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ECHL suspends player for what opponent saw as racist "monkey" gesture
Jacksonville then cut Jacob Panetta, who has apologized. He says what South Carolina's Jordan Subban interpreted as a racial gesture wasn't meant as racial.
Sports
The ECHL suspended Jacob Panetta on Sunday after the brother of longtime NHL defenseman P.K. Subban accused the Jacksonville defenseman of making "monkey gestures" in his direction.
The league said the indefinite suspension is pending a hearing under its collective bargaining agreement with its players. Jacksonville then announced it had to decided to cut Panetta.
The incident with Panetta and Jordan Subban, which occurred 23 seconds into overtime during the Icemen's 1-0 home victory over South Carolina on Saturday, comes in the wake of minor league forward Krystof Hrabik's 30-game suspension for making a racial gesture during a Jan. 12 AHL game.
Video posted by P.K. Subban on Twitter appears to show Panetta taking a monkey-like pose while Jordan Subban is being led away by an official. Jordan Subban, who is Black, then skates back toward Panetta and the two lock up at the beginning of a multiplayer skirmish.
In a post on his Twitter account, Jordan Subban said Panetta "was too much of a coward" to fight him.
"As I began to turn my back he started making monkey gestures at me so I punched him in the face multiple times and he turtled like the coward he is," Subban posted.
Panetta posted a video on Twitter on Sunday, with a tweet that said "racism has no place in this world and no place in the game we love." Panetta said he told Subban that "You're only tough when the refs get involved,'" and then "did a tough-guy bodybuilder-like gesture toward him" that Panetta said he's made to other players in other games.