In its 106th season, the NHL is making history by allowing gambling advertising in uniform with new 3′ by 3.5-inch patches on the upper right crest of its beloved jerseys. While many lament the decision to enable uniform advertising and sports betting, cannabis circles should be optimistic that they may soon get some ice time, even if the latest policy may suggest otherwise. In a short amount of time, about as much as a power play, the league has done a complete 180 on its policies with gambling advertising. Cannabis should follow.
Player position
Unlike the NBA, NFL or MLB, the NHL does not take a punitive approach to cannabis. The league is only testing players for cannabis in the context of testing at all levels and providing health and wellness services. They do not suspend, fine or mandatorily send players to treatment for a positive cannabis test; every other league is doing some combination. In 2018, just as Canada legalized cannabis, Edmonton Oilers captain and star player Connor McDavid, one of the league’s brightest and best, voiced his own support for cannabis.
“I say that more on the CBD side, obviously – it would be stupid if it wasn’t at least studied,” the Oilers captain said. “When your body is in pain like it is sometimes, you don’t want to be taking pain stuff and Advil all the time. There are better ways to do it. … You’re seeing a lot of smart guys get into it. You’re seeing that a lot of really smart doctors are looking into it. If all the boxes are ticked there, and it’s safe and all that, then I think you can hear them.”
McDavid’s comments, even five years later, still stand. Hockey is a tough sport, and it’s no secret that players are putting themselves at risk every time they lace up their skates. An anecdotal insider report for SportsNet.ca estimates that 60-70% of players probably use cannabis in some form, and who can blame them? Brett Hull certainly wouldn’t. Along with the former players of St. Louis Blues Barrett Jackman and Kelly Chase, Hull recently opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Missouri and his strain, “Brett Hull #16.”
With Hull bringing a real passion for cannabis, the NHL has no shortage of cannabis connectors. “Everybody else, from (Chase) with his brain injury, and Todd Ewen, and people who have hips and knees replaced and have chronic problems, guys who can’t even play golf because of their back very messed up. Look at this and the facts that have come out that CBD, along with THC, in cannabis can relieve pain. If you can have something like that that relieves pain without taking opioids, it’s worth continuing to study and moving forward Hull said.
And like Ewen, former Detroit Red Wings captain Bob Probert died at age 45 — a brain scan revealed his CTE. Players dying from CTE-related complications isn’t strictly a hockey problem, but it’s bad for business. Cannabis may not be a cure for CTE, but at least there’s reason to think about it.
Simply put, hockey affects a player’s body, and the NHL could be doing more to ensure players know the right information about cannabis. Players are often completely physically exhausted when their playing career ends. In addition, it is not uncommon for former NHLers to develop other health problems, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Although CTE remains a controversial and uncomfortable topic for athletes and athletic administrators, it must be addressed. It’s hard to argue how cannabis wouldn’t have helped these former players in their physical recoveries and, by extension, the quality of their lives. “For every year a person played hockey, there was a 15% greater chance of progressing to a CTE stage.” The NHL has a beautiful sport that they run. They can do the right thing by shaping cannabis responsibly.
Stanley Cup champion Darren McCarty spoke to High Times in 2019, citing his public battle with pills and alcoholism as the catalyst for his connection to cannabis.
“After winning a pair [Stanley] Cups, I had hernia surgery. The Vicodin and the Percocet and all the stuff that fills you up… You know, I tell everybody that addiction is like the walking dead. You feel so much like you’re there in your body, but you can’t get out, and it’s the worst. As an exit strategy, going back to this plant has allowed me to break free from addiction…that’s why I’m such an advocate. Not only did he save my life, but I treated him like one of my hockey buddies and stuck by him.”
Both Hull’s and McCarty’s stories are unique in their particulars, but universal in their relationship. Cannabis is the medical remedy the NHL needs to adopt if they are serious about protecting the health of their players, especially in light of the yet-to-be-defined new variable of sports betting, but then again, maybe they just need the right partners.
