Rick Nash, Claude Giroux, Dion Phaneuf
and Henrik Lundqvist are among the NHL stars appearing in a video in
support of gay athletes.
The 60-second video, part of the You
Can Play project, first aired during the first intermission of
Sunday's NBC Sports broadcast of the game between the New York
Rangers and Boston Bruins. (The video is embedded in the right panel
of this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
“The goals for You Can Play are
clear,” Patrick Burke, a co-founder and a scout for the
Philadelphia Flyers, said in a statement. “We want to make locker
rooms safe for all athletes, rather than places of fear, slurs and
bullying. The casual homophobia in sports has to change, so all
athletes know that what counts is whether you can play the game.”
Patrick Burke is the brother of Brendan
Burke, who came out gay while manager of the Miami University ice
hockey team. In 2010, he was killed in a car accident.
“The hockey community united behind
Brendan because he loved the game, and that's what matters. The NHL
players stepping forward to support You Can Play know that creating a
homophobia-free environment will make their teams – and the sport –
better,” Burke said. “It's important for straight athletes at
all levels to step up and let gay athletes know they will be
accepted, and to let other straight athletes know that homophobic
language and attitudes are never appropriate.”
Burke told The
Washington Post that “we've never had an openly gay active
male player in any of the four big professional leagues.”
“As accepting as our [NHL] players
are and our management is, we need the gay athletes who are currently
in the NHL – because I believe there are some – to know just how
accepting our league is. It's scary when you think you're alone,
when you think you're the only one. Everyone thinks about the
worst-case scenario: I'm gonna come out, and my teammates are gonna
turn on me, and I'll get cut. We need to show them that that's not
the case.”
Brendan Burke's father, Toronto Maple
Leafs general manager Brian Burke, also appears in the PSA.
More than 30 NHL players have already
volunteered to support the program.