New York Islanders Thomas Greiss Under Fire For Instagram Likes

New York Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss has taken some heat for some posts that he’s liked on Instagram. They were political based posts.

Last night Arthur Staple reported that Thomas Greiss and the New York Islanders released a statement about some Instagram post’s that he’s liked in the past. The post’s in question can be seen right here:

The one that has stirred up the most controversy is the Hitler picture. Greiss, who is German has taken a lot of heat for that one in particular. He is currently playing for Team Germany in the IIHF World Championship, but may not be able to play for Germany come Olympic time.

The President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation said:

"“Anyone who acts or communicates in this way cannot be a member of the team in Pyeongchang,”"

This likely won’t make much of a difference because the NHL has already said that they will not be sending their players to the Olympics anyway. Although it gives a pretty good picture of how big of a deal this is in Germany.

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I’ve seen many Americans react to this as a “nonstory”. It is, in fact, a story worth talking about just based on the fact that Greiss is German. It’s not based on the political views Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton it’s about Hitler, which from my understanding is a sensitive topic in Germany.

This is what Thomas Greiss had to say:

"“I apologize for interacting with several posts that appeared in my timeline, which were wrong to engage with, ‘Liking’ these posts was a mistake, and I sincerely apologize again.”"

The Islanders followed with this statement:

"“The New York Islanders do not condone the actions of Thomas Greiss on social media and are addressing the situation internally, and Thomas regrets his actions and recognizes that he made a mistake.”"

This should be the end of it now. He apologized for it, the Islanders released a statement saying they don’t condone his actions and that’s that. This shouldn’t be something that makes you root against him now or on the contrary root more for him.

I’ve always looked at sports as an escape from the everyday world. Granted these guys are humans and have political opinions and opinions on other topics that you might not agree with as well but that shouldn’t hinder your opinion on the athlete. Their on field or in this case on ice performance should be what you’re judging.

Look at yourself first. Are you really trying to say you haven’t done something on social media that you now regret?

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Greiss is a public figure so obviously, his activity on social media will be more scrutinized, and I’m not downplaying the significance of his actions. All I’m saying is that I accept his apology and come October I will be rooting for Greiss once again. That won’t change.