This year the National Hockey League celebrated its 100 year anniversary. Yes, for all of you who do not follow the sport, hockey has been around for a century. Willie O’Ree took to the ice on January 18, 1958 for the Boston Bruins, as the first black player in the NHL. In the 59 years that followed that historic moment, the NHL is still severely lacking in diversity. According to NPR still only about 5 percent of NHL players are black.
This number is drastically lower than the percentage of black players in the National Football League (68) and the National Basketball Association (74). Part of this is due to the money needed to play hockey versus the money needed to play basketball and football. But there are many programs in place to ease the burden of the financial responsibility of hockey. This discussion has happened before, and moves have been made, but why is this discussion still happening?
The NHL claims to be the most inclusive professional sport. In 2013, they entered into a groundbreaking partnership with You Can Play, an organization helmed by Patrick Burke, which fights to make sure LGBTQ youth feel safe in sports. There’s also the Hockey is for Everyone initiative, which aims to make sure that everyone, no matter their circumstances, has an equal opportunity to play the sport.
So, even after all of this, why is the NHL still so deprived of color?
Because they have not actually proved they want people of color to like the sport, nevertheless play it. They are still pandering to their stereotypical market of fans, instead of actually listening to the plights of people of color and implementing change.
Take the Pittsburgh Penguins for example. The Pens won the 2017 Stanley Cup Final and were by extension invited to the White House. This visit came after Trump’s remarks about the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he did not condemn a mob of racists. Yet the NHL still saw it fit to send their championship winning team to meet with Trump. According to Sports Illustrated, Sidney Crosby – Captain of the Pens and Canada Hockey God – claimed that from his side of things there was absolutely no politics involved.
This is a completely naive statement.
If Trump wasn’t one of the most heinous excuses for a president, and had not failed to condemn racists, and had not spoken of women as if they were objects at his disposal, maybe this visit could have been apolitical. Maybe if the NFL had not taken a stance on Trump’s comments, and the NBA had not honored its players' decision to not visit the White House, this visit could have just been a ceremonial thing. But sadly, all of these things are true and did happen, and there is no way to separate politics from the visit.
The thing is, having your championship team visit the White House under its current homophobic, misogynistic, bigoted atmosphere was a poor move for a league claiming they’re the most inclusive professional sport. That move seems like they’re pandering to the fan base that would be okay with the visit. And if you’re trying to make your sport more inclusive, why would you placate the fans that want anything but inclusivity?
As a black woman who already takes a lot of flak about being a fan of hockey, the moves by the NHL are offensive, to say the least. The NHL and the Penguins choose to play into the hands of the fans that would be proud to see their favorite player shaking the hand of a racist - and shouldn’t that be the type of fans they’re trying to oust?
Do you want more people of color in the sport and in the stands? Then act like they’re already there. Stop pandering to the stereotypes of your league and act like you actually want to follow through with your “discussions.” Until then, there will continue to be the stigma surrounding hockey that it’s only for white people and that black people will just never really gel with it. Black people gel fine with just about anything – when they feel welcome.
