NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is taking a page out of his baseball counterpart’s book on the topic of specialty jerseys.
After MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters last week that he advised teams against wearing Pride logos on uniforms, Bettman told Sportsnet that teams will not wear special warmup jerseys this year after becoming too much of a “distraction.”
“I’ve suggested that it would be appropriate for clubs not to change their jerseys in warmups because it’s become a distraction,” Bettman said.
“And taking away from the fact that all of our clubs, in some form or another, host nights in honor of various groups or causes, and we rather those continue to get the appropriate attention that they deserve. And not be a distraction.”
Last season, the NHL dealt with plenty of controversy surrounding Pride-themed warmup jerseys, which included a situation with the Rangers.
Bettman said the criticism and drama took away from the “various groups or causes” the jerseys were meant to celebrate.
The NHL commissioner indicated that the ban would apply to all warmup jerseys, which would include military tribute nights, but the root of the issue stemmed from Pride-themed jerseys.
But Bettman was adamant that the nights used to honor various causes would remain a part of the NHL.
He also specifically mentioned that all 32 teams had done Pride nights last season.
Teams will still be able to design special jerseys to honor causes that can be sold, “and players that chose to model them can do that.”
“In the final analysis, all of the efforts and emphasis on these various causes have been undermined by the distraction in terms of which teams, which players,” Bettman said. “This way we’re keeping the focus on the game and on these specialty nights we’re going to be focused on the cause.”
LGBTQ+ initiative nights became increasingly controversial for some NHL clubs last season as individual players opted out of wearing Pride-themed warmup jerseys, while some teams began scrapping the jerseys altogether.
While playing for the Flyers last year, Ivan Provorov made headlines when he refused to wear a Pride jersey — citing his Russian Orthodox religion — and skipped warmups entirely during the event.
The Rangers, who had plans to wear Pride uniforms in January, walked back that decision before their Pride night at Madison Square Garden.
“Our organization respects the LGBTQ+ community and we are proud to bring attention to important local community organizations as part of another great Pride Night,” the Rangers wrote in a statement at the time.
“In keeping with our organization’s core values, we support everyone’s individual right to respectfully express their beliefs.”
The issues continued to balloon as other players across the league cited religious beliefs for refusing to wear the Pride-themed uniforms.
The Blackhawks and Wild also opted against wearing them as a team.
More recently, Major League Baseball found itself in the fray.
The Dodgers were embroiled in controversy surrounding their Pride Night this year when they upset both Clayton Kershaw and Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams over the team’s decision to include the controversial group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, as part of the festivities.
Thousands of people — led by the Catholics for Catholics group — gathered outside Dodger Stadium on June 16 to protest the “anti-Catholic” organization.
And Manfred told reporters last week that “in terms of actual uniforms, hats, bases that we don’t think putting logos on them is a good idea just because of the desire to protect players.”
