Sarah Spain rips U.S. men’s hockey team for reaction to Trump joke: ‘Don’t word salad this sh*t’

The Donald Trump administration’s embrace of the U.S. men’s hockey team this week has turned a historic, unifying sports moment into a political controversy. And on Wednesday, iHeartMedia sports commentator Sarah Spain put out perhaps the most powerful rebuke of the men’s team yet.

While celebrating their win in the locker room on Sunday in Italy, the team welcomed FBI Director Kash Patel into its ranks. After downing a beer and soaking in the champagne, Patel phoned President Donald Trump, who lauded the hockey stars and invited them to Washington, D.C., for Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

Trump added an off-hand comment that he would have to invite the women’s team, or else be impeached by Democrats. The quip fell flat among sports fans online. Players on the men’s team also largely avoided addressing the controversy this week.

In a video posted to her social media accounts, Spain drew a parallel between the love the men’s team showed for the women’s team publicly and how it made the “misogynistic” comments seem acceptable on Sunday. The former ESPN commentator ripped the men’s team players for leaning into outdated stereotypes and taking the easy way out rather than taking a stand for their fellow hockey stars on the women’s team.

Going a step further, Spain compared the men’s team stars to newborn puppies who “hump Trump’s leg” and accused them of stabbing their counterparts on the women’s team in the back.

“We’re watching them hug their wives, we know they’re thanking their mothers for enrolling them in youth hockey, for driving them to practice, for washing and schlepping their gear, managing their schedules, wiping their tears, and in some cases … teaching them how to play the game,” Spain said. “And they’re doing that while simultaneously supporting a man who is actively trying to strip (women’s) rights and reverse their progress.”

Spain noted that the relationship between the men’s team and women’s team was a strong model for most of the Olympics. The camaraderie and support the men showed publicly for the women was uncommonly strong.

Yet Spain said that by laughing along with the president’s insulting language toward them, the men’s team lost the benefit of the doubt.

“That stuff doesn’t matter if no one stands up for those same women when they’re being sh*t on,” Spain explained. “Are you showing up when it’s tough? Are you speaking up when no one else is? Are you pushing back on the same, tired misogynistic bullsh*t that has plagued sports for the entirety of their existence? Or are you laughing? Are you laughing at the very same women who you just claimed to support?”

While Spain acknowledged the difficulties of directly criticizing Patel or Trump in the moment, she believes it would have gone a long way for the men’s team stars to simply not laugh. Even if they did not want to speak up in the locker room, the players have also been given numerous opportunities to set the record straight in media appearances this week.

Spain, who hosts the Good Game podcast and oversees the iHeart Women’s Sports Network, said it is the least the women’s team deserves given that they are under-supported despite winning gold more regularly than the men — and still “get sh*t on by their president.”

Spain also ripped the men for going along with the State of the Union invite, saying the team was laughing “at the women who have spines to say no to that White House invite while you hump Trump’s leg.”

Some have argued the joke was harmless, or even that the political ramifications of the administration co-opting the celebration were far more damning than Trump’s comment. But Spain believes the bar needs to be raised:

“I’m kind of f*cking over giving people excuses. Don’t word-salad this sh*t. Defend your team. Say something. You don’t have to be insulting or dramatic about it, you can just say the women deserved better.”