When Andy Cohen shared his appreciation for the NHL and its reaction to the hit gay hockey show “Heated Rivalry,” show creator and producer Jacob Tierney wasn’t having it.
“I will say I’m happy that the NHL has met the moment and capitalized on it,” Cohen declared on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy.
“Have they?” Tierney asked. Cohen backpedalled, realizing he may have stepped into an area he really doesn’t know too much about.
Then Tierney made a specific claim about NHL players and the league.
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“They’ve just hired four rapists to play for them,” Tierney said. No one seems 100% sure what incident he’s talking about, but it may stem from an infamous 2018 incident involving five hockey players, only one of whom has played in the NHL the last two seasons. The five hockey players were acquitted of the charges.
Regardless of the actual claim by Tierney, he went on to speak some truth.
“The NHL is not meeting the moment,” Tierney told Cohen. True. The league has fumbled and bumbled its response to “Heated Rivalry” since the show became a sensation late last year, all while the show has driven new NHL ticket sales.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman tried to kind of embrace it in January, but his public remarks also said “Heated Rivalry” might be too racy for the NHL. Then some people in the league tried pushing various players into marketing ploys leaning into “Heated Rivalry.”
Womp womp.
Does the NHL convince people it’s a ‘safe space’?
“And it is up to the NHL to actually convince anybody that this is a safe space for people, because every day they want to prove that it’s not,” Tierney added.
Again, overstatement.
I don’t think people in the NHL front office want to prove the league isn’t a safe space. Though Tierney’s follow-up was a bit more insightful and spot-on: “Every day they do prove that it’s not. They are not doing what they should be doing to make their sport an inclusive place.”
Hockey culture — and by that I mean men’s hockey locker room culture — is a tough one. Maybe the toughest of all sports, even as the players themselves may be some of the most-accepting.
Why is it so tough?
A big reason is the relative “sameness” of the boys and men who play it. White. Middle-to-upper-class. Dress the same. Listen to the same music.
A football locker room is full of men of all races, religions, sizes, backgrounds, economics, etc…. Hockey teams are a bunch of guys who are very much the same.
“Different” inherently isn’t showcased in a hockey locker room in the same way it is in a football locker room.
There have been 16 current and former NFL players to come out, as well as a couple coaches.
There have been zero current and former NHL players to come out, and not one coach.
“They really need to deal with their own toxic culture,” Tierney said. He’s partially right. I’m not sure how “toxic” an NHL locker room is.
Lower-level hockey locker rooms? High schools, youth teams, even college? That’s really where the hockey-bro culture manifests and — yes, at times — can feel pretty unwelcoming to gay boys.
Many pro athletes have told me they heard a lot of homophobia in high school, some in college, and very little or none on their pro teams.
Men grow up.
To be sure, the NHL is now dealing with some mistakes and high-profile moments of homophobia, namely the 2023 mess that saw some players refuse to wear a Pride jersey, teams cave, Bettman defend homophobia and the league ban Pride Tape.
It was a mess.
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Yet I still find it hard to believe an NHL locker room wouldn’t accept a gay player. I find it hard to believe LGBTQ fans would be treated poorly en masse at an NHL game.
Most teams have a Pride Night, or some version of it.
Jacob Tierney is 100% right, the NHL hasn’t met the moment handed to them on a silver platter by “Heated Rivalry.”
When people see Season 2 — starting April 2027 and with a league-commissioner character the NHL isn’t thrilled about — they may understand why.
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