Dion Phaneuf, His Wife Elisha Cuthbert, And Teammate Joffrey Lupol Threaten To Sue TSN And The Person That Sent The Derogotary Tweet

Yahoo Sports- "On behalf of our clients Dion Phaneuf, his wife Elisha Cuthbert and Joffrey Lupul, we have sent a letter to TSN demanding that TSN issue a formal apology and pay a significant amount of damages to each of our clients for broadcasting a false and defamatory tweet during their trade deadline show yesterday. We are sending a similar letter to the author of the tweet, Mr. Anthony Adragna. It is bad enough that there are people who spend their time using social media to publish such false and malicious stories, but it is made much worse when a reputable media outlet like TSN gives broad circulation and credibility to these false stories by republishing them as TSN did. If TSN and Mr. Adragna do not immediately comply with the demands set out in our letters, we have instructions from our clients to immediately commence a lawsuit against them. Our clients will not be discussing this matter with the media.”

This is it. We knew it was coming. The death of free speech. The death of social media. Who would have thought it would have come at the hands of a couple of uptight hockey players. If you can start suing people that say derogatory things online than the internet just became a far less entertaining place to be. Can someone let me know if this is actually a thing so I can cancel my Verizon appointment for tomorrow? I don't need to find out that I am going to need a lawyer for every tweet I have ever sent, or blog I have ever posted. 

Seriously though, 95% percent of the things said on twitter are offensive to either a person or a group of people. If everyone starts tossing around internet law suits like they are chicken teriyaki samples lawyers are going to have to start working 24 hour shifts. Do I think that TSN should be held responsible for airing a slanderous tweet and subsequently making life harder for the Phaneuf family? Absolutely. No one wants the public perception to be that a teammate is fucking their wife behind closed doors, whether it is true or not. No doubt that someone needs to be fired. Is that somehow the fault of the person responsible for the tweet? Hell no. The Leafs play in the biggest hockey market in the world, and despite a plethora of talent, they are fucking terrible. There are probably 100,000 tweets a day that get published that belittle the Leafs players, families, and front office. Just because TSN's social media consultant fell asleep at the wheel for a few minutes doesn't mean you can pick out the one internet troll that accidentally worked his way onto an international broadcast. If you could profit off morons disparaging you on the internet than Barack Obama would quadruple his salary on a daily basis. 


And why the fuck is Joffrey Lupol involved in this lawsuit? If anything, unsubstantiated rumors of him giving it to 'The Girl Next Door' are a compliment. Maybe they aren't the best thing for locker room chemistry, but it's certainly nothing I would be pressing charges for. There are definitive victims in this case. They are Phaneuf and his wife. Joffrey Lupol, his multimillion dollar contract, and his league wide reputation as a cocksman do not get to play the victim. If someone published a tweet saying that I had taken down one of the baddest broads in Hollywood it might be worth a retweet, but it's certainly not a million dollar lawsuit. I don't care who she is married to. As a teammate he should stand behind Dion and continue to refute the alleged fabrication, but he certainly shouldn't benefit monetarily. If I were Lupol I would hold a press conference to say that "while I am not spearing my teammates wife, I do appreciate the notion that I am conquering Grade A caliber women". I think this is one of those situations where your best bet is to laugh it off as a stupid joke and move on. The bigger deal that you make it, the more credence it receives as a legitimate possibility. At least it would explain why Leafs organization is deteriorating faster than Joe Paterno after a pedophilia scandal.


Twitter is like the internet equivalent of 'The Purge'. It's a kill or be killed world out there. Dog's eating dogs. People verbally assaulting other people. There's no such thing as crime. No such thing as slander. If you get murdered on the internet there is no life sentence to be served. There's no justice. There is no peace. It's anarchy. On the other hand, If you take something someone says seriously on twitter than it's your own damn fault. That's why we are supposed to have reputable news sources like TSN to weed out the dredges of the deep dark internet. The day that Twitter becomes regulated is the day that we officially live in a police state. America is about free speech and laughing at the expense of others. The day we overturn the First Amendment is the day that we raise a red flag and paint a hammer and sickle on it. The 1980 US hockey team overcame communism to take home a gold medal, and Joffrey Lupol can't even overcome 140 characters of satire. Really shows how much we have regressed as a society. 
 
You want to turn a tweet that has the potential to negatively affect a family into a lawsuit then by all means do so, but let's make something clear. The victim is Dion Phaneuf, and his puck slut of a wife, and the defendant is TSN. Lets leave Lupol, his paper thin skin, and an aspiring twitter comedian out of this.

P.S. While we look into the rumors of some teammate on teammate crime we might not want to overlook that thigh grab. The Toronto locker room might be much more of a soap opera than we originally thought....