Former professional hockey player and Heated Rivalry actor Harrison Browne has spoken out against the USA Men’s hockey team for becoming buddy-buddy with Donald Trump in the aftermath of their historic gold medal victory.

“The USA men’s hockey team won the Olympic gold medal, and as a Canadian, obviously that hurt,” Browne, who also made history as the first out transgender professional hockey player, said in a video posted to social media. “But for me, as soon as that goal went in, I was like, great, Trump is going to make this his moment. Little did I know that USA Hockey would be the ones facilitating this.”

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He first discussed what he referred to as the “disturbing” videos of FBI director Kash Patel celebrating with the team in the locker room after the game. Patel can be seen downing beers and jumping up and down, partying with his arms around the players. MAGA has praised the moment as a grand display of masculinity.

On the left, many slammed Patel for using an FBI jet to travel to the games. Others pointed out how inappropriate they felt it was for Patel to be publicly partying as he avoids investigating perpetrators named in the Epstein files. The players have also earned severe criticism for their willingness to engage with Patel.

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“And then we all saw the phone call,” Browne said, referring to the call to the team from the president inviting them to the State of the Union address. They readily accepted while laughing at a joke the president made at the expense of the women’s team, who also won gold.

The moment led many to point out that the GOP doesn’t actually care about women’s sports, despite the party’s claim that it wants trans women banned in the name of keeping women’s sports fair.

“You see them all just gathered around the phone and hanging off every word, and laughing at the mention that Donald Trump would have to invite the women’s team as well,” Browne went on.

“The laughter is still echoing through my mind; it honestly makes me a bit weepy.”

“In that moment, there were no allies in that room,” he said. “Allies speak up behind closed doors and allies say, ‘No, we’re not going to participate in this, we’re not going to laugh along with a bully. We are going to stand up for our female counterparts.’ And unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”

He also slammed player Jack Hughes for his response to the backlash. Hughes declared, “People are so negative out there and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing.” He also emphasized how excited he was to go to the White House and meet the president.

“I’m so tired of screaming into the void why people should care about other humans,” Browne said.

“It’s so easy to be like, ‘Everything’s political. We don’t need to be political in this moment when you are a white, straight, wealthy, cis man. There are immigrants, there are trans people, the LGBTQ+ community, women that are all being deeply impacted by the political landscape in the USA.”

“I’m not saying athletes need to speak up on this. I would love it, it would be amazing. Just do not bring this bullsh*t into the sport and wonder why people are mad at you.”

Browne – who had a small role as a teammate to the main character in episode 4 of Heated Rivalry – came out as trans in 2016 while playing in the National Women’s Hockey League, but he delayed HRT until retiring from the sport. He has long spoken out for trans rights, particularly surrounding trans athletes.

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