009 2:56 PM | Report abuse
Ten years from now, Outside the Lines better arrange the first-ever face-to-face meeting between John Tortorella and Ron from Nevada, where they can go back to the empty cavern of the Verizon Center and make their amends, with some black-and-white stick-brandishing clips spliced in.
By Dan Steinberg | April 30, 2009; 1:55 PM ET
Amazing!
Posted by: Barno1 | April 30, 2009 3:12 PM | Report abuse
my favorite photo I've seen of Torts and the Ponchos...
http://i339.photobucket.com/albums/n462/SombreroGuy/TortsPonchoandsigns.jpg
Posted by: SombreroGuy | April 30, 2009 3:20 PM | Report abuse
I haven't seen his full 36-min rant. But nowhere in anything I've seen so far is an apology.
To paraphrase:
It's a mistake.
I regret it.
I embarassed the team and organization, and myself.
None of that equals an apology to anyone. Not even to his team or organization.
Posted by: Grooven | April 30, 2009 4:36 PM | Report abuse
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Great transition into the next series.