The league’s board of governors agreed with commissioner Gary Bettman’s view that the refusals overshadowed teams’ efforts in hosting Pride nights that in some cases included auctioning off the warmup jerseys. All 32 teams held Pride or Hockey is for Everyone night.
The NHL teams wanted to hold Pride nights, auctions for good causes, and sell merch. Their PA was overshadowed by individual players that wouldn’t wear pride-flavoured uniforms because of … let’s just call it “reasons.” It doesn’t matter why.
Now, I’m sure Pride isn’t to blame here. Their goal is inclusion, so I doubt they were drumming the beat about which players weren’t wearing the jersey. The NHL probably got some positive press, but the greater amount of negative press means that the effort is net negative, so it’s better if they just not do it.
Now the media can complain year after year about no rainbow jerseys. If history has proven anything is that they can weather it now because Bettman has too much money to care. So, would you still have Pride jerseys if the media didn’t lambaste the players who didn’t voluntarily deck themselves out in rainbows? Yeah.
The NHL teams wanted to hold Pride nights, auctions for good causes, and sell merch. Their PA was overshadowed by individual players that wouldn’t wear pride-flavoured uniforms because of … let’s just call it “reasons.” It doesn’t matter why.
Now, I’m sure Pride isn’t to blame here. Their goal is inclusion, so I doubt they were drumming the beat about which players weren’t wearing the jersey. The NHL probably got some positive press, but the greater amount of negative press means that the effort is net negative, so it’s better if they just not do it.
Now the media can complain year after year about no rainbow jerseys. If history has proven anything is that they can weather it now because Bettman has too much money to care. So, would you still have Pride jerseys if the media didn’t lambaste the players who didn’t voluntarily deck themselves out in rainbows? Yeah.