I mean, their team is horrifically bad at hockey, so there's that. I wonder if they were higher up in the standings if there would be more light shining on them with regard to the sexual abuse scandal.
Nike had months to distance themselves from Hockey Canada's systemic enablement of sexual assault. They're choosing to make this announcement now to bury the story about forced labour.
I grew up around hockey guys, the majority of them were immature sexist, masoginistic assholes. Also the onboarding rituals were disturbing. One guy was proud to tell me that for new members all the other team members would cum on a piece of bread and force the new guy to eat it as initiation. Like WTF. So the sexual abuse allegations are zero surprise to me.
Yeah, you’d think the culture around a pro sport would be to inspire people to go play it themselves, but most of the fans are drunk fat guys that don’t exercise.
Just to provide a counterpoint here - anyone can play hockey, it's not a requirement to be in the sort of physical shape that elite athletes maintain in order to step on the ice.
Lots of people watch sports simply for entertainment, and that's OK. Maybe someone enjoys the strategic aspect of it, or they follow their hometown team, or a team that has an interesting or good build. I find it fun to have a beer and watch a game. I don't personally want to endure the hardships of training, damage from playing and emotions bundled up in a competitive game to pursue it very far. But I'm glad to be a spectator to this sport being played at a high level.
I played hockey right up to Junior level. Minor hockey has its own issues for sure but once you leave minor and go into junior where parents aren't paying fees it was toxic as hell. There was some great guys I played hockey with, made some great friendships there, but there were some absolutely awful human beings as well and they are tolerated way more than in general society. It comes from an old school culture among coaches right up to the owners of the teams. (excluding the trainers. they were almost always respectful people)
Whether Nike is doing the right thing because it's the right thing or to take the heat off their own behaviours, I'm still glad to hear it.
The way hockey is organized and "played" has long disgusted me. I think its systems and culture are toxic to individuals, communities, and society. And that's before I listened to Canadaland's "Commons" series: