According to reports, several players are beginning to follow in the footsteps of Philadelphia Flyers member Ivan Provorov.
You may remember that Provorov had the left fuming after he refused to wear a rainbow sweater, citing his Orthodox Christian beliefs.
So far, the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks, and Minnesota Wild have all decided to eliminate their Pride Night celebrations. Now, the NHL is considering nixing it from their calendar altogether and just focusing on hockey (imagine that).
“This is the first time we’ve experienced that, and I think it’s something that we’re going to have to evaluate in the offseason,” Gary Bettman Bettman said. “This is one issue where players for a variety of reasons may not feel comfortable wearing the uniform as a form of endorsement.”
“But I think that’s become more of a distraction now, because the substance of what our teams and we have been doing and stand for is really being pushed to the side for what is a handful of players basically have made personal decisions, and you have to respect that as well,” he added.
Recently, Hollywood star Jennifer Aniston recently made similar comments lamenting how jokes are taken too seriously.
Aniston, who’s been in Hollywood for almost 30 years, said comedy is tricky.
“Now it’s a little tricky because you have to be very careful, which makes it really hard for comedians, because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves, make fun of life,” Aniston said. “[In the past] you could joke about a bigot and have a laugh — that was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were. And now we’re not allowed to do that.”
“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of ‘Friends’ and find them offensive,” she added. “There were things that were never intentional and others… well, we should have thought it through — but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now. Everybody needs funny! The world needs humor! We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided.”
