CupGate: A Celebration, a Broken Trophy and a Suspension

In less than 24 hours, the Laval Petroliers won the LNAH Championship and were subsequently suspended by the league. Not a few players- the team. What happened is the latest example of “Social Media Strikes Again” meets “You can’t make this stuff up, folks.”

Describing this is difficult because we’re talking about an approximate 5 second video and very few public facts in the midst of a growing tidal wave of public opinion. 

Saturday Night, the Petroliers capped off a season that they dominated from start to finish. Their first-place regular season was followed up by a stellar 12-3 playoff record en route to winning the Gilles-Rousseau Cup. Shortly after the game, the usual celebratory locker room photos and videos began popping up across the social media spectrum. Among them was the video. 

An unnamed man, clearly not a player, receives a spritz of beer, and then delivers a pro wrestling style flying elbow drop to the Gilles-Rousseau Cup, which is prone on the locker room floor. The event leaves the cylindrical base of the trophy flattened. 

By late Sunday afternoon, the league issued a press release condemning the act. Basing the decision on disrespect to the league, trophy, its namesake and the previous winners, the league suspended the Petroliers organization until the upcoming Board of Governors Meeting, when a final ruling will be issued. 

Those are the only facts the sports world has to deal, and decide, with. Until then, it’s opinion, speculation and rebuttal. 

The Petroliers released a statement acknowledging the incident and claiming no disrespect, saying the offender was a fan who had made his way into the locker room during the post-game pandemonium. They went on to say that the trophy was not the actual trophy, or even the replica that the league uses for such celebrations, but a faux trophy. This was given some level of validity when a staffer posted a picture of a pristine Gilles-Rousseau Cup poolside with the caption “the cup is intact”. 

The Petroliers statement went on to call out their own perceived level of disrespect from the league. This included the league not having the trophy or replica on hand, not having the actual MVP trophy on hand (won by Laval Forward Phelix Martineau) and not having the traditional championship hats ready.

Whatever the final outcome, the league and team are generating headlines in a way they don't want to. For the rest of us, we’ll be waiting for the final outcome at an upcoming meeting.