When Words Are Meaningless
I will fully admit that I hate discussing politics on this site, and the US political scene is one that I try to avoid altogether. For as much as that saga affects life in Canada, it's just exhausting to follow and the drama that comes with it is nothing more than self-aggrandization and delusional commentary. Frankly, I try to avoid all of it.
The US women's team was dominant throughout their time in Italy, allowing just two goals in the seven games they played, setting a shutout record that likely won't be broken for some time, and proving that they are the best team on the planet right now. You would think an individual who concerns himself with winning "bigly" would be more than excited to welcome this dominant team to the White House, but he didn't even bother to contact them after winning.
It should be no surprise that the US women's team declined the offer.
"We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal-winning U.S. Women's Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement," the U.S. women's team said in a statement released Monday. "Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment."I appreciate their polite response to what was clearly them being treated as an afterthought, but we may want to dig further into this because this isn't the first time that there has been an inequality committed by the current regime. Let's bring out the shovels!
On February 4, 2026, the current administration decided to release a statement on National Women and Girls in Sports Day. In that statement, the leader of the country wrote, "Under my leadership, every woman's safety, dignity, and work ethic will always be protected" which seems a little hollow after making jokes about not inviting the dominant US women's team to the White House.
Some will say, "Teebz, he was just making a joke in the moment!" which is unfortunately true, but upholding the team's dignity should have been a priority considering he issued that statement just three weeks ago. Leaving the jokes aside, though, the "work ethic" part should be easy to reinforce considering this man has the ability to sign decrees into law, so we should see him reward the women of the US National Women's Hockey Team in some way, right?
The Atlantic's Jemele Hill wrote an article on March 4, 2025 where she pointed out that "[t]he Department of Education announced recently that Title IX, the federal law that requires colleges to provide equal per-player funding for men's and women's sports, does not apply to name, image, and likeness payments paid directly to athletes from colleges and universities." NIL deals often pay athletes for usage of their name, image, and likeness when it comes to those athletes' legal rights to control how their name or image is used.
With this new change to the laws under the current administration, it means that Title IX rules in US colleges and universities no longer applied to NIL deals, allowing universities to direct more of their annual salary cap of up to $20.5 million per school to sports and athletes where they wanted rather than distributing it more evenly.
In short, highly-marketed sports like NCAA football and men's basketball could receive the vast majority of that NIL money at some schools as the rules under the previous administration where schools "had to distribute that money between male and female athletes in proportion to their participation rates" was erased from the record.
For players like Abbey Murphy and Caroline Harvey who, in all likelihood, could end up in an EA Sports video game as part of the rostered Olympic teams, it would mean they may receive little to no money despite the big roles each played in the American gold medal victory. We already know that most NCAA female athletes have "a difficult time keeping pace with their male counterparts in the new era of NIL money," as Hill writes, and the 2025 change made things even harder for women athletes to be paid equally at the NCAA level. After all, paritynow.com' Hannah Taylor noted that women's sports "comprise 15% of total sports media coverage" in 2024.
This isn't new either thanks to recent reports. In 2022, USA Today pointed out that for every dollar spent on men's sports in the NCAA, the same schools "spent just 71 cents on women" as the newspaper's investigation and analysis "focused solely on sports with comparable men's and women's squads." NCAA women's sports already started in a deficit, and now the NIL money change pushes them back again.
Tell me again how the women's team's work ethic is being protected?
I was somewhat disappointed to see that USA Today's report didn't include hockey, but let's look at an example that should serve as the foundation for this argument. Canada's Gavin McKenna's reported NIL deal with Penn State "is 'in the ballpark' of $700,000, a source tells ESPN." Do you think Abbey Murphy, who was dominant for Team USA in Italy and for Minnesota throughout her NCAA career, has a deal like that waiting for her with the Golden Gophers? Hint: not a chance.
In knowing that this current administration slashed any chance of universities evenly distributing NIL monies, why would anyone expect the NCAA players on America's women's hockey team to show up willingly to the White House when they were turned into a punchline by the current office holder and whose administration has taken money out of their pockets despite the expectations to win gold always being present? The women did the right thing in declining.
They have returned from major events more often with gold. They have worked just as hard, if not harder, than the men to put their sport on the world stage. They have all graduated with or are in the processing of getting university degrees so they can contribute to society in a meaningful way beyond their hockey careers. They are heroes and icons to many, and have inspired countless more. They are pillars on which women's hockey has been built and will grow.
As a Canadian, I hold the American women's hockey team in high regard. They are exceptional players, better people, and I can assure everyone that they are neither afterthoughts nor punchlines for poorly-delivered jokes. Treating them as such shows just how meaningless that statement on National Women and Girls in Sports Day was from this administration, and their actions in making it harder for women to gain NIL deals is more evidence that this administration uses women's sports as pawns in their political games.
If there's one thing I've learned in life when it comes to jokes, it's that it's never just a joke. There's always a little truth in every joke, and it would appear that there's a mountain of evidence proving that this administration doesn't think highly of women's sports despite Team USA's women's hockey team being the most dominant team in modern Olympic history en route to winning a gold medal.
The US women have been classy throughout this ordeal, but declining the invitation was the right choice. No jokes are needed there.
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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