NHL levies meaningless fine against Ducks’ Ryan Getzlaf for using gay slur

Last year when the NHL suspended Chicago Blackhawks player Andrew Shaw one playoff game for being caught using a gay slur, the league was lauded for taking the meaningful step.

Now the NHL is backtracking.

Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf was caught calling a referee a “cocksucker” on multiple occasions during his team’s Game 4 against the Nashville Predators.

The NHL’s reaction? A meaningless $10,000 fine. No suspension.

As we’ve said ad nauseam, fines are meaningless to players like Getzlaf. His salary this year alone is $9.25 million, which is just a fraction of his current $66 million contract. That makes the fine just 0.1% of his annual salary.

That fine is the maximum allowed under the union agreement, making it even worse that the NHL didn’t go the way of a suspension.

If the NHL wanted to take a real stand, they would suspend him for a playoff game.

They do not want to take a real stand on this one.

To be clear, “cocksucker” is an even more specifically anti-gay term than “faggot” (though they can be equally hurtful). The latter has been co-opted for years in sports to mean other things that demean an opponent. To be sure, the root of the term is homophobia, but it’s taken on a whole other meaning for many people unaware that it’s a gay slur.

“Cocksucker” is very specifically anti-gay and sexist, and there’s no explaining your way around it. It says, very specifically, “you perform oral sex on men so you are bad.” There’s no hiding behind some idea that the word has a long history in sports, and that the word has come to mean other things. It very specifically describes a sex act performed by gay men and straight women.

The NHL will surely hide behind some bullshit about “faggot” being a slur and “cocksucker” just being a descriptive term.

But what makes this even worse than just the word he used? Getzlaf is a team captain. A leader. And he just called a referee a “cocksucker.” Multiple times.

The term I’m using for the NHL on this one is “cowards.”

Just as Shaw’s suspension last year had major repercussions, sending a clear message to players that gay slurs will not be tolerated, the NHL today is saying that gay slurs are open and available, as long as you don’t use “the F word.”

Of course if the NHL asked a bunch of gay men how they feel about the word “cocksucker,” they might understand. My guess is they asked one or two who said “it’s not as bad as faggot.”

I disagree, as I said above. But whether you agree or not, the sport needs to be rid of all gay slurs, as it must be rid of all racial slurs. For the NHL to now give the green light — and to be clear, that’s exactly what this is — to use some gay slurs sends the league moving backward again.