Tyler Bozak dresses in blackface for Halloween

It's barely even Halloween proper and we already have a professional athlete offending fans with his costume.

Toronto Maple Leafs center Tyler Bozak happily shared a photo on Twitter of himself dressed as Michael Jackson earlier Tuesday.

Then he realized that the whole blackface routine might not go over so well, and at some point removed it.

But Wrap Around Curl managed to grab a screenshot.

Bozak tried to cover his tracks, but instead wrote this on his Twitter account: "That's a tribute to one of my fave artists. For anyone saying its racist is crazy!"

But the backlash shouldn't be anything new to Bozak. As comments on Puck Daddy pointed out, he dressed in blackface before when he went out as a member of the Jamaican bobsled team. And couldn't he have asked Phoenix Coyotes winger Raffi Torres how this kind of plan would go over?

Bozak must have some sort of disconnect in his mind to do this again, but at the very least he should have realized he offended a number of people by seeing their replies on Twitter. Dismissing their feelings as "crazy" is inappropriate.

Bozak does have tonight to redeem himself. Perhaps he could dress as sincere apology guy. I hear that one's always a hit.

Thanks to Puck Daddy for bringing this story to our attention.