While we are on the subject of hockey (cough, Heated Rivalry) … why doesn’t the NHL have a domestic violence policy?
HBO’s recent juggernaut, Heated Rivalry, has blasted to the front of seemingly everyone’s consciousness over the last few months. The show, based on the second book in the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid, portrays the secret sexual relationship (turned heart-melting love affair) of the captains of two rival professional hockey teams.
While the press tour of the two lead actors promoting the show is, in a word, delightful, the attention being paid to fictional hockey players’ relationships off-the-ice is, unfortunately, a stark reminder of the reality of the state of gender-based violence in the sport. Countless players for the National Hockey League (NHL), as well as the junior and minor leagues, have been accused of domestic and sexual violence. Yet many of those same players are retained on lucrative professional and semiprofessional contracts, and some have been able to keep playing even while under investigation for criminal sexual and domestic assault.
The NHL remains the only of the four major professional sports leagues (which also includes the NFL, NBA and MLB) that lacks a formal and specific domestic violence policy when players are accused of sexual or domestic violence. Instead, when players are accused of misconduct, assault or otherwise perpetrating harm, cases are adjudicated individually by league leadership. This is despite a number of high-profile allegations against players in professional, semiprofessional and junior leagues.
This kind of opaque process leaves survivors of violence high and dry, especially when their abusers are powerful, wealthy and beloved professional athletes with loyal fanbases. Naming and reporting sexual and domestic assault is incredibly difficult for survivors of violence, especially given how many fear they will be believed when they come forward. But this is even more challenging when the people who perpetrate violence hold social and financial power in their communities.
Despite making up less than 2 percent of college students, Division 1 athletes were named as assailants in over 6 percent of Title IX complaints.
Sexual and domestic violence perpetrated by elite athletes is a problem at all levels of sport. Despite making up less than 2 percent of college students, Division 1 athletes were named as assailants in over 6 percent of Title IX complaints, one study found. While hockey does not receive nearly the air time of a sport like football, over half a million people participate in USA Hockey, including nearly 100,000 women and girls.
Socialization, masculinity and the environments we especially raise young boys in, enable and entrench rape culture. Modern hockey culture exemplifies how these dynamics are reproduced and normalized. Hazing of new players creates cultures of violence, degradation and fear where consent is a non-issue. ‘Chirping’ (the sport’s name for trash talk) frequently includes misogyny, sexual degradation and allows players to weaponize their opponents’ personal lives in a public way. Each team has their own ‘enforcers’—players whose jobs are to (often aggressively) respond to violent play—who often see more ice fighting than skating.
This is further complicated by the brutal, physical nature of a sport like hockey. NHL teams play 82 regular season games (before even accounting for playoff and championship time on the ice) over a grueling seven-month stretch–averaging a game every 2.5 days. With this kind of schedule–and an average of one fight every two to five games–players risk not only repeated concussions but also repeated brain injuries in quick succession, with little if any time to recover and heal.
The science is clear today that high-contact sports (including hockey, rugby, and American football) carry substantial risk of traumatic brain injuries. These kinds of head injuries have been shown to lead to long-term injuries such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy that can cause behavioral changes and increased aggression, creating new risk factors for domestic and sexual violence.
Women deserve to know that the sport they are spending their time and money on cares about violence against women, especially for young girls lacing up their skates for the first time.
A 2024 study of 77 deceased male ice hockey players—the largest study of its kind—found that 27 out of 28 professional players and 13 of 28 college, juniors and semiprofessional players had CTE pathology. Those researchers estimated that for every additional year played, the risk of CTE increased 34 percent.
The movies and TV we watch change our behavior and what we as communities value. Bend it Like Beckham (2002) drove millions of girls into youth soccer teams, and Heated Rivalry could do the same for junior hockey teams. HBO estimated that half of early viewers of the show were women, and women make up the vast majority of romance readers, including of “MM” romance fiction featuring love stories between two men. Women deserve to know that the sport they are spending their time and money on cares about violence against women, especially for young girls lacing up their skates for the first time.
With this influx of new fans to hockey—and especially as women fans join the sport—it is more than time for the NHL to cross the incredibly low bar of standardizing how they respond to allegations of abuse by their players. League leadership has the opportunity to do better in protecting women from violence and holding players accountable when they cause harm.
A formal League policy will not stop violence, especially against women, from being perpetrated by players. But it will stand as a positive assertion that hockey too recognizes the importance of addressing violence against women. And better late than never.
