U.S. Hockey Team Promises to Behave

Members of the U.S. men’s hockey team will be on their best behavior at the Winter Games, team captain Chris Chelios promised Monday, including the never-identified players who vandalized three rooms at the Nagano Olympic Village and disturbed fellow athletes after the team was eliminated by the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

“You learn from your mistakes and hopefully, we’ve learned from ours,” Chelios told reporters during a conference call on the final day of the U.S. Olympic Media Summit. “It’s something that should not have happened but did. We’re going to do our job on the ice and off the ice and handle ourselves like professionals.”

That declaration alone, however, won’t erase sour memories of the players’ disrespect toward their Japanese hosts, or the refusal of those involved to admit guilt. The culprits, believed to have been two or three players, caused about $3,000 in damages in the early hours of Feb. 18, 1998, when they broke 10 chairs and tossed six into a courtyard, set off three fire extinguishers and tossed one into that courtyard, and damaged walls.

Investigations by the U.S. Olympic Committee and the NHL were inconclusive, leaving the team’s reputation stained and rendering the NHL’s first Olympic experiment a mixed success.

“It’s something we’re going to be living with forever,” said Art Berglund, Team USA’s director of player personnel. “There was a lot of tension between our staff and the Olympic Committee in ’98. We have an expert staff this time.... There’s a lot to be said about sticking together as a team. They paid for the damages. We just feel the chairs are going to be stronger.”

Chelios said team officials, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players Assn. chief Bob Goodenow know who was involved and added, “We’ve kept it to ourselves for a reason.” He also said the guilty parties should be allowed to play in the Salt Lake City Games.

“It’s over, and hopefully it will never happen again,” Chelios said.

Frank Brown, the NHL’s vice president of media relations, said the league lacked the evidence to identify the Nagano vandals.

“To the extent Mr. Chelios is suggesting we had more information than has been represented, he is incorrect,” Brown said.

The USOC initially threatened to ban all 23 players from Olympic competition unless the culprits confessed. It backed off when it couldn’t assign blame and said it would settle for an apology and restitution. Nearly a month after the incident, Chelios sent a check for $3,000 to the Nagano Organizing Committee with an apology.

“It continues. It’s never going to be put behind us,” said Mike Moran, the USOC’s managing director of media.

“I think Chelios was excellent [Monday] but there are those at the USOC who will never let this thing go until they apologize, and why shouldn’t they? These are mature men.

“There’s still anger. It won’t be forgotten. Nor will Tonya and Nancy.”

Moran was referring to the attack on Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 U.S. figure skating championships by a man hired by the husband of rival Tonya Harding, another memorably seamy moment in U.S. sports history.

Moran said the hockey Olympians will sign the Olympic Code of Conduct, as they did in 1998. “It’s human nature to learn from errors and mistakes in judgment,” he said. “It’s still our hope that some individual will be mature enough to come forth and say, ‘I did it and I apologize.”’