OT: Brendan Burke documentary

Submitted by JustGoBlue on

For those of you that don't remember, Brendan Burke was the Miami University (Ohio) hockey team Student Manager, son of Toronto Maple Leaves GM Brian Burke, that came out as gay, to the world, in an attempt to help break down that barrier in sports, then tragically died in a car accident a few months after that (February 2010).  Logo put together a documentary about him and aired it on Saturday.  It is now online for any interested.

 

http://www.logotv.com/video/because-doc-the-legacy-of-brendan-burke/167…

EDIT:  It is 40 minutes long, so it takes some time to watch.

 

Don't really like Rico, don't really like Miami, but major credit has to go to them for the way they responded to the entire saga, from Burke coming out to his death.  I found the link to this documentary on a twitter devoted to Michigan Hockey,  (http://twitter.com/UmPuckhead) as a retweet from Chris Wideman, a current senior D-man at Miami, who played on the team while Burke was managing them.  Really inspiring stuff, by Brendan himself and in the way so many other people treated it.

JimLahey

November 10th, 2011 at 2:24 AM ^

Thanks for sharing. Brian Burke is a great guy. Puts on the hard-edged business like face in public but all indications are that he has a heart of gold.

The hockey dressing room is one of the most intolerant places you could possibly imagine. I had a teammate in midget who was Muslim and kids on the team made all kinds of jokes that they thought were funny but I found out that it really bothered him. I still regret not standing up for him. A hockey team is a lot like a pack, there is a strict hierarchy and I expect this extends to other team sports. When someone or something is different, like Brendan Burke coming out, the team looks to its leaders to decide how to react and I imagine that the Miami hockey team had great leadership in its players and coaches because they handled it with pure class.