NHL coach defends player who refused pride jersey: 'Just because you don't agree ... doesn't mean he did anything wrong'

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella on Thursday defended defenseman Ivan Provorov’s decision not to wear a rainbow jersey during warm-ups for the team’s Pride Night earlier this week.

“As I said, Provy did nothing wrong,” Tortorella said at a press conference. “Just because you don’t agree with his decision doesn’t mean he did anything wrong.”

Provorov, who is Russian Orthodox, cited his religious beliefs as the reason for his decision not to wear the pride jersey on Tuesday night.

“I respect everybody, and I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion,” he said in the Flyers’ locker room after the game. “That’s all I’m going to say.”

Tortorella compared the situation to 2016, when players in various American sports followed Colin Kaepernick’s lead and chose to sit or kneel during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial injustice.

“They asked me if a player sits, what would you do? And what did I say? I said ‘the player would sit the rest of the game,'” Tortorella said, referring to a controversial statement he made in 2016.

However, Tortorella has since reversed his hard-line stance on the issue. 

“I was wrong. I learned a lot through that experience,” he said at Thursday's press conference. “My feelings towards any type of protest to the flag during the anthem, it disgusts me. To this day, it disgusts me. It shouldn’t be done.”

However, he continued, “Those are my feelings. I can’t push those feelings onto someone else. So, I was wrong in saying that back then.”