Matt Murray has been a Kings fan since the late '80s, when Wayne Gretzky grabbed headlines by defecting to the West Coast. Since then, he has been a card-carrying bandwagon member as the club soared in popularity with their sole Stanley Cup appearance to their position near the bottom of the Pacific. But things are looking brighter, as he is anxious to witness the rise of the new Kings.
Gays in the NHL: no problems here
Earlier this week, former NBA player John Amaechi announced he was gay. Several of radio personalities in the desolate wasteland of L.A. sports talk radio, the topic was brought up in hopes of starting a firestorm of controversy. But the resulting conversations fell way short of many listeners' interests, who would rather call in and talk about the Lakers, USC Football or to yell at Vic "The Brick" Jacobs: "Feeling you!"
One interesting conversation took place Wednesday night between KLAC's Joe McDonnell and former P-T Sports editor and founder of Outsports.com, Jim Buzinksi. During the course of the interview (which can be heard via podcast or download over at am570radio.com, listen to hour 1 of the 2/7 show), Big Joe made an observation that if any professional athlete were to come out while they were still playing, that would probably be someone from basketball or hockey. He noted that it would probably never happen with football players because "they're a different breed" and baseball players are "around each other too much in the clubhouse that it would get weird." But he could see a basketball player or a hockey player have an easier time coming out.
Buzzer agreed on Joe's point of hockey players and said he could see a hockey player be the first athlete to out himself while actively playing. He cited Canada as being much more accepting of gay rights and gay marriage and some European players come from countries where being gay is really a non-issue.
It was an interesting discussion that found me taking the long way home to listen to it in its entirety. Personally, I come from a background that didn't embrace homosexuality. But as I got older and gained more life experience, the more stupid I realized I was when I was younger, and the more accepting I have become. I have two uncles who are openly gay and both are in fantastic relationships with men who are their true soulmates. Buzzer was the first newspaper person that I have worked with who was openly gay.
If a hockey player came out tomorrow and announced they were gay, I honestly think there would not be as big a story than if a football or baseball player. It would be pretty big, though, considering that the general view of hockey players are the Hanson Brothers from the movie Slap Shot. Writers and columnists would predictably pose the question of how could such a violent sport lend itself to having gay players? Hopefully through intelligent discussion and observation, we would find out that the public would be quite accepting of an openly gay hockey player.
Living in Long Beach may skew my point of view. After all, the gay community is widely accepted out here in California, as well as in New York. What would Middle America think? Could sports fans in Nashville or Columbus or Minnesota be as accepting with an openly gay athlete on the ice as fans from Boston? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Predators, Blue Jackets or Wild fans are or would be homophobic. But from my West Coast view, I honestly think that in 2007, our society would have no problem with any gay athlete.
As I was writing this entry for Hockeywood, I started searching around on Buzzer's site and found this article taken from the book In the Game; Gay Athletes and the Cult of Masculinity. The excerpt is about a closeted, Stanley Cup winning NHL player, and how he deals with being gay in the NHL. Written by Eric Anderson, the author of In The Game, asked they player about the degree of homophobia in hockey, the player responded:
“You know there was a lot of it in the lower ranks, especially in high school and college. But in the NHL we are professionals, and guys really aren’t all that homophobic.‿
The article goes on to describe how he lives his life, and the lengths he takes to guard his secret from his teammates. He even admitted to sleeping with women to maintain the "the masculine expectations of the sport." And the end of the article, he says he constantly thinks about coming out to his teammates.
“I think about coming out to my team all the time. I think, ‘Maybe today will be the day,’ then it’s not. I’d really like to. On the other hand I’m so used to being the way I am.‿
Maybe Big Joe and Buzzer are right. Maybe it will be an active NHL player who comes out and announces they are gay first. Who cares? As long as they can play, who cares what "team" they play for?
