21/09/2026
A non-hockey question for you good people this evening…
Would you have stepped in?
Last night I landed at Heathrow, got through passport control and headed to the terminal car park to wait for the meet-and-greet company to bring my car around.
While I was waiting, I witnessed something genuinely horrible.
A man — probably around 45, 6'2"+ and well over 18 stone — hit his 5/6-year-old son. And I don't mean a tap or a smack… he hit him hard and aggressively.
It was horrible to watch.
The boy's mum then got involved and, unbelievably, attempted to strangle the child with his own jacket.
At that point, I'd seen enough.
I stepped in and had a very heated argument with the man for a couple of minutes.
What shocked me almost as much as what I'd witnessed was the number of people standing much closer to them than I was who simply stood there and said nothing.
Now, I'm not saying everyone should put themselves in danger or physically intervene in every situation.
But surely, if you see a young child being violently assaulted in front of you, you can't just pretend you didn't see it?
Had this man hit another adult in the same way, I have absolutely no doubt the police would have been involved.
So I'm genuinely interested…
What would YOU have done?
Would you have stepped in?
Would you have called the police?
Would you have confronted the parents?
Or would you have stayed out of it?
No hockey tonight.
Just a genuine question about what we should do when we see something that isn't right.
What would you have done? 👇