We live in a world driven by the quest for media coverage. That can come from large corporations announcing decisions large and small just as easily as it can come from people on Twitter hoping a particularly clever turn of phrase might go viral. It’s not quite the old adage that all publicity is good publicity — but there is a sense that being talked about is better than the alternative.
Based on that, then, you might think that an up-and-coming sports league would welcome coverage on a media platform with a dedicated audience. When it came to the NWHL and Barstool Sports, however, the opposite turned out to be the case. In a new article for The Atlantic, Maggie Mertens outlined the conflict between the two, and explained why the NWHL pushing back against Barstool Sports might be in the league’s best interest.
Last month, Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini interviewed a pair of Metropolitan Riveters players on her podcast. Given Barstool Sports’ history with racism and sexism, a number of fans and journalists tweeted out their objections, prompting Nardini to edit many of those tweets into a video which she subsequently posted on Twitter. As Mertens phrases it at The Atlantic, this resulted in “essentially siccing the site’s troll-happy fans on every person whose handle appeared.”
Many NWHL players were appalled, with the Riveters’ Saroya Tinker tweeting, “WE, as a league do not want support from ANY openly racist platform. Point blank,PERIOD.” A statement from the league’s commissioner, Tyler Tumminia, took a firm stance as well. “There is no circumstance where it would be acceptable to call out many of the reporters, staff members and fans who have given so much to women’s hockey, especially knowing that these people could be targeted or harassed on social media,” the statement read in part.
As Mertens writes, this principled stand is less quixotic than it may seem. The NWHL’s fanbase is a diverse, inclusive one, and one which has helped the league’s profile increase over the years. Much as is the case with the WNBA, engagement with politics and taking principled stances is seen as a positive for the NWHL — all of which suggests they made the right call here.
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