Flyers

Danny Briere’s Son Kicked Off Mercyhurst Hockey Team – Fair or Nah?

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 4th, 2023 · 7:30 AM EDT

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Update on the Carson Briere story:

A statement on behalf of Mercyhurst University and Mercyhurst University Athletics. pic.twitter.com/D4fnpyhOk6

— Mercyhurst Lakers (@HurstAthletics) April 3, 2023

If you’re not familiar with the story, Briere was charged with three misdemeanors after pushing an empty wheelchair down a flight of stairs at an Erie bar. The woman who owned the wheelchair was downstairs at the time, using the bathroom.

Briere was suspended by Mercyhurst on March 16th, though the school didn’t release much information then or now, only the statement above.

It’s hard to say what’s appropriate in terms of punishment here, since the idea of justice is subjective in nature and most people seem incapable of analyzing this situation with more than 25% of their brain. I saw one guy on Twitter argue for felony assault and battery charges (preposterous) while other people shrugged it off as “kids being kids” (also preposterous). Reading about this made the Caitlin Clark/Angel Reese debate look like academia.

The thing working against Briere is that this was not his first rodeo. He had already been kicked out of Arizona State and Mercyhurst was a second chance for him, so if he hadn’t exhausted that first opportunity, maybe the school would have given him the benefit of the doubt after this incident. If there was a path here to ADA-related community service, maybe that’s something that would have been ideal, because the end goal here is resonance. You need the kid to understand why the behavior was especially dickish, and being around people with disabilities may have done that. It has to click, or else nothing has been accomplished.

Maybe removing him from the team achieves that, or maybe it doesn’t. I guess we’ll find out later.