The NHL, NBC and hockey fans would be better off without Mike Milbury on air

About a week ago, NBC NHL analyst Mike Milbury went on social media and tweeted out a blurry photo of Toronto’s CN Tower that lead to some pretty severe social media roasting.

Not only did Milbury misidentify the Tower as Seattle’s Space Needle, but he complained about the length of the 5OT game between the Tampa Bay Lighting and the Columbus Blue Jackets, saying they should have sped up the end with 3-on-3. That tweet, which has since been deleted,  encapsulated what Milbury has been like during the Stanley Cup Playoffs: Out of touch, ill prepared, and an absolute embarrassment.

On Thursday night, Milbury once again showed why the NBC broadcast would be better off without him, by making an off-hand, misogynistic remark.

“Not even any women here to disrupt…your concentration,” Milbury said of the upside of the NHL bubble.

However Milbury meant it, the remark is thoughtless, reductive and crude. It does a disservice not only to all hockey fans (not just women) but to the players as well.  With his words, Milbury implied that women naturally don’t belong within the hockey world and that when they are there, they divert attention, either sexually or with emotional needs, away from the more important things happening on the ice.  The statement is laughably outdated yet it’s clear that Milbury absolutely believes it.

With his flippancy, Milbury also showed how little he thinks of the players. As much as hockey culture needs to change, we’ve hopefully evolved to the point where players view the women in their lives not just as distractions, but vital support systems that contribute to their overall growth and well being. The days of knuckle dragging lasciviousness should be well behind us.

While we’re at, Milbury is also operating under the assumption that everyone within the hockey bubble is perfectly heterosexual, because why would there be space for other kinds of “distractions” in such a rigid outlook?

This isn’t even the first time this playoffs that Milbury has pushed tiresome narratives around the sport. He lambasted Tuukka Rask for leaving the Boston Burins to be with his family, he offhandedly thought Jake Muzzin might be staying down longer just for a whistle, before a stretcher was brought out to take him off the ice and when talking about the empty arenas in the NHL bubble, he compared them to beer leagues or “NCAA women’s hockey.”

Even as stuck as NHL culture seems sometimes, it has evolved past the likes of Milbury’s comments and his old school take on the sport. Sexism, racism, homophobia all exist within hockey, but there are many working to turn the culture around. Why then would NBC give such a prominent role to someone who is hopelessly committed to keeping it stuck in the past? Anson Carter, Patrick Sharp, or this fantastically long list of women in hockey would all be better choices.

The frustration pouring out of female hockey fans at off-hand comments is because off-hand comments reflect off-hand thinking.  Earlier this week, there was incident within the MLB world, where Cincinnati Reds play-by-play man Thom Brennaman used an anti-LGBTQ slur on a hot mic. He was suspended from the team, and issued the weakest of apologies.  While Milbury’s comments are not a direct comparison to what Brennaman said, they similarly reveal that what kind of person he is. Milbury sees women as a distraction, he sees women as lesser then, he thinks that whatever place they have in the hockey world, it is a step below what the men have earned. They exist as binaries, not mutually supportive networks, and certainly not as equals.

Brennaman let the slur slip with the ease of a man who has likely gotten away with it before. Milbury has repeatedly made sexist jokes on camera because no one has checked him on his comments. With the history that Milbury has, it does not seem possible to change that kind of entrenched thinking. As a reminder, he’s called P.K. Subban a “clown” for dancing on the ice, saying the coach needed to give him a rap on the head. He’s ranted about Alex Ovechkin needing to “act like a man” and applauded a cheap headshot from Sidney Crosby. He also compared the Sedins to ‘Thelma and Louisa,’ and not in a good way.

Brennaman insisted his comments weren’t reflective of the kind of person he is, yet the fact that he used that word, so casually and with such disdain showed that not to be true. Milbury has stayed away from such outright bigotry, at least out loud, yet the ease at which he uses racist stereotypes, and gendered insults also shows what kind of person he is, what values he has.

Racism, sexism, homophobia —all the societal ills many are fighting so hard against—are easier to tackle when they appear as bright, neon flashes. They are harder to eradicate when they appear as a series of micro-aggressions spread out, consistently, over a decade.  Brennaman gave a clear cut example of what we shouldn’t tolerate, and for that he was shown the door. Milbury has been operating unchecked for years, yet he doesn’t belong on air any more than Brennaman does. There’s disdain and contempt in Milbury’s words too, it is just harder to see.

Update: Mike Milbury has issued an apology as has the NHL.