The NBA and NFL should take notes from the NHL on how to handle player conduct and discipline measures.
Part of the NHL’s overall appeal is that the league sets rules and regulations for how players should carry themselves, and will enforce them without exception. As a result, players and coaches do not make a habit of acting like divas. They don’t routinely complain to referees, don’t often engage in petty beefs, and usually keep themselves out of trouble off the ice.
A perfect example of how this cycle of accountability works can be seen in how the league dealt with two violations from one of the NHL’s top teams. The Toronto Maples Leafs scheduled a flight on December 26 to get to St. Louis for a game against the Blues. However, in doing so, the team violated a provision listed out in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that prevents team activities from December 24 to December 26, giving players some mandatory holiday rest.
The punishment? A $100,000 fine.
But that wasn’t the only violation the Leafs committed on that road trip. Head coach Sheldon Keefe got heated with officials at two different points during the matchup with St. Louis, which the league did not like.
his name is Sheldon Keefe and he's not pleased pic.twitter.com/8plZNdGypU
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 28, 2022
As such, Keefe now has to write the league a $25,000 check for losing his cool behind the bench. Fortunately for Keefe, his side still ended up winning, 5-4 in overtime.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe fined $25,000: https://t.co/xm2lOLcoYG pic.twitter.com/EurnoGUIjg
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 28, 2022
How the league handles discipline might be seen as harsh, but it yields an atmosphere where there is a healthy balance of respect, accountability, and admirable behavior from most people in the league.
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However, the NBA and NFL seem to not get the memo in this area.
The NBA lets players and coaches go on far worse tirades toward officials, and then often only punishes them with a technical foul in game. Furthermore, the league lets players who traffic drugs still earn millions, creating a bizarre player behavior standard that feeds the cycle of entitlement and childish antics that have become synonymous with NBA basketball.
The NFL is no better. Players and coaches ostracized Alejandro Villanueva, a player who wanted to stand for the National Anthem in 2017, yet gladly celebrated Josh Gordon, a guy who has earned five drug suspensions during his career. Also, the league decided to punish Tom Brady with a $1 million fine and a four-game suspension for a football air pressure violation it couldn’t definitively prove, but let Deshaun Watson, a guy with over 20 sexual assault charges, return after 11 games.
If the NBA and NFL want more people to take its products more seriously, maybe it should look at how the NHL operates. Until then, both leagues will be looked at as laughingstocks.