Was anybody unaware that major league sports are among the most homophobic communities on the planet?
The first contracted NHL player to come out as gay was literally only 2 years ago. So for 103 years they either did not contract LGBT people or they were still forced to be closeted because of the environment NHL fostered.
Not all leagues are created equal. The NBA is doing a much better job encouraging pride night and cracking down on intolerance and hate in its league than the NHL which is more focused on cramming more ads in your face as if that will return their shrinking and dying fan base.
Yeah, really. There have been virtually no gay players in professional sports. That's simply not in the realm of probability given the statistics of the general population. There are a lot of closeted gay players.
This situation would not be acceptable to the HR department of any other business.
This is a situation that goes to the top too. At any time in the various negotiations with the various player associations the leagues could've had policies more consistent with most companies. Major suspensions (without pay) for players that violate the league's policies on harassment. And yeah being against gay people is harassment, so refusing to put on a pride uniform would fall under that.
The reason this doesn't exist is because the owners don't care about a a real problem of toxic behaviour in their businesses.
I’ve been a lifelong hockey fan and this is the final nail in the coffin for me for the NHL as a league. Between this, the Kyle Beach coverup, the spotty officiating, lack of concern for player safety, ads on jerseys and helmets, the moving ads on the board and non stop gambling promotions…I’ve had enough. It’s an amazing sport but an absolute embarrassment of a league.
So glad that I'm not the only one who reacted this way. When I say that I'm done caring about the NHL, I don't mean it as an angry protest. I mean that this news broke what was left of my ability to care.
I hope that the things you replace hockey with are more fulfilling!
That's why. Too much politics in showing support to any minority group. (And if someone says a team could show up with a swastika -- firstly, okay I'd like to see that and secondly, they could just ban hate-messaging.)
God this is so frustrating to see happen, instead of having any sort of backbone the NHL is just going to fold to the bigots and several other cause nights are going to be collateral damage. This is a terrible step backwards for the NHL, and really makes it feel like the game is only inclusive when it is convenient to them.
They praised some random logistics active serving member at the home opener CFL argos game and it felt pretty awkward how they did it. It just felt so forced. Really I just want these things to stick to the sports. I find that they often do these nights because they just don't know what the hell to do while there are 100 intermissions for "ad breaks".
If they came out and said this was an environmental thing then I'm inclined to agree, there's already so much waste in an already carbon intensive sport. I think that the inclusion and respect principle are great, but there are probably better ways of doing it.
In reality it's probably a bad action due to greed or bigotry, so it makes me sad.
Well banning all types of cause nights seems to be like a decent way to shut down the negative discourse. But I really wish the league would take a tough stance and continue them.
They will still be selling these jerseys for charity at least. There won't be any more inquisitions when players don't want to participate so there will be less outrage. The NHL probably sees the negativity around bud light and other brands and noped out of doing anything at all.
If there wasn't outrage when a player decides not to participate and instead we fully ignored them like they are invisible it might be a better way to promote the positivity you would like to see. The addiction to outrage needs to stop.
When I was in grad school, we had a "graduate student association", which was basically a student union. People would come to us with proposals to allocate $1000 to various causes. We would always vote them down. Not because we didn't support the causes (most of us did -- grad students notoriously lean left haha), but because we drew our fees from all the grad students at the university with no way for them to opt out of the collection of those fees. Basically, we were in a position where we could forcibly collect money from students and assign them at will. It would have been a terrible precedent to abuse that power, as it was a surefire way to cause the grad students to revolt against the mandatory fees. So we had to say no. And every time we said no, there was outrage -- the campus newspaper would make us out to be heartless power hungry monsters or whatever.
I think, in the end, this is a somewhat similar situation. If things are mandatory, you have to include all causes. And inevitably some players will protest and opt out. And the outrage news story will happen every time. You're right that, in the end, this may end up being better. You'll have individual players still supporting causes, and becoming mouthpieces for the change they want to see, without forced organizational participation.
At the Winnipeg Pride rally, a few weeks ago, someone was holding a sign: "If you're here because you were forced to be, you are part of the problem."