Reaction to U.S. Men’s Hockey Team at State of the Union
During Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, it was challenging to spot a member of the U.S. men’s hockey team without a wide smile. However, ESPN radio host Peter Rosenberg had a different perspective, describing them as “sad little pawns.”
In a live reaction video posted to his YouTube channel, Rosenberg suggested that the gold medal-winning hockey team was being used merely as props. “You all have decided to do everything you can for the president,” he remarked. “You guys are pawns—sad little pawns. What are you doing? And you probably live such comfortable and privileged lives that you don’t even have to face how embarrassing this is.”
Despite Rosenberg’s controversial remarks, the inclusion of the men’s hockey team seemed to garner some level of bipartisan support, at least to some extent.
Interestingly, while Rosenberg and other sports commentators criticized the hockey players for being used in this way, the same scrutiny wasn’t applied when the Boston Bruins visited Japan in 2012 after winning the Stanley Cup. At that time, the media did not call out those athletes as pawns of the Obama administration.
In fact, the only player the media scrutinized was goaltender Tim Thomas, who opted not to visit President Obama’s White House.
In a conversation between MSNBC’s Neera Tanden and Alex Wagner, Tanden expressed frustration over what she termed “hyper-partisanship.” She suggested, “Just go to the White House. You don’t have to run ads or cut commercials. Just participate and celebrate like everyone else does with both Republican and Democratic presidents.”
Wagner added, “Especially when you’re being honored.”
This raises an interesting point: Should athletes attend the White House and accept invitations from any president, regardless of political affiliation?
But wait! When the current president is Donald Trump, attending could imply that one is playing a role in a political game. So, did the U.S. men’s hockey players who chose not to attend get labeled as “hyperpartisan”? Of course not. Instead, it seems the athletes who accepted invitations were the ones facing those accusations.
It’s all a bit perplexing, really.
