ESPN anchor John Anderson has apologized to Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud after making an insensitive joke about the Indigenous player’s last name.
During “SportsCenter” Monday night, Anderson was commentating the highlights of the Golden Knights’ 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of their second round series. Anderson made the comment when showing a highlight of Whitecloud’s second-period goal.
“What kind of name is Whitecloud? Great name if you’re a toilet paper,” Anderson said.
Whitecloud is the first NHL player to be from the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in Manitoba, Canada.
Whitecloud says John Anderson apologized for comment
Anderson apologized to Whitecloud in a statement issued to USA TODAY Sports, saying “this is totally on me.”
“It’s my job to be prepared and know the backgrounds of the players and I blew it. I will be reaching out to the team to personally apologize and hope to have the opportunity to speak to Zach as well,” Anderson said.
When speaking with the media Tuesday, Whitecloud said Anderson apologized to him earlier in the day.
“It was obviously, I think, an attempt at humor that came out as being obviously insensitive, and he acknowledges that. He understands that it was wrong to say, and I wanted to make sure that he knew that. I accepted his apology,” Whitecloud said.
The defenseman added he heard about the incident on social media and spoke with his family before speaking with Anderson.
“In our culture we’re raised to be the first ones to reach out and offer our help. That’s why I reached out to John this morning. And wanted to make sure that he understood that, that I understood that people make mistakes, and he acknowledges that he’s willing, trying to move forward in the right direction and be better from it,” he said.
‘I’m proud of where I come from’
Whitecloud said he thinks this is a scenario “everyone can learn from and move forward in a positive direction,” and he is proud of his culture.
“I’m proud of where I come from, where I was raised, who I was raised by. I carry my grandfather’s last name, and nothing makes me more proud than to be able to do that,” Whitecloud said. “Obviously I don’t want to be in front of all you guys talking about this, but with that, comes an opportunity to allow not just John and myself, but everyone to learn from this incident, to move forward and make sure that these things don’t happen again.”
