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Brock Weston recognized a bit of his own past while watching Heated Rivalry, the hit show and pop culture sensation about two professional hockey players who are also secret lovers.
“Some of the nuanced things that you do to brush off questions or avoid answering … it’s like, OK, that was weirdly real, how you kind of hide it,” Weston said in an interview this week.
“Playing as a gay man, especially through my last couple of years of college, obviously made the show hit a little closer to home.”
Weston, a University of Saskatchewan medical school graduate currently doing a family medicine residency in Calgary, is a fan of the books Heated Rivalry is based on, and happy to see it blow up in mainstream pop culture.
Raised on a farm near Maidstone, Sask., he played hockey from an early age and was eventually recruited to play for the Marian University Sabres in Wisconsin. In his junior year, Weston was dating a man, but kept it a secret from everyone on the team except his roommate.
That season, rumours circulated and teammates made subtle digs at Weston’s sexuality. In April 2019, he called a team meeting, told them he is gay and expressed how much their words hurt.
He expected some negative reactions, but found overwhelming support and was embraced in a team hug.
“It was freeing,” Weston said. “I didn’t have to kind of live with that lingering in the background. I could actually talk about my partner and not as ‘just my friend’ or feel ashamed that I was seeing a man that I really cared about.”
The man he was seeing at the time? They got married in August.
Culture change
Hockey Saskatchewan culture and inclusion manager Faye Matt hopes Heated Rivalry influences people to think about diversity in sports.
“Maybe folks thought there was only one way to be a hockey player, and with shows like this, it shines a light and gets people thinking about the many ways that people can be an athlete,” Matt said in an interview.
“Being an athlete is enjoying a game and finding joy in a sport.”
Matt said Hockey Saskatchewan runs several initiatives aimed at diversity and gender issues in sports as well as providing education for coaches and referees.
“When we see things like homophobia, even racism and sexism in hockey, it’s often [not overt], but all those little comments, ways of thinking, intentions combine together to shape something that doesn’t feel welcoming for folks who don’t see themselves in that space,” Matt said.
“What are the messages that are being upheld in dressing rooms, in team dynamics that aren’t open to everyone who wants to be part of the game, even those who are already in it?”
Weston, 30, said queer representation on TV is important if only to show people what’s possible in their own lives.
“I had known something was different related to my sexuality, but I wasn’t really confident for a lot of years,” Weston said. “I think a lot of that was because it wasn’t OK to be gay in hockey and where I was from there wasn’t anyone that I really knew that was.”
Heated Rivalry is adapted from the Game Changers book series by Nova Scotia author Rachel Reid. Weston is a fan of both for their realistic depictions of gay romance and intimacy.
Weston said he credits the actors for making the show feel authentic and appreciates details like “some of the intimate scenes with facial expressions, the small movements, or when they’re in public settings and how the kind of need and desire and everything is portrayed in their faces.”
Game changer
Canadian streamer Crave revealed that Heated Rivalry became its most-watched original series debut within the first week of its release, and renewed the show for a second season.
Weston pointed to recent stories about a former hockey player coming out after watching Heated Rivalry and one of the actors pushing the NHL to embrace the show and its message as real-world effects of the show.
Actor François Arnaud, who plays Scott Hunter on the show, said he wants the league to do more to promote actual diversity on the ice rather than using it solely for social media memes and other marketing.
In 2023, the NHL banned players from using rainbow-coloured tape on their sticks, a move the league reversed during the season.
Weston said it’s frustrating to know about the NHL’s tepid support for 2SLGBTQ+ people over the years and see teams reference the show online or during games and sell Heated Rivalry themed merchandise.
“I think it would be very unethical and potentially harmful to use [Heated Rivalry] as a marketing tool without having any good support behind it,” Weston said.
“But with that said, I am obviously hopeful because the show itself is great and it has made a lot more people aware and it’s put it out into mainstream media. I’m hopeful that it does kind of turn around the mindset a little bit.”
