“You Just Roll with the Punches”: The Production of Ignorance in Professional Ice Hockey

Various forms of violence are arguably part of the playing culture of ice hockey. Consequently, hockey players assume many risks of injury simply by participating in the game. As players make their way up the professional ranks, they generally assume a greater risk of serious injury, including the risk of career-ending head trauma. In this article, I explore the ways in which consent is constructed in hockey. I draw on the sociology of consent (Weinberg in Consensual Violence: Sex, Sports, and the Politics of Injury, University of California Press, Oakland, California, 2016; Channon and Matthews in International Review for the Sociology of Sport 0 (0):1–19, 2021) to theorize consent and examine the ways in which consent is implied and largely manufactured in hockey. Drawing on interviews with elite hockey players (n = 15), I examine the many power relations in play that support three primary findings: (1) players are generally willfully blind as to the consequences of playing this violent game; (2) team management, coaches, doctors, and trainers often prioritize winning over the health of their players; and (3) the normalization and glorification of violence in the game contribute to players not fully realizing the extent of their exploitation. While a few players have opted to quit the sport after realizing the extent of the harm being done to them, the majority of players find it is easier to live in ignorance while sacrificing their bodies for the dream of making it to the National Hockey League.