"May he among you without sin be the first to condemn"

The following blog is being posted to get my opinion out there, because I always have people bring it up to me.
To me, Heatley is an amazing hockey player who has achieved so much in his six years with the NHL. He has had back to back 50 goal seasons with the senators and has played in every game since being traded to Ottawa. That being said...many NHL fans' minds go another route when you mention Dany Heatley.
In September of 2003 Heatley and his teammate (and bestfriend) Dan Snyder were in Heatley's ferrari driving at excessive speeds when the car hit a wall and was split in half; both Heatley and Snyder were ejected on impact. Heatley suffered a broken jaw, concussion, bruised lung and kidney, and three torn ligaments in his knee. Snyder's injuries were more serious, he had a skull fracture and subsequently fell in to a coma. After having surgery (which was, I assume, to repair the fracture) Snyder contracted an infected and died on October 5th.
After facing various charges Heatley was given 3 years probation. He must also give 150 speeches about the dangers of speeding and cannot drive except for work, medical purposes, going to the grocery store or when he goes to deliver his speeches. He also has restrictions on the the type of car he is allowed to drive (it must not exceed 6 cylinders and has a governor which prevents his car from going over 70mph) Heatley avoided jail time because Dan Snyder's parents asked that he not be sent to jail (and made it clear that they have forgiven Heatley for what he did) and the fact that Snyder and Heatley were friends was taken into consideration as well.

Now...you think this would be enough for people to let go of it but it's not. One of the biggest signs of this was a brawl in 2007 that took place between the Senators and the Sabres. It started when Chris Drury got a hit from behind by Chris Neil during one of the games. Drury had to be assisted off the ice because he was bleeding and was out for the rest of the game. During the next play, the "tough guys" of the Sabres were sent out to "run 'em down." Adam Mair, apparently made a comment to Heatley about the incident and called him a murderer. Jason Spezza went after Mair when he heard this, which is when the brawl ensued.
At other times I have heard people call him a murderer and ask how he could live with that every day.
Actually, I am not sure how he does. I am sure he wakes up every morning and the accident is one of the first things he thinks about. It was his best friend. It has to be hard to lose a close friend in the first place, and when it was at your hand it must be unbearable. Yet no one thinks about that when they say ignorant things about him. This one action seems to trump any good that he does at all for some fans which makes no sense to me.
My second point is, who are any of us to judge him? There are few people who can say they haven't done something stupid, such as speeding. For most of us we escape without consequence, only a "That was close." Dany wasn't that lucky and it cost him the life of his friend. In a legal sense he has paid for, or is paying for what he did wrong. Morally, I am sure it kills him every day and he will have to live with that for the rest of his life. There is no need for "throwing stones" by those people who have probably done wrong in their life too.

I am going to end my rant there. This probably won't change anyone's mind if they really dislike Dany Heatley but I am glad to have my opinon out there. Good luck to Heatley this season! (except for when he is playing the Canes of course)