Sean Avery Arrested for Pushing and Insulting Police
Hockey players may get only five minutes for fighting, but they get a lot more for pushing a cop.
Sean Avery, the most controversial player in hockey, was arrested early this morning for shoving and taunting a police officer at the New York Ranger’s Hollywood Hills home at around 1 a.m. this morning. Avery also called the police officers on the scene “fat little pigs,” TMZ reported.
Police were called to Avery’s home on a noise complaint. When Avery answered the door, he shoved the police officer and slammed the door shut, LAPD Officer Cleon Joseph told the LA Times.
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More officers were called to the home and Avery was arrested and held on suspicion of battery at an LAPD jail. His bail was set at $20,000.
In a sport not known for having colorful personalities, Sean Avery is the exception. He was romantically involved with actress Elisha Cuthbert and then publicly humiliated her with a racy sexual quote, which resulted in a suspension from the NHL.
He also drew the ire of hockey fans when he used his off-season to “intern” at Vogue magazine, where he hung out with fashion-types, attended fashion shoots in LA, and wrote a blog about his experiences. Many hockey fans expressed their anger on hockey blogs, incensed over the fact a macho hockey player would mingle with the not-so macho fashion world.
“People have been calling me names for 10 years,” Avery told the New York Times. “Just because I like to wear nice suits.”
The Rangers winger was also in the news earlier this summer when he came out in support of marriage equality in New York State.
“I certainly have been surrounded by the gay community,” he told the New York Times in a separate interview. “And living in New York and when you live in LA, you certainly have a lot of gay friends."
The Times described him as one of the only “active athletes in American team sports to voice support for gay rights.”
His off-ice controversy is matched by his on-ice persona, which has caused him to be voted the most hated player in hockey, although he is a fan favorite among Rangers fans.
The NHL had to create a new rule because of him when he stood in front of New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, facing him, and waved his arms and hands in front of the star goalie’s face in order to distract him. The new rule disallowed a player to face the goalie in order to distract him.
It is known as the “Sean Avery rule.”
