Come on, ref, play nice. Graphic by Piper Bailey.
PIPER BAILEY | MANAGING EDITOR | pcbailey1@butler.edu
Overtime, or “OT,” is an opinion column series where The Collegian takes national sports headlines or polarizing topics and gives them a Butler-centric angle.
With modern media like “Heated Rivalry” bringing hockey into the limelight in Dec. 2025, the sport has never been more popular, drawing viewership across the globe from a variety of backgrounds.
This year’s Winter Olympics proved this, with the gold medal men’s hockey game on Feb. 22 hitting over 26 million fans watching from the United States. By the end of the game, around 35 million North Americans witnessed forward Jack Hughes score the overtime winning goal against Canada and secure the U.S. men’s team its first gold medal in the sport since 1980.
The victory was not alone, as the U.S’ women’s hockey team saw defender Megan Keller score their own overtime gold medal-winning goal against Canada three days earlier.
However, celebrations of the record-breaking teams were cut short after President Donald Trump called FBI Director Kash Patel in the men’s locker room after the game. The call was recorded and meant to congratulate the team on their win, but ended up tearing down the women’s team in the process.
“I must tell you,” President Trump said in the video. “We’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that … I do believe I probably would be impeached.”
Eva Hallman, a senior journalism and strategic communications double major, is the Indy Fuel’s first woman color commentator and its social media manager. Hallman watched almost every game played by both teams this winter and was severely disappointed in the men’s reaction.
“It was really frustrating because it’s that rhetoric time and time again, where women [can] be [extremely] successful, and men will still tear them down,” Hallman said. “To see NHL players who also won gold discredit the women’s team — who, honestly, did better than them — is really disheartening to see.”
The President extended invitations to both the men’s and women’s rosters, yet five of the men’s players and the entirety of the women’s team declined. Those who chose not to attend made statements allocating their lack of presence to scheduling conflicts, missing their families and needing rest before pushing towards the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs this summer.
Sophomore exploratory studies major Abby Huening grew up playing both co-ed and all-girls hockey before deciding to retire when she came to Butler last year. Huening stressed the importance of the women declining the invitation, no matter the reason.
“I’m proud of them for [rejecting the offer],” Huening said. “It’s a big honor to be able to meet with the President of the United States, [but] after the blatant disrespect that he gave to them, I’m happy that they stood up for themselves and just rejected [it].”
The media took the men’s reaction to the President’s joke and framed it as a slight by the men towards the other team. This incited outrage from thousands of fans online and led to many players making statements.
While their apologies were sincere, they were not the players that most fans wanted answers from.
Jack and his brother, defenseman Quinn Hughes, are two of three brothers who play in the NHL and were caught in the video laughing at the joke. Many fans consider the men to be the NHL’s “golden boys” and were deeply discouraged by their reactions. Jack has since made multiple comments since the video was published, downplaying the team’s reaction.
Another factor is their mother, Ellen, who has been a player development consultant for the USA Women’s National Team since Oct. 2023 and was an All-Star player in the ‘90s.
“You’re discrediting all of the effort that your mom has done,” Hallman said. “Your mom paved the way for you to be an NHL player. She’s paving the way for women to be professional hockey players and you’re laughing at [that] joke.”
In the days following, many media outlets were more focused on players addressing the joke than their victories or the camaraderie the teams shared. Forward Hilary Knight, the captain of the USA women’s hockey team, made multiple statements about shifting the attention away from the debacle.
“I think there’s a genuine level of support there and respect,” Knight said. “I think that’s being overshadowed by a quick lapse. I think the guys were in a tough spot, so I think it’s a shame this storyline and narrative [have] kind of blown up and [is] overshadowing that connection and genuine interest in one another and cheering each other on.”
Knight emphasized in a separate interview that she disagreed with the meaning behind the call.
“I thought the call in itself was distasteful and an awesome learning moment to refocus the narrative and understand our words matter, and how we speak about women matters and we need to celebrate this team,” Knight said.
Ginny Weykamp, a sophomore psychology and sociology-anthropology double major and fan of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, respects Knight’s responses to the media.
“I really admire Hilary Knight, and I think that was a really good thing to say, especially because for about two days after their win, that’s all everyone was talking about,” Weykamp said. “The women’s team was absolutely amazing, and they were so incredibly fun to watch. I think that should still be the focus, rather than misogynistic comments that should have never happened and need to be dealt with.”
Despite many being passionate about the controversial moment, there are some fans who see it as little more than a blip in the sport’s history.
Junior sports media major A.J. Marcinko is a fan of the Buffalo Sabres — a team that holds the record for the longest playoff drought — and believes that as a country, we are losing sight of what really matters.
“I’m not used to [seeing a hockey team I am rooting for win],” Marcinko said. “So seeing both succeed [is good for the sport]. I think it’s something [where] I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna forget about it in about a month’, and I’m [going to] continue watching both. It’s hockey.”
On Feb. 27, “Heated Rivalry” star Connor Storrie hosted “SNL”, and Jack and Quinn were rumored to make a guest appearance at the end of the show. The players received backlash because fans took it as a PR stunt meant to fix the brothers’ images. Many found that including athletes who were publicly shamed for laughing at a misogynistic joke would detract from the emphasis of having a star of a LGBTQ+ show host.
To allegedly combat this theory, Keller and Knight were also invited to make appearances and have the segment be about both Olympic teams’ wins. Knight opened the segment by making a joke about being forced to invite representatives from the men’s team, seemingly clearing the air around the previous week’s joke.
Condoning the suppression of historically marginalized groups in sports and blatant misogyny is not acceptable, and neither is Americans completely overshadowing the purpose of the Olympics — to unite the country — and, once again, letting political figures ruin a magical moment for our nation.
The phone call should never have happened — who knows why the Director of the FBI was even in the locker room — but there is nothing that can be done to change it. Time would have been better spent focusing on the celebrations to follow and not allowing 120 seconds of ignorance to ruin the life-long determination and dedication of those athletes.
Moving forward, both hockey fans and affiliates themselves need to realize the impact their actions have on the sport. Hockey culture is slowly shifting to become more inclusive for the first time in decades, and allowing this moment to set it back would be a complete waste of an opportunity.
