Where’s the Apology?
The announcement was terse.
"After consultation with the NHL Players' Association and the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, players will now have the option to voluntarily represent social causes with their stick tape throughout the season.”
No further explanation. No detailed reasoning. No name of any prominent NHL executive attached,
By comparison, when the league almost simultaneously released a decision on Tuesday to uphold a suspension to Calgary defenceman Rasmus Andersson, it was accompanied by an explanation that was practically War and Peace-like by comparison in its expansiveness. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was prominently mentioned as the architect of this weighty choice.
Why the difference? Well, it’s pretty obvious. No NHL exec wanted his or her name attached to one of the greatest public relations foul-ups in recent memory for the world’s top hockey league. When the ban on the use of PRIDE tape was announced just a few weeks ago, Bettman’s name was conspicuously absent then, too, as was any kind of explanation as to why such a policy was required. Bettman never commented on it publicly. The 71-year-old commissioner, on the job since before Johnny Gaudreau, Mark Scheifele or Connor Hellebuyck were even born, wanted no part of the issue. He appeared timid and afraid, but yet willing to let the homophobic likes of Ivan Provorov and the Staal brothers dictate league policy on matters of LGBTQ+ inclusiveness.
You could almost feel Gary squirming. Guys born in 1952 are struggling the world over with precisely these kinds of issues. Bettman has never really seemed to be a progressive fellow, and this time he got it all wrong.
So the league was forced to backtrack. But where was the apology? When the PRIDE tape ban became public, it caused widespread hurt, not just with the LGBTQ+ community, but with allies of that community, and with people who had friends and family members affiliated with that community. Hockey is a sport dominated by white males, but over the past two decade female hockey has become popularized and more than accepted, and gradually the game has tried to be more accepting of people of different races and colours, and those who make different lifestyle decisions or are born with a different gender preference. The culture wars ongoing in the U.S. have seeped into Canada and the sport of hockey, however, and when the Staals, Provorov and James Reimer started publicly claiming they were uncomfortable with PRIDE-related events, it gave the homophobes and haters in the NHL community, plus anyone who believed PRIDE acceptance and diversity was bad for business, a chance to act.
In recent months, many have felt the sting of the NHL’s decisions to turn away from inclusivity and diversity. Bettman and his owners were rightly seen as hypocrites, proclaiming one policy but acting very differently.
Sadly, to many the NHL is hockey. Which it is not. It’s the best league in the world. But there are so many levels and different organizations in the sports, none of which did things like ban rainbow-coloured hockey tape. Still, to many who love the game, the NHL is viewed as the last word, and when Bettman laid down the PRIDE tape law, it felt like an attack by the entire sport on people who just want to be accepted and not attacked. Travis Dermott, who deserves the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award for his role in this sad affair, said it made him cry. I believe him.
The fact Tuesday’s tone deaf announcement came without an apology suggested it lacked sincerity, and was offered grudgingly. All the league had to say was “the NHL is sorry if this policy offended any hockey fans or those who love and play the game,” but Bettman couldn’t even do that. He hid.
This unfortunate episode is just the latest evidence that the NHL needs new leadership. Bettman is old, his administration is unimaginative and stale, and now it has clearly been infiltrated by reactionary thinkers more comfortable with “Don’t Say Gay” concepts than actually being open and receptive to the LGBTQ+ community. We already know how ham-handed the league has been in handling relationships with organizations like the Hockey Diversity Alliance.
Bettman is yesterday’s man. He never was a hockey “guy,” which was good and bad, and now he just seems hopelessly out of touch.
Poor guy can’t even say sorry when he’s wrong.
25/10/23