“Heated Rivalry” is all that anyone — including my mother — is talking about right now.
The show, which is streaming on HBO Max, is about two top hockey prospects being drafted to rival teams and navigating their lives and secret love, hiding it from the rest of the world.
This is incredibly tough for both of them. As someone who played competitive hockey for 13 years, I know hockey is a sport that has traditionally framed itself as apolitical. This has created an identity with little to no room for openly queer players to exist without immense scrutiny.
This is where “Heated Rivalry” comes in. On TikTok, I have seen countless videos of people speaking out about how much the show has helped them embrace their sexuality as an athlete. Even Hudson Williams, the actor who plays one of the top prospects, recently shared that he has received messages from closeted professional athletes thanking him for representation. One professional player, Jesse Kortuem, actually came out as gay because of the show.
As a result of the success of “Heated Rivalry,” the NHL has been seeing a massive increase in fandom. StubHub shared that as of Jan. 6, the company has seen a 40% growth in interest for hockey tickets.
But the NHL is not known for its acceptance of queer culture. In 2023, they banned the use of Pride Tape, which is hockey tape for sticks that forms a pride flag when applied. They also banned the use of Pride-themed warm-up jerseys.
To justify the ban, the NHL claimed it wanted to avoid causing a distraction to players, as a few players during the 2022-23 season refused to participate in celebrating their team’s Pride Night. They quickly revoked the ban on the tape after facing backlash, but kept the themed warmup jersey prohibition.
As someone who has spent a huge chunk of my life in hockey locker rooms, I know that the sport’s culture generally isn’t very accepting of queerness.
For my Bar Mitzvah project in seventh grade, I helped raise money for the You Can Play organization to spread awareness for queer pride in sports. I’ve never understood being excluded for something that doesn’t affect on-ice performance. If you can play, then you can play. Seems simple enough, right?
Yet, the NHL doesn’t relay this message. Fast forward a few years, and the NHL is now enjoying one of its biggest waves of new fans in a long time because of “Heated Rivalry.”
The irony is hard to ignore, as the NHL is benefitting from a gay love story while continuing to hesitate when queerness shows up in the sport. Visibility should not stop at television success.
If the league really wants to expand its fanbase, they need to do the hard work and make its own ice feel just as safe as the ice we see on the show.