from Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic,

Since late July, the Coyotes have had their general manager quit on the eve of the post season, were tardy in paying players bonuses and per diem, lost their last two games by a combined score of 14-2 and are late with their rent money at Gila River Arena.

Despite failing at the portion of their jobs that involve hockey, the Coyotes have decided to diversify their services and provide counseling and other resources to those affected by bullying and racism.

By those affected, I mean the perpetrators, not the victims.

That’s the message the team sent earlier this month when it used its first draft pick, a fourth-rounder, on Mitchell Miller.

Miller, now 18 and a freshman at the University of North Dakota, admitted to bullying an African-American classmate with developmental disabilities four years ago, when both were students at the same junior high school in Sylvania, Ohio.

It was an ugly, horrifying incident. Miller and another boy tricked the victim into licking a candy push pop that Miller and his friend had wiped in a bathroom urinal. According to an account in the police report at the time, the boys also urinated on the candy and punched and pushed the victim, Isaiah Meyer-Crothers.

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