#6 - Shea Weber and Erik Johnson feel the Lovejoy

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This is the sixth post of Deke Dangle RPF Anon, a community for all your ice hockey anon meme needs.

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Comments

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

Nope, nobody. The NFL and MLB have a bunch each, for sure, but there's never been an out NHL-er, former or otherwise.

For some reason fandom's favorite player to use in fic as "first retired guy to come out" is Paul Kariya, but even if he was gay (and I have no idea if he is or isn't, obviously), he seems like the last human being on earth to make a voluntary major announcement about his personal life, so I've always found that fanon weird.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

People like him and he's one of the few older guys who has never married.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

And don't forget his epic bromance with Teemu.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Oh, believe me, I am ALL about his bromance with Teemu, and I'm both a Paul fan and a Paul/Teemu shipper. I think it's BECAUSE of that that the fanon has always seemed weird to me, though. The fics that do what I mentioned don't tend to mention Teemu at all, and seem to imply that Paul would voluntarily make a coming out announcement. This is a guy who used to scope out hotel exits in case he needed to escape from fans and needs to be dragged kicking and screaming to a hockey game these days. I can't imagine him doing anything voluntarily that would throw him back into the crosshairs of the hockey press. So, IDK, I get the reasons people do it, I just think there are other retired players whose personalities would be better suited to that plot point.

Now, being accidentally/surprise outed is another story -- and that is another story I would love to read, if someone wrote it.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I agree. He definitely wants to stay out of the public eye.

Let's think of who the new fanon 'first retired player out' should be. Who's another relatively well-known 90s-era retired bachelor?

Would read that story too! Although I don't know how a 'realistic' story could deal with his dynamic with Teemu to my liking - their dynamic does seem almost OTT like a love story, but 'gay dude in love with his straight best friend' is a bit cliché, and in reality of course Teemu has an adorable family. I don't at all tinhat then, but nowadays, in different cultural context and with the internet, I wonder if they would have been a bit more guarded when speaking to the media.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

Well, when the heat death of the universe arrives and Jagr finally decides to retire, he could be an interesting option for the 'retired player comes out' plotline.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

+1 I just prompted this on the kink meme the other day, though I didn't specify his retirement coming first.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

Jagr was my first thought, too. And he's never married, has he?

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

Nope. He's talked about how his dedication to hockey wouldn't be fair to a spouse.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

Also he's apparently pretty religious and Easter Orthodox churches frown on anything except church-married monogamous baby-making heterosexuality.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

da

yeah he definitely seems like a virgin *eyeroll*

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

+1

He takes his religion pretty seriously, but what that means none of us have any idea except that he tries to go to church every day.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

DA

He also apparently didn't become really religious, though, until he played in the KHL. So who knows how his behavior changed.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Dude, I'm talking about deliberately going up against the official stance of the Church by coming out. How likely is he to do that when he's gone on record about his faith being so important to him?

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm still trying to think of unmarried retired players, but it's hard!

As for the fic idea, I agree -- Teemu throws a wrench into any gay Paul story. I mean, I am kind of into unrequited love stories, but I don't think I'd want to go that way here. It would be interesting to see them outed as a couple in a world where Teemu isn't married, but in this universe any relationship would involve some kind of poly with Sirpa, and no athlete is going to come out as queer AND poly in this day and age.

I would actually kind of love a fic where Paul is gay and he and Teemu love each other very much, but platonically. And when Paul is outed Teemu is his biggest guard dog/defender, and he doesn't see why anyone should question their closeness, because he loves his friend and he's always known this about him and why should it matter? And then Teemu happily meddles in Paul's love life, because according to his documentary that is legit what Teemu does to his friends.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

I know! Of 90s and earlier I really only know about the superstars, anyway.

Yep, I'm with you. I would love it if someone wrote that kind of fic.

Someone else (or maybe you?) brought up Jagr, and I had actually thought of him as potential fanon guy just cause he's an older bachelor. But aside from all the stuff about how he is apparently quite religious, I just have a hard time imagining it for some reason.

Imagine if he is gay and did come out though, that'd be incredible! Someone that good, such a key NHLer, a super 'masculine' type, etc - the haters wouldn't know what to say.

Like M&W said, "And I really hope that it is one of those players that everybody, or most traditional sports fans look at say, he’s the guy’s guy, he’s that guy’s hockey player. I really hope it’s someone like that. That becomes the first, the one that’s almost teflon to criticism. I hope it’s that kind of guy."

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

DA

When you called Jagr super masculine, all I could see was:

i31.photobucket.com/albums/c362/pittblogger/subalbum1/jagr.jpg

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

Haha I forgot about that picture. Jags is working it.

In general though, definitely a "guy's guy" kind of player.

Not really related but I just remembered the pitchfork photo ... classic Jagr moment. http://img.reflex.cz/static/old_reflex/imgdb/original/phpfYDWtH.jpg

Hertl's recreation of it was pretty cool too. http://isport.blesk.cz/clanek/hokej/171196/goly-i-vidle-supertalent-hertl-se-fotil-jako-jagr-s-veresovou.html

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

da

omg gay!Paul and his platonic BFF Teemu would be fantastic.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

You were not the "AYRT" there.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

I was the nonnie who first brought up Paul Kariya. Since the second comment was building upon yours (I presume) in response to mine, I figured that was the anon identifier that made the most sense. Sorry if that was unclear -- no deception intended.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt

"anon the ayrt was rt" is a good formulation for this circumstance, or da (different anon from same thread). literally any indicator would have been better than the one in which you said you were someone you weren't (I mean it's obviously not a big deal in this situation but ... try ... not to explicitly identify as someone you're not ...)

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

Like I said, I thought it was pretty clear that anon *was* responding directly to me in chiming in (it was essentially, "Yes, and also this, in response to your question!"), and I think the context of my comment made it pretty clear who I was, since I was directly referring to my confusion about the fannish trope.

But this is my first real experience with an anon space, and I apparently haven't internalized all the intricacies yet. I'm sorry for the confusion, but I promise I was in no way trying to claim I was someone I wasn't.

Re: How will things go for the first out NHL player?

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

well, just so you know for the future, "ayrt" stands for "anon you are replying to". It doesn't mean like an abstract concept of the anon you're replying to, it means, specifically, the anon you're replying to. Even with all the context in the world, it's still very confusing if you use it with a different meaning, so.