Report: Jason Bailey suing Ducks for coaches' alleged anti-Semitism

Yahoo! Sports

Tue Jan 25 08:59pm EST

Report: Jason Bailey suing Ducks for coaches' alleged anti-Semitism

Jason Bailey was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in the third round of the 2005 NHL draft, eventually ending up on their ECHL affiliate the Bakersfield Condors in 2008-09.

That's where Bailey claims he faced a "barrage of anti-Semitic" and "degrading verbal attacks" until his trade to the Ottawa Senators organization in 2009. From TMZ:

In the suit, filed today in Orange County Superior Court, Bailey claims the head coach of the Condors told him "[Jews] only care about money and who's who" and that he "never wanted his son to be raised Jewish or to wear a Yarmulke."
Bailey claims the assistant head coach would get in on the Jew-bashing too -- saying things like, "Oh, I just got a friend request from a dirty Jew."
Bailey says the coaches also forced him to travel apart from the team and he was "rarely given any ice time" in games because he's Jewish.

In May 2009, BakersfieldNow.com's Sabrina Rodriguez reported on suspensions to Condors coach Marty Raymond and assistant coach Mark Pederson in February 2009, citing an anonymous source as claiming "the two coaches had made anti-Semitic comments" towards Bailey.

From Eyewitness News 29:

From Rodriguez, in speaking with Condors team president Matthew Riley:

According to Riley, in this case, the suspension was the right thing. "It's probably unheard of, or extremely rare that coaches are suspended during a season by their own organization and so we took a lot of risk doing that," Riley said of the disciplinary action. "But we felt it was the right thing to do and regardless of the consequences you need to do the right thing."

According to TMZ, which didn't mention the suspensions, when Bailey protested to Ducks management, they had the coaches "pen apology letters to Bailey in which they both admitted to using hurtful language."