Power Play Partners
The NHL’s new ESPN+ package is NHL Power Play. It’s a more elegant attempt to sell the sport, a year after the league teamed up with ESPN and TNT to record success. The NHL clearly has a great product that, when packaged correctly, does numbers. In a seven-figure settlement, NHL leader Elliotte Friedman detailed, “Ottawa became the first team to put a betting company (Bet99) on their helmet ads. The Senators won’t be the last after the NHL opened that door. It’s no wonder Ottawa wasn’t afraid to take that leap. Several years ago, at a league business meeting, owner Eugene Melnyk argued passionately that he was allowed to sell advertising of marijuana/CBD oil after it was legalized. The NHL wasn’t ready for that.”
The NHL has an obvious advantage: More than 90 percent of the league’s 32 clubs are located in places with legal or medical marijuana policies. Also, given their stance on sports betting, they cannot reasonably ban cannabis on any moral grounds. One looks at the media landscape of any chosen sport today, and it’s impossible to avoid a sports betting ad. The gambling and sports betting industry went into exile, having been washed back into society through daily fantasy sports, games of skill, and even gambling tied to sports video games.
The NHL cannot say at this time that cannabis is more of a threat to society than gambling. Eugene Melynk knew it, and others must know it now too. Sports fans are no longer conditioned to just rooting for their favorite local clubs. Still, they are cultivated and groomed into a culture of addiction with ongoing parlay promotions and sign-ups for daily fantasy sports betting.
In a recent Q&A with The Athletic’s Michael Russo and Sean Gentile, the NHL assistant commissioner explained his reasoning for the new gambling-friendly sweater policy:
“We think it’s a very valuable opportunity. Obviously, we had resisted taking this step for a long time. I think the pandemic and ways to incentivize revenue and retain revenue became paramount when we didn’t have fans in the building and we weren’t generating revenue. So it became a much more viable option at the time, and something that our owners accepted when we opened that door. And I think that’s obviously going to be a major revenue driver.”
Isn’t this a double standard? It’s understandable that the NHL wants to avoid having specific brands on their jerseys, but the world of cannabis is global and diverse; the NHL could use more of this.
smoke and mirrors
So is the NHL playing smoke and mirrors in the cannabis world? Probably not, but it’s worth noting that this is the same league that, within a year of introducing a no-play helmet advertising policy, has completely reversed itself. Perhaps then, at least on the surface, the NHL’s new policy and decision to make its collaboration czar a spokesperson through the league’s main media partner, ESPN, feels pointed. Is cannabis coming? Not this season, at least. Keith Wachtel, NHL chief business officer and executive vice president of global partnerships, told ESPN’s Greg Wyshinski:
“The NHL prohibits any jersey patch that advertises alcohol, liquor and beer, tobacco and marijuana products, or anything of a sexual nature. The league also will not allow advertisements for consumer product licenses that may conflict with a partner like Fanatics”.
The good thing about cannabis companies is that, even with Wachtel’s statements, hockey is clearly moving forward with marijuana as long as they find the right partners. For example, the PHPA became the first union of athletes with a cannabis partner. While not the NHLPA, the PHPA represents NHL minor leaguers and indicates a sport that recognizes the benefits that cannabis can provide. So maybe a collaboration between the Los Angeles Kings and LA Kush isn’t as far off as we think. Maybe before cannabis ends up on an official team uniform, it’ll be on the league’s new digital “dashboards.”
The NHL can no longer morally respect cannabis when it actively promotes and profits from sports betting. In fact, active players and franchises can legally consume cannabis and happily accept the permitted checks generated by their name, image and likeness, be it hockey, sports betting and, one day soon, hopefully, join the fray as well for legal and equitable cannabis. .
Crash the network
At this point, sports leagues can no longer ignore betting revenue, and they don’t. In June 2021, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said there would be no uniform advertising in 2022. What happened? Exactly the opposite. In September 2021, the Washington Capitals announced a multi-year deal with Caesar’s Entertainment for an advertising patch on their home jerseys that will begin in the fall of 2022. That’s a literal three-month change, and now, the Vegas Golden Knights they dealt with Circa Sports and the Arizona Coyotes did the same with the Gila River Casino. Players are also signing deals with bookies: McDavid signed with BetMGM, as did Auston Matthews with Bet99.
If by 2022, a time when international sportsbooks, casinos and multi-state gambling corporations are allowed to buy major league sports uniform advertising, there’s no reason to believe that cannabis won’t will do it soon MLB also just made a deal with Charlotte’s Web. For now, cannabis may still be a bit stuck in the penalty box, but a power play is coming.
