PK Subban Says Athletes 'Don't Need To Be Activists' As NHL Pride Night Debate Continues

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Several NHL players, and multiple teams around the league, have chosen not to participate in Pride Night festivities this season. This has not only sent the liberal media mob into a frenzy but has even pushed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman into hinting that the league may cancel Pride Night events moving forward.

Former NHL star PK Subban recently shared his opinion about the ongoing topic of debate. He shares the same opinion as others who possess common sense that forcing players into wearing a Pride jersey isn't the way to go about things.

"We cannot push everyone to be an activist, we need to be very careful," Subban told Reuters. "I feel people pick and choose what they want to talk about and I don't like it when we put the onus on athletes to be activists."

"They don't need to be activists," he continued. "I'm not saying it is right or wrong to wear the (Pride) jersey, we have just got to be very careful how we push players to do things."

"You can support the LGBTQ community without having to wear a hat, a T-shirt or a jersey."

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman could get rid of Pride Nights around the league in the future. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

While the oh-so-tolerable liberals in the media will disagree with Subban, it's hard to argue with his opinion. Players making the personal choice to wear pride jerseys or wrap their stick with rainbow-colored tape should be just that, a personal choice.

Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov was the first player this season to decide not to participate in his team’s Pride Night due to his religious beliefs.

Other players including brothers Marc and Eric Staal of the Florida Panthers also refused to participate in Pride Night while the Minnesota Wild, New York Islanders, and New York Rangers decided not to wear previously planned Pride-themed jerseys earlier this season.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.