In a storyline as much Brokeback Mountain as Slap Shot, the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs, one of Canada's iconic teams, has lent its name and logo to a movie whose central character is a gay former hockey player.
The move has raised eyebrows within the normally conservative world of professional sports.
In the 89-year history of the NHL -- the world's most elite ice hockey league with Canadian and US teams, known for nightly brawls between players -- no active player has ever admitted publicly to being a homosexual.
The film, Breakfast with Scot, tells the story of a former Maple Leafs hockey player whose relationship with the team's lawyer is exposed when they become the guardians of a young boy with sexual identity issues of his own.
The movie is based on the 2001 novel by US writer Michael Downing and is produced by Canadian companies Miracle Pictures and Capri Releasing.
What astonished many observers is that the NHL cooperated in getting permission for the film makers to use their official logos and uniforms.
John Lashway, senior vice-president of communications at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), the parent company of the Maple Leafs hockey club, said that the team was approached by the NHL and urged to lend their name and logo to the proposal.
"We really didn't want to make a statement about homosexuality one way or another, but we recognize that people have diverse lifestyles," Lashway said.
After reviewing the proposal, MLSE agreed to back the project on its own merits.
"You have to give full credit to the NHL and the Leafs for signing on. It also shows the possibility, for if someone were to come out, perhaps it wouldn't be as big a deal as we think," actor Tom Cavanaugh, who plays the main character, told the Toronto Star newspaper.
"Sports is almost like the last bastion for that hurdle to be cleared in many ways," he added. "It's kind of an unwritten rule in sports circles that it's just not talked about, it's just not as accepted as it is in normal society. It's a strange thing. Hockey is no different."
The release notes for Breakfast with Scot say that the movie explores the issues of homosexuality in professional sports and the reasons behind society's reluctance to accept gay heroes.
Public reaction to the Maple Leafs' decision to cooperate has been split.
"We received several phone calls and e-mails from people who were angry that we had linked the Maple Leafs image with the homosexual lifestyle," Lashway said. "But we have had about the same number of reactions from people who have applauded the courage of our decision."
Don Cherry, a flamboyant and hugely popular hockey coach-turned-commentator, whose politically incorrect rants are a staple in the "Coach's Corner" segment of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Saturday night hockey broadcasts, couldn't keep his hands off this story either.
"I know [NHL Commissioner] Gary Bettman wanted a kindlier and gentler league, but this is too much," he told the Toronto Star.
One evangelical Christian group, the Canada Family Action Coalition, responded to the news with anger, calling for a boycott of MLSE.
Taiwan’s men’s A team last night defeated their counterpart B team 82-77 in their first showdown in the William Jones Cup at New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Gymnasium. With four wins under their belt, Taiwan’s A squad — also known as the blue team, consisting of the national team’s main roster — lead the tournament, while Malaysia and the Philippines Strong Group-Pilipinas, who were not scheduled to play last night, are both undefeated with three wins each. Taiwanese-American teenager Robert Hinton, playing in his first William Jones Cup, led the scoring early in the first quarter, putting up nine points for the A
Taiwanese tennis ace Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jan Zielinski of Poland on Friday advanced to the mixed doubles final at Wimbledon, just one step away from clinching their first mixed doubles title at the tournament. Hsieh and Zielinski, who won the Australian Open title earlier this year and who had reached the semi-finals at the French Open, battled past second seeds Michael Venus and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand 7-6, (7/0), 6-3. In the first set, the Taiwanese-Polish duo saved a set point, pushing the set into a tiebreaker. They clinched the set by winning the tiebreaker with seven straight points. The duo
A chance encounter during a drunken night out was the unlikely catalyst for breaker Sunny Choi’s journey to the Paris Olympic Games. The 35-year-old American is to showcase her skills before a global audience in Paris when breaking makes its debut on the Olympic stage. Choi is the beneficiary of efforts to attract younger fans to the Olympics, a move that led to breaking’s inclusion for the first time. However, as Choi says, the Olympics was the last thing on her mind when she took up the sport. A freshman student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Choi stumbled into breaking
Former NFL receiver Jacoby Jones, whose 108-yard kickoff return in 2013 remains the longest touchdown in Super Bowl history, has died at the age of 40. The Houston Texans, Jones’ team for the first five seasons of his career, announced his death on Sunday. In a statement released by the NFL Players Association, his family said he died at his home in New Orleans. A cause of death was not given. Jones played from 2007 to 2015 for the Texans, Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers, and he made several huge plays for the Ravens during their most recent Super