The National Hockey League (NHL) was founded in 1917 in Montreal, Canada. It has 25 teams in the United States and seven in Canada.
Hockey has become increasingly popular in America and is a fun sport for fans of all ages and families to enjoy.
In recent years, however, there’s been growing controversy over woke LGBT extremism taking over the league, as well as other professional leagues. This includes forcing players and coaches to wear modified “pride” jerseys full of rainbow colors.
Various athletes in baseball and hockey have said no to the pride jerseys, similar to how we saw controversies over athletes who didn’t want to wear BLM patches and insignia.
Most recently, this includes Marc Staal and his brother Eric of the Florida Panthers, who have been sidelined for not wearing their team’s new very colorful pride jerseys.
The jerseys are being donned during warmup skates; so because they won’t wear them, the Staals are sitting off the pregame warmup. The Staals are from the working-class city of Thunder Bay, Ontario and are religious Christians.
They don’t support gay marriage or the gay lifestyle: for this reason, they are being persecuted and humiliated by their team’s ownership, even though millions of Americans feel exactly like they do.
Saying they “carry no judgment” on people’s lives and everyone is welcome in the hockey world, they explained pride jerseys are simply against their beliefs.
Simple. No “hate,” no mean words. It’s just a simple decision by two Bible-believing brothers who don’t want to trash their own faith.
As they said, they hope that their respect will also be met with “respect” from fans and the media as well.
Photos are surfacing allegedly showing Staal wearing a pride jersey already in 2021, but he denies it. Recently, San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer refused to wear a Sharks pride jersey as well and sat on the bench during warmups.
He said his reason was the same: that he believes in the Bible more than doing what team leadership demands. Philly Flyers player Ivan Provorov, who is Orthodox Christian, also refused to don the rainbow.
At this point, it’s clear the NHL and other leagues are going to keep pushing. It’s important to stand up for players like this who just want to keep by their conscience and beliefs.