Former NHL player Theo Fleury called out the league for advancing a political agenda as the NHL is making public efforts to appear more inclusive and diverse worldwide.
The NHL tweeted out a picture of a tournament in Wisconsin, and all the players who participated In the tournament were either transgender or non-binary.
“The NHL is proud to support this past weekend’s Team Trans Draft Tournament in Middleton, Wisconsin,” the league wrote, in a tweet that also had the hashtags #HockeyIsForEveryone and #NHLPride. “This was the first tournament compromised entirely of transgender and non-binary players, with around 80 folks participating!”
After pushback from one Twitter user who wrote, “So, men playing on womans(sic) team?”
The NHL answered back and wrote, “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Nonbinary identity is real.” The NHL had to shut off the replies to the tweet as it received over 10,000 replies, 14,000 quote tweets, and 59,000 likes.
Fleury joined Tucker Carlson on Fox’s Tucker Carlson Tonight on Wednesday evening to discuss how politics in sports do not mesh well.
After Carlson explained some of the political stances that the NHL had taken, he wanted to know Fleury’s opinion about the tweets the league made.
“Were race politics a big part of hockey when you were playing?” Carlson asked Fleury.
“No, God no,” Fleury answered. “I think the
“I fell head over heels in love with the sport,” Fleury added. “I was really good at it, obviously, and pursued a career in this amazing game we play.”
Carlson mentioned that not many players stand up against politicization in sports.
“I think it’s really because we’re so divided, Tucker,” Fleury said. “Deep down, hockey players are, you know, guys who are compassionate and empathetic; it’s just something we don’t want to get involved in. It’s an argument that we can’t win.”
The only thing that mattered to Fleury was whether hockey players still loved the game.
“It doesn’t matter to us who plays the sport, whether you’re transgender, gay, or whatever,” Fleury continued. “The reason why we play the game, and the reason why the game is so amazing and so great, is it’s for everybody, right? And the reason why we play the game is it’s an escape from what’s going on in our lives.”
Fleury recognized that the NHL was not the only sport
“Unfortunately, politics has no place in any sport, whether that’s football, basketball, hockey, baseball,” Fleury said. “Politics should never be part of any kind of sport whatsoever.”
Watch above via Fox News.