Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

Gen

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid, Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types

Relationships:

Kip Grady/Scott Hunter, Scott Hunter & Original Male Character, Past Scott Hunter/Original Male Character

Characters:

Original Male Character(s), Scott Hunter, Kip Grady, Other Characters Mentioned

Additional Tags:

Opinion Piece, Scott Hunter's Summer Vacations, Fandom etiquette, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-06-08 Words: 2,550 Chapters: 1/1

Opinion: It's None of Your F*cking Business

Summary

Tips on Being a Decent Human to Famous Athletes, from Some Random Guy
Published by anonymous, 27 July 2021

Or... what if one of Scott's summer hook ups wrote an opinion piece on the public reaction to Hollanov outing?

I hooked up with Scott Hunter in the summer of 2014. And yes, I'm a man.

Published by anonymous, 27 July 2021

Now that I have your attention…

Let me start with the most important part: this is written with Scott's full knowledge and permission. I pitched the idea to him (more on that below) and he approved the final draft before publishing.

Why do I think this is the most important? Well, that's half the point of this piece.

We're living in a time where so many people act like they're entitled to others' personal lives. Doubly so if those others are public figures. Quadruply so if those others happen to be queer.

And guess what? Here's the second most important part: Unless the individuals involved share something themselves about their personal lives? It's none of your f*cking business.

---

Having said that, I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Here's the answers I'm willing to give.

How can we trust anything you say?

I know. I'm publishing this anonymously. I could be lying. I could be anyone.

But here's the deal - if my whole point is that it's not your business who public figures are doing in their free time, telling you who I am defeats that, right? Because then you'd have opinions and speculations about who he's doing now based on who I am or what I look like. You'd scour every inch of my social media to see if there was a glimpse of Scott Hunter. You'd try to align his posts to mine. And that is so, so far from the point of this piece.

I'm remaining anonymous, both for that reason and the fact I'm not doing this for clout. If I was, believe me. I'd be blasting my name all across the internet, bragging how I slept with Scott Hunter not one, not two, but three summers in a row. Multiple times each.

How was he?

F*cking amazing. Next question.

(editing note: I put this in the draft I sent Scott, hoping he'd get a laugh out of it and fully intending to remove it before publishing. I'm told Kip threatened Scott with the couch if he didn't let me leave it in.)

Wait, more than once? Did you know who he was?

Not the first few times… I'll admit that I'd never paid any attention to hockey, despite my job being tangentially related to the sports industry. Imagine my surprise when I went to New York for a job and my summer hook-up was splashed across half the screens in Times Square.

I admitted I knew who he was when we met the next summer. I told him I didn't want trouble, that I wouldn't go to the press. I was lucky that he believed me. And not because he would've ruined my life, even though he has more than enough resources to do so. He's far too nice for that.

No, I was lucky because that meant he'd sleep with me again.

How'd you meet?

I was abroad visiting family. He was abroad on vacation.

The first time, it was a chance meeting that led to a great night. Throughout the next couple weeks, we kept running into each other, having some fun, and by the end of the summer we'd exchanged numbers. The next two years were a little more planned, in the sense that there were texts about if we were in the same country at the same time. Don't tell Scott (yes, I know putting it here means he knows now), but I actually wasn't there the third year. I booked a flight the day he texted. Though to be fair, I didn't want to have the "Hey, I know you're famous" discussion over text. I didn't have any ulterior motives. Definitely not. You believe me, right?

So, what, you slept with him a few times and think you can just write about him? Do you even talk to him?

I ended up working with Scott a couple years after he came out. Obviously, I was very glad I'd told him who I was before that happened. He invited me for drinks so I could meet Kip. Scott probably regretted introducing the two of us about seven minutes in. We got on as only two people who have slept with the same person and have absolutely no hard feelings about it can. That is to say, we got on like a house on fire, and Scott had to deal with being the butt of the joke all night.

It must not have been too terrible, though, because we've kept in touch since.

And now that you've gotten your gossip, here's the important part. Starting with the question you should be asking.

Why are you publishing this now?

Well, you see, a couple of hockey players made the news for being in a relationship with each other. If you're bothering to read this, I'm sure you know which ones. And while the reaction hasn't been unexpected, it's certainly been disappointing. But it reached a point where I had to say something. I had to try. Because come on, everybody. Can't we just all be decent human beings?

Like I said, I sometimes work with athletes. I also sometimes work with actors. Both are fields where the public seems determined to know every little inch of people's lives.

I've seen first-hand how speculation can ruin them.

So I wrote up some of my thoