On Saturday night, Tampa Bay’s JT Brown stood for the national anthem as he always had.
But this time, he raised his fist, and stood quietly, silently, dignified as the anthem played.
In the process, in that dim Florida arena darkness, he started a process that brought the NHL’s hypocrisy over politics into sharp focus and exposed the latent racism and bias that exists in hockey and the NHL for what it is.
Let’s get this straight, here and now.
JT Brown is not a “troublemaker”, nor is he a “privileged athlete showing ungratefulness” for being in his position.