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Ivan Provorov’s Jerseys Sell Out Online After He Opted Out of ‘Pride’ Event

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov caused a stir earlier this week when he decided not to take part in a pre-game “Pride Night” event, citing his religious convictions while also recognizing that he respects all viewpoints on the issue.

Though he was ripped in the left-leaning sports media, Provorov was nevertheless rewarded, in a manner of speaking, by fans who flocked to online sales venues to buy up his jersey. According to Outkick, as of Thursday morning, “Provy’s” number 9 men’s jersey was nearly sold out on both the NHL fan shop and Fanatics, with only the XS size available at the time.

The run on his jerseys began after the defenseman, citing his Russian Orthodox religion, which is a form of Christianity explained and without fanfare or elaboration to reporters after the game that he chose not to participate in a show of support for the “LGBTQ+ community” due to his religious beliefs and convictions.

A pregame skate included players donning Pride-themed jerseys displaying their names in rainbow colors while holding hockey sticks that were wrapped in rainbow-colored tape.

“I respect everybody and I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion,” Provorov told reporters following the game while explaining no further.

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When pressed, he insisted, “That’s all I’m gonna comment on that. If you have any hockey questions, I would answer those.”

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Despite winning plaudits from fans and a show of support from Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella, several in the sports media ripped into the defenseman for his stance, with one — Breakfast Television’s Sid Seixeiro — even suggesting that the Flyers should be fined as much as $1 million for his action.

“The theme from the National Hockey League is that hockey is for everyone, ok? The theme isn’t hockey is for everyone dot, dot, dot unless you don’t believe in gay rights, then do whatever you want,” Seixeiro added. “If the National Hockey League is going to do this, if any league is going to do this, do it properly or reevaluate what you’re doing because there’s not a lot of repercussions that I’m seeing from any league.

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“The National Hockey League needs to attack this and figure this out because what I heard last night was offensive and didn’t make any sense,” he went on to say. “Nothing scares me more than any human being who says I’m not doing this because of my religious beliefs. Because when you look at people’s lives who normally say that publicly, you’d throw up at what you saw. You would throw up at what you saw. And I’ve seen that a million times in a lot of different ways. So don’t give me that. With respect, don’t gimme that, because no one’s perfect. Don’t feed me the religious beliefs line and all of a sudden the NHL is going to back off this.”

“Ivan Provorov was allowed to play in a game for the Philadelphia Flyers – the organization that was the first to say that you will be removed from the arena if you utter a homophobic slur – after refusing to wear a Pride logo for warm ups,” SB Nation NHL Editorial Director Steph Driver tweeted. “What an absolute disgrace.”

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Fox News added:

Other users, however, ripped the critics.

“You’re mad because you want to force someone to wear something he doesn’t want to wear. If you look throughout history, the good guys never made those demands. Stalin and Mao would be proud,” one user said in response to Driver.

“The cancelling is weak in this one,” said another.

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“Please shut up,” added another user.

“Not wearing a jersey IS NOT a slur of ANY KIND! Why not be tolerant of his beliefs. You’re tolerant of everyone else’s. Or does freedom of religion not apply when it comes to the LGBTQ agenda?” another user added.

A user responded to that comment with some snark: “Your problem is you don’t know the new definition of tolerance. Tolerance no longer means silent grace, tolerance means vociferous affirmation of a progressive project. And by the way, it’s not a two way street.”

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