Even after all the success from both the men’s and women’s Team USA hockey squads winning gold medals, there is still tension in the hockey world with what happened after the celebrations.
Both teams were invited by President Donald Trump to the White House to attend the State of the Union address, however only the men’s team accepted.
To joke or not to joke?
“Trump said, ‘I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,’ adding jokingly that if he didn’t also invite the women’s team, “I do believe I probably would be impeached,” according to ESPN.com.
The men’s team laughed at the joke and accepted the invitation. The women’s team declined due to scheduling conflicts, but that’s not how the public took it. Fans thought the women’s team declined due to Trump’s comment according to NBC.com.
Hughe-nited States of America
The Hughes brothers, Jack and Quinn, are two of the players from the men’s team who had to apologize for finding the joke funny. People are often negative and usually don’t interpret things in the way they were meant to. And of course, questions about their behavior were brought up in multiple interviews.
“I’m glad you mentioned the women’s team again; we’re extremely happy for them. There’s a lot going on with social media right now surrounding our team and their team. But in the last couple of summers, we did a lot of training with them and got to know a lot of those girls really well,” Quinn Hughes said, according to ESPN.com.
Saturday Knight Live
The Hughes brothers appeared alongside two women’s players, Hilary Knight and Megan Keller, on SNL Feb. 28. They all showed out donning USA jerseys and gold medals.
The women’s players joined the brothers on stage, with Knight cracking the joke, “It was going to be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys too,” according to ESPN.com.
This showed that the tension between the two teams was manufactured by social media and that they are always cheering for each other. Sports should bring us together, not tear us apart. And every now and then a little joke won’t hurt.
Schlösser is the sports editor for the Liberty Champion.