NBC Sports chairman wants NHL players to cut their beards

[troutman]

The face of baseball is entirely obscured by its beard

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/03/mlb-...pring-training

29 out of the 30 Major League spring training camps in 2015 see an array of tonsorial fashions and a raw bulk of facial hair perhaps unmatched in the game’s modern era, chinstraps and goatees and King Tuts and Van Dykes and Fu Manchus and countless bushy, flowing beards that make their owners distinguishable from Civil War soldiers only by their uniforms and lack of gangrene.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playoff_beard

The playoff beard has expanded into Major League Baseball, the Canadian Football League, the National Football League and, to a lesser extent, the National Basketball Association.[9] The practice generally resembles that of hockey in that players don't shave until they either win a championship or are eliminated.

[White Out 403]

Why don't they instead use it and market it?

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

Why don't they instead use it and market it?

Hard to market a whole bunch of guys who look the same and have much of their facial features obscured. Though I suppose a bunch of guys who all the same could be a one-off strategy.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Hard to market a whole bunch of guys who look the same and have much of their facial features obscured. Though I suppose a bunch of guys who all the same could be a one-off strategy.

Yeah, no doubt. I've had a real time telling the difference between Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane these playoffs, those beard make them look like twins!

[cannon7]

Les Moonves, CEO of CBS, is famous for insisting anyone who works for CBS be clean shaven. Not just on-air talent, either.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

Why don't they instead use it and market it?

Enterprise Rent-a-Car embraced it and markets it. "We get hockey fans"

This is a mildly comical non-story. But it's the summer, so what the hey.

It's obvious the beards won't go, nor would the NHLPA every agree to force thier membership to shave unless there is monetary compensation to shave one's beard.

Toews' neckbeard is pretty nasty though. But he's a beauty, so it all balances out.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by MattyC

And then the more fluent fans can explain to them the long, and pervasive into all levels of hockey, tradition of the playoff beard.

They should be playing it up as something unique and interesting vs a media deterrent because the boys don't look as handsome as normal.

Guaranteed a guy like Brent Burns gets more new fans because of his cavemanness than he loses because of it.

I actually have no problem with the beards, or the go fly a kite reaction this got. But it's not nearly as stupid of an idea / issue as many of you are thinking it is. If the goal is to grow the games revenue (this should be both the goal of the NHL and the NHLPA given their revenue sharing model), there might be something to this.

No doubt, the more affluent fans of the game, i.e. said another way, the Canadian fans and a smaller number of American markets, understand, heck even appreciate the tradition of the playoff beard. But those fans are already buying the game, their dollars are counted.

One of the biggest things that seems to sell sports in the US, is the star power and the individual athlete. Often they seem more interested in the athlete then the sport themselves. We see this in Basketball and Baseball especially. Now, I'm sure all this NBC executive was thinking, was that he knows this to be true. Then he looks at his hockey product, which doesn't really do well on the individual athlete level ( really, individuality fly's against what we love about hockey right, heck, everyone gets offended when the slightest showboating occurs right, Subban etc...), and he looks at the playoff product, where he might actually have a chance to sell the game to a new audience and every single player on the ice looks exactly the same sporting their playoff beards.

How's a fan to know or better identify with the Toews of the world if he looks just like his line mate?

Again, I personally have no time for this proposal and couldn't care less, but it's not as dumb as many of you are making it out to be. I actually think there might be something to it. The NHL does not do a good job at pumping up the stars of this game, mostly I think because hockey is all about TEAM, but that isn't necessarily what sells the game to the new sources of revenue for this league. This is likely just a small micro example of what could be done to make the stars of the game stand out a little bit.

[CroFlames]

I honestly doubt banning playoff beards earns the NHL even one extra dollar.

[Azhouse]

Originally Posted by JohnnySkittles

What a dumbass

Came into this thread to say exactly this.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Enterprise Rent-a-Car embraced it and markets it. "We get hockey fans"

Which is somewhat hypocritical as the company has a very strict dress code that does not allow facial hair.

[5by5]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

I actually have no problem with the beards, or the go fly a kite reaction this got. But it's not nearly as stupid of an idea / issue as many of you are thinking it is. If the goal is to grow the games revenue (this should be both the goal of the NHL and the NHLPA given their revenue sharing model), there might be something to this.

No doubt, the more affluent fans of the game, i.e. said another way, the Canadian fans and a smaller number of American markets, understand, heck even appreciate the tradition of the playoff beard. But those fans are already buying the game, their dollars are counted.

One of the biggest things that seems to sell sports in the US, is the star power and the individual athlete. Often they seem more interested in the athlete then the sport themselves. We see this in Basketball and Baseball especially. Now, I'm sure all this NBC executive was thinking, was that he knows this to be true. Then he looks at his hockey product, which doesn't really do well on the individual athlete level ( really, individuality fly's against what we love about hockey right, heck, everyone gets offended when the slightest showboating occurs right, Subban etc...), and he looks at the playoff product, where he might actually have a chance to sell the game to a new audience and every single player on the ice looks exactly the same sporting their playoff beards.

How's a fan to know or better identify with the Toews of the world if he looks just like his line mate?

Again, I personally have no time for this proposal and couldn't care less, but it's not as dumb as many of you are making it out to be. I actually think there might be something to it. The NHL does not do a good job at pumping up the stars of this game, mostly I think because hockey is all about TEAM, but that isn't necessarily what sells the game to the new sources of revenue for this league. This is likely just a small micro example of what could be done to make the stars of the game stand out a little bit.

How about the name and number on his back?

[Jacks]

If they want the boys to be prettier forget the beards, they need to start pixelating the Ricci's of the world.

[codynw]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

How's a fan to know or better identify with the Toews of the world if he looks just like his line mate?

Even with his awful neckbeard and a helmet/visor on I can point out which player is Toews no problem. It's not like a beard literally hides their entire faces or something.

[MrMastodonFarm]

In 2004 I remember having a real difficult time distinguishing between Mike Commodore and Jarome Iginla.

[sureLoss]

If only Johnny Hockey could grow a proper beard, then Bruce Boudreau would never know if Hartley had sent Bollig or Gaudreau over the boards after a line change.

Cost us the series that did.

[Passe La Puck]

People are seriously saying the beards make players look alike...is the green text broken??

[H2SO4(aq)]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

From a marketing perspective, he's absolutely right. Jonathan Toews is one of the sport's biggest stars, the playoffs should be prime time for promoting him and making his face familiar to casual fans. But he looks like an absolute tool because of his patchy, dumb beard.

I honestly cannot tell if this is a sarcastic post or not. Shirley you can't be serious..

[Chingas]

I agree. They should also ban visers, and the NFL should ban any grill that blocks the faces of its athletes. Goalies should go completely helmetless so the people sitting behind them can recognize the back of their heads.

[T@T]

Not sure if it's true or not but John Tonelli told me at a golf tourney once the playoff beard was a rip off of tennis star Bjorn Borg not shaving in grand slams in the 70's, apparently Denis Potvin stood up in the room one day and asked every player not to shave for luck, they won the cup and a superstition was born.

Maybe someone else can chime in if this was true or maybe John was just drinking too much and pulling my leg.

[King Theo]

I read that EA Sports is adding this to NHL 16. In the playoffs players will grow beards.