The U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic hockey teams both defeating Canada in overtime to win the gold medal should have been a joyous moment for the country. However, too many in the sports media have decided that it is their life’s mission to ruin this great moment by trashing the men’s team for not joining the left’s anti-Trump jihad. The source for this ginned-up controversy was a post-game phone call with Trump where he said, “We’re gonna have to bring the women's team. You do know that, right?” and if he didn't, “I do believe I would probably be impeached, okay?” The fact that the players cheered the idea of sharing the spotlight with the women has been conveniently ignored. The Athletic, which is owned by The New York Times, columnist Jerry Brewer penned an article entitled The U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team won the gold—and then lost the room. Based off of NHL pre-game videos, that isn’t true. Nevertheless, Brewer alleged, “In the immediate aftermath of their victory, the team took a customary, congratulatory call from President Donald Trump, and some players laughed at a misogynistic joke about the gold-winning women’s hockey team that many Americans wouldn’t find funny.” Brewer also condemned them for meeting with Trump, “This isn’t a neutral climate. This isn’t a neutral president. And in a nation this polarized, the proximity carries weight whether the players are being intentional or merely naive. America no longer experiences these rituals in the same way, and it may never again. Athletes would be wise to recognize that, in this climate, celebration is easily repurposed into political capital.” He added, “They misread the moment. In our current state, there is no such thing as incidental symbolism. The images and associations matter. They’re almost as powerful as the accomplishment that led to them. Within 48 hours, their celebration drifted into a partisan orbit, and the unity thinned.” In The Minnesota Star Tribune, sports editor Jim Souhan wrote under the headline: Olympic men’s hockey team allowed itself to be used by Donald Trump. Souhan huffed, “When men do something stupid or disgusting, men should call them out. So let’s welcome home the members of the Wild who performed so well in helping the United States men win their first Olympic gold medal since 1980. That 1980 team is still reaping the benefits of their historic victory. The 2026 team won’t be remembered as kindly by many of us.”  “Their team leaders allowed Kash Patel, FBI director and part of an administration that sent masked thugs to Minnesota to terrorize us, to celebrate in their locker room. President Donald Trump told them on the phone that if he invited the men’s team to the White House, “We’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” as if doing so would dishonor the White House. Most of the men laughed. Because misogyny is so funny.” Souhan also tried to see hidden messages in the women’s team declining to attend the State of the Union due to logistical reasons, “The men allowed themselves to be paraded around as supporters of someone who gave the women every reason to decline their invitation.” Brewer’s Athletic colleagues Aaron Portzline and Mark Lazerus went after NewsBusters’s Curtis Houck on X for objecting to the efforts to drive a wedge between the teams with Portzline telling Curtis, “Hounding? Groveling? You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about” and Lazerus backing him up, “Oh, no, the fine journalists at checks notes NewsBusters are after you, Porty!”  Former ESPN personality Dan LeBatard told his podcast audience, “As long as the players realize that this is an immensely unpopular president with half of the nation and so going to this as a willing pawn is controversial, and as long as they realize that and accept it, then I’m all for it. The USA hockey players may not realize the political mess they're involving themselves in pic.twitter.com/A8rrv3yBih — Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) February 24, 2026  Another former ESPN personality, Keith Olbermann, posted on X, “It's official: US Gold Winning Olympic Hockey team declined invitation to be political props for Trump at the SOTU tomorrow. The women, that is. The men are still too stupid, self-absorbed and misogynistic to realize that going, will stick to them permanently.”  Then there were former members of the women’s soccer team. Megan Rapinoe told her A Touch More podcast audience that “In what I like to call a classic 'ripping defeat from the jaws of victory,' the United States men's hockey team, in their utter moment of glory, childhood dreams come true, sensational, ruined it for themselves. They allowed themselves to be co-opted by a clown. And now you're a clown. You look like a clown."  Rapinoe also took the opportunity to do some self-promotion, saying of Trump “He is using you to do something else. We had this opportunity after 2019 and I said, famously, didn't realize it was on the record, that we would not go to the White House.” Former teammate Abby Wambach and former Team USA midfielder Julie Foudy demanded on their podcast that they be allowed to lecture the men on their allegedly sexist behavior, “Stop laughing. Don't laugh and just, I don't know, knock it all the fucking way off."         View this post on Instagram                         It should be noted that the women’s team has largely rejected this attempt by journalists to white knight for them. They understand the mindset of someone who just won a gold medal after a hard-fought game is not the same as a sports writer trying to pass as a culture warrior.