Three weeks into Pride Month, and the National Hockey League is worn out by all the drama.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said teams are no longer going to be wearing themed jerseys for any warm-ups during specialty nights like Pride Night. No pink ribbon jerseys for breast cancer awareness. No special camo-styled jerseys to recognize veterans for Veterans Day. And no rainbow jerseys for LGBTQ+.
A growing number of players and teams had been refusing to wear the special LGBTQ-theme jerseys.
Bettman told Sportsnet following the NHL’s Board of Governors meeting on Thursday, “I’ve suggested that it would be appropriate for clubs not to change their jerseys in warmups because it’s become a distraction and taking away from the fact that all of our clubs in some form or another host nights in honor of various groups or causes, and we’d rather them continue to get the appropriate attention that they deserve and not be a distraction. But in the final analysis, all of the efforts and emphasis on the importance of these various causes have been undermined by the distraction in terms of which teams, which players, this way we’re keeping the focus on the game and on these specialty nights, we’re going to be focused on the cause,” he said.
The league’s Board of Governors agreed with Bettman’s view that the players’ refusals, which started in January and have grown over the months, overshadowed the point of hockey.
The pushback began Jan. 17, when Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov was the first to refuse, saying the LGBTQ-themed clothing goes against his Russian Orthodox beliefs.
“I respect everyone. I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov said. He added that his own choice was staying true to himself and his religion.
Then, on Jan. 27, the New York Rangers scheduled its “Pride Night,” but at the last minute issued a statement saying the Rangers would not be wearing rainbow attire in the warmup period before they played the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Apparently the team members were rebelling.
“Our organization respects the LGBTQ+ community and we are proud to bring attention to important local community organizations as part of another great Pride Night,” the Rangers wrote. “In keeping with our organization’s core values, we support everyone’s individual right to respectfully express their beliefs.”
The controversy kept going, week after week, with either a team or a player making the statement that they would not participate in donning the rainbow. The NHL has thus decided that no specialty warm-up jerseys will be worn from here on out.
Why is it too much to ask for sports and players be political on their own time?
Homosexuality is illegal in 70 countries for obvious reasons.
Many of them carry the death penalty as well.
Way to go NHL!
Keep on keeping on!
Looks like a Christmas sweater and an ugly one at that.
Most people have had enough of this program that is being pushed into everything that we used to just enjoy for what it was. Sports, school, clothes, holidays, politics, and even beer. Glad the players said enough. They want to just play hockey and that is what we want to watch.
How about they just stick to playing friggin’ hockey?
Why do these insidious, controversial and divisive ‘woke’ agendas have to be inserted into EVERY aspect of life?
Anyone? Frank? Maureen? Cman? Dog?
(As usual when they are directly confronted with evidence and logical arguments damning to their pet dogmas and agendas, the response will be nothing but crickets.)
At some point the backlash is gonna be brutal. Look at Disney.
Agree 99.9% Jefferson, I will say one thing that is detrimental to all of this even though it does align with just sticking to hockey (or whatever the chosen event is):
NHL used to have great warmup causes that were pretty much uniting for everyone:
Cancer Awareness
Military Appreciation (Those Jersey’s were the best!)
Guns N Hoses (Police and Firefighter / EMT)
Unfortunately, getting rid of the pride night jerseys meant getting rid of all of these awesome other jerseys with causes that (used to be) united in support.
Too late NHL!!! The fact that you idiots even did this is abhorrent!!!
Would like to see more neutrality going forward including companies, sports, and schools. Don’t understand how this became a thing and we’re inundated with a daily barrage of pride promotion. Very disappointed to see cancer and military grouped in with pride, but glad to see they’re not forcing athletes to participate. Celebrate pride if you want, but this threatening tone that if you don’t participate you’re a homophobic bigot is pretty tiresome.
Darn, I was hoping to take in a game where the teams featured a special “Support your local Pedophile” warm-up jersey. Not to worry, the Social Justice Warriors will try again next year.
Good for them enough is enough……
Alphabet peeps going to boycott the games. Oh no!!!
Didn’t much like the pink cancer jerseys that preceded pride either
Hope it all goes away.
Play Ball .. drop the puck … flip the coin .. hit the pitch, open a beer.
But not a Bud Light.
The hockey players would look ridiculous wearing that jersey. They’d look like men being treated like boys instead of being an NHL player they’d look like overgrown youth hockey players.
Co-opt some colors; whidontcha…
THIS is what motivates conservatives. Not tax policy, climate change or nuclear weapons proliferation, but the existence of gays. No wonder you lost in 2020 and will again in 2024.
Conservatives are motivated by many things. Less government control, regulations, taxes, and handouts. Pride in country, appreciation for military, working hard in pursuit of the American dream, better education, and less crime. We’re NOT for forcing people to participate in something against their beliefs, and frankly don’t give a rats behind what goes on in your bedroom. We shouldn’t have to celebrate it. Would you be happy if your employer required you to wear a religious, pro-life, or pro-police shirt to work or taught those things in schools? A little compromise goes a long way.
More victim-blaming from the disingenuous radical leftist.
So non-radical leftists respond with justified ire and outrage to the nonstop pushing of deviancy down everyone’s throats from you radical leftists and your corporate bedfellows, and you say that WE have a problem?
Radical leftist extremist physician, heal thyself.
At least someone had some sense. If they wore that, they needed to complete the ensemble and wear clown face makeup. That would have been a picture, complete with a red nose.
LGBYN+ Ruin everything
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