Only one out of 35 NHL stars wouldn’t accept gay teammate

USA TODAY asked the players at the NHL Media Tour last week in Toronto some anonymous player poll questions. One of them was whether they’d accept an openly gay teammate. 

They asked 35 players; and 34 of them said they would accept him without an issue.

“I’m not surprised by that,” said Calgary Flames president Brian Burke, told USA TODAY. “I’m disappointed by the one player. I don’t think our players have an issue with gay players. I think the first player to come out is going to find an unbelievably welcome reception. I think my generation has a bigger problem than their generation when it comes views on the gay community.”

(The NHL Players Media Tour, by the way, had at least one player from each team.)

The survey results are … well, sorta expected in 2015.

In fact, a survey of 23 Tampa Bay Lightning players in 2013 produced the same result: 22 of them said they’d accept an openly gay teammate. (The 23rd player wasn’t available to answer the survey.)

Check out USA TODAY for some other survey answers, including how the majority of players don’t want ads on jerseys even though they’ll totally make bank.

We’ll have a few survey questions of our own that the players answered over the next few days.

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