The word hero often has a misplaced context, like the quarterback throwing the game-winning touchdown. Its real use is reserved for men such as Sheldon Kennedy, who testified before Congress about being a sexual abuse victim.

Hero.

The word is small and nearly infinitesimal, yet its connotation entails significance.  

It also is a word whose use has been bastardized in sports. The quarterback who throws the last second, game-winning touchdown pass is labeled a hero.

The quarterback is not a hero.

Sheldon Kennedy is a hero.

Kennedy testified in front of the Senate Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions about child sex abuse in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky and Bernie Fine scandals at Penn State and Syracuse Universities.

His testimony comes 15 years after the former NHL player came forward as a sexual abuse victim. While living his childhood dream, Kennedy was the victimized by the hands of a vile sociopath named Graham James.

“Punishing the bad guys makes us feel good, but it does not fully solve the problem,” Kennedy told the Subcommittee. “In my case, my abuser was International Hockey Man of the Year. In Canada, that gave him almost God-like status. Sound familiar? The man who preyed on me took advantage of his position as a coach to look for children who were especially vulnerable. These kids – and often their parents too – looked up to him as a hero. This was someone who could make their dreams come true and he used that trust to hurt them.”

The stories that have emanated from State College, Pa., and Syracuse, NY, have been horrifying and ceaseless. Each day, it seems, disturbing aspects are revealed about the crimes Sandusky and Fine committed against those who cannot protect themselves.   

Four hours and five minutes northwest of Washington D.C., where Kennedy was performing a hero’s duties, Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator at Penn State, and his lawyer, Joe Amendola, shocked a courtroom in Bellefonte, Pa., by passing on a hearing regarding the charges he faces.

According to the Associated Press, a number of Sandusky’s accusers were prepared to testify. Following the announcement in the courtroom, Amendola declared that the alleged victims' charges were an attempt to grab money from his client. Both ploys were efforts to defend Sandusky, which is Amendola’s job description.

However, Ben Andreozzi, the lawyer for Victim 4, equated Amendola’s client to a “coward"  when he spoke to reporters outside the courthouse Tuesday.

Coincidentally, Kennedy spoke Monday about the importance of victims confronting humanity’s insignificant worms that ruined their lives, their innocence.

“Pedophiles and perpetrators, they prey on social ignorance and social indifference around these issues. They love it,” Kennedy said.

“Laws are not easy to change, and social change is hard. But when you look at what we've done and what we've been able to do in Canada, I think we've been able to accomplish both. We've learned a lot and we're talking solutions up there more than they are down here; they're talking disbelief.”

Kennedy and another James victim, Theo Fleury, are among the reasons Canada has been a leader in the fight against pedophilia. Even if Montreal Gazette columnist Pat Hickey wrote a controversial column this week labeling Fleury an "enabler," stating it's “hypocritical that Fleury can blast the (Canadian) justice system for giving James two months of freedom when he provided his former coach with years.”

“(Canada is) going to continue to be world leaders on the prevention of abuse, and this is going to propel us to go even further," Kennedy continued. “We're over the hump, we're about solution in Canada. People are now coming forward in Canada because they feel safe. Americans have a lot to learn from us. We're a lot further advanced.”

Because of Sheldon Kennedy’s heroic actions.

On Twitter: @HockeyPrimeTime and @DenisGorman

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