Team USA Goalie Mask Fiasco
Tweet Posted by Mother Pucker on February 16th, 2010
Well for whatever reason, the IOC is forcing Team USA goaltenders Ryan Miller and Jonathan Quick to remove slogans from the back of their helmets. Ok there is a reason… the IOC’s rule #51 bans and kind of advertising, demonstrations and propaganda. What? They’re trying to keep politics out of the Olympics?
Ok I’m sure that Miller isn’t deliberately advertising Miller Light or whatever kind of beer is associated to the Miller Time slogan, but I guess he is gonna have to remove it. Miller also has to remove Matt Man which is a tribute to his cousin that passed away due to cancer. Miller has apparently shrugged off the first one, but is likely going to dispute having to take off the second one.
Quick on the other hand has Support Our Troops, and that also needs to be removed. If it’s going to be such a problem, just paint it all on backwards. Spoort Ruo Troppus just sounds like nonsense to me and should be ok, right IOC?
Regardless, those helmets look pretty sweet. Hope they don’t have to eff them up too badly to get all those controversial slogans off of there.

this is similar to why most countries had to re-design their olympic hockey jerseys. You cant have a logo with the country name like USA and Canada had in the past. It also makes sense that you can’t write on your uniform.
Maybe it’s just me, but I fail to see where advertising, demonstrations and/or propaganda exists on these helmets.
The IOC should think long and hard about which country goes above and beyond the call of duty to keep safe the other 81 country’s that are participating in the Olympic games…
…and who all should be a little more supportive of OUR TROOPS!
I understand keeping politics out of it, but soon they will ban the US flag lol. A little over the top.
It’s not so much that they have the slogans/logos on the helmets, but that they didn’t get them approved BEFORE the Olympics. The Canadian Women’s goalie Shannon Szabado has a memorial/cancer survivor design on the back of her helmet, but she went through and got it approved by the IOC.
It makes sense that the IOC restricts logos and slogans, it seems ridiculous to us as the US Men’s team isn’t promoting anything out of the ordinary for us, but can you imagine slogans coming from other marginalized groups that some athletes might support? What if they allowed Nazi or Communist slogans? Or support for military/religious groups such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda or the Tamil Tigers? What they do for one person/country can arguably be done for others, so it’s better for them to be strict and err on the side of caution don’t you think?
Comparing a cancer memorial, and political propoganda, simply shows the ridiculous nature of things. They are not even in the same ball park!!! Grow UP people!
It is the same thing when it’s a slogan. What’s the difference between, support the troops, and support our cancer survivors? If this had happened if all goalies went to get their masks approved, then it should be a problem. Bit the ladies goalie got hers approved, and miller ands quick didn’t.
I think its ridiculous to ban these things. Apparently the IOC doesn’t believe in individualism. The American flag is a symbol of hope to many countries, is the IOC going to ban that next, because we couldn’t possibly have that kind of propaganda in the Olympics. I say they should be allowed to keep it. If another country doesn’t like it then here’s an idea, don’t watch the American goalie: )
The IOC approving Shannon Szabados’ doesn’t have anything to do with her being Canadian does? ‘Matt Man’ was in tribute of Ryan’s cousin who was lost to cancer, yet the IOC wouldn’t let Ryan have that.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by motherpucker: Team USA goalie mask fiasco. Apparently you can’t just write whatever you want on your helmet? http://bit.ly/apfnzh #van2010 #hockey #nhl…
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