Wednesday Night Pretense of Animosity

I’m absolutely fascinated by the cultural implications of this Wednesday Night Rivalry commercial.

It’s a series of slow-motion clips of NHL players winking, smiling, and throwing bedroom eyes at members of opposing teams–at first from a distance and then in the middle of checks and fights–while The Shirelles gently sing:

Tonight you’re mine completely
You give your love so sweetly
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes
Will you still love me tomorrow

Flirting with gay innuendo is nothing new for the NHL, but normally it comes in one of two flavors: no-homo and derogatory. Either it’s slightly uncomfortable teammates laughing a little bit too loudly about their bromances, or it’s used as an insult to put down the opposition.

This is tongue-firmly-in-cheek, but the punch line is not platonic male friendship, and it’s not the inherent undesirability of being perceived as gay. It’s the absolute ludicrous beauty of sports-based animosity. This ad points at the culture-wide shared fiction of rivalries and says, “Guys, this emperor is butt-nekkid. Y’all fuckin’ adore each other.” The implication of homosexuality codes for true affection here, not for weakness.

And it trusts the fans to get that. If the NHL thought a significant number of viewers would interpret this ad as saying “hockey is incredibly gay,” it would not have green-lit this commercial. It could be seen as a PR risk for a major sports league to joke about its stars lusting for one another mid-headlock, and I think just a few years ago this shit would not have seen the airwaves. But now hockey fans as a culture are ready for that joke. They’re ready to quit defaulting to douchery. That’s so great.