By E. Martin Nolan A follow-up to “Are the Toronto Maple Leafs a Public Institution? No (but Also Yes)” A professional sports team may have a genuine public aspect to it, but it looks a lot less like a public institution when it’s failing. Witness this year’s sad Toronto Maple Leafs. You’d be hard-pressed to…
Earlier this week, the You Can Play Project launched with a PSA video that preaches acceptance for LGBT hockey players. You Can Play was co-founded by Patrick Burke, the brother of the late Brendan Burke and an activist for gay rights in sport. The organization, whose board includes Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke (father of…
Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers. Hockey Links Detroit native E. Martin Nolan had a busy week! In addition to his post considering the Toronto Maple…
By Simon Darnell When Kanye West dropped a bomb on the musical world in 2010 with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, music critics lost their collective shit trying to process, internalize and communicate what they had just absorbed. So sprawling and epic, so contradictory, so unabashed in its assessments was the album that it could…
Hockey Links Two more great post from the Hockey in Society writing team this week: Matt Ventresca on the World Junior Championships and Courtney Szto on the forthcoming film “Goon.” An excellent critique of selective Edmonton media coverage and how it shifts public perception of specific players, and thus takes heat off of management by…
Brian Burke, the General Manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs, has never been one to shy away from the media spotlight or to hide his emotions. Nor has Burke made any secret about his view that a good NHL team requires a solid dose of toughness on its roster, famously declaring upon taking the Maple…
Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers. Hockey Links ESPN caused a furor amongst hockey fans by not including any hockey players on its tribute to sport…
Sport, very much including hockey, is for the most part a hostile environment for people who do not conform to the dominant ideals of the given sporting culture. Especially in physical contact sports such as hockey, football, or lacrosse – in short, sports that have always been associated with and have always celebrated an aggressive…
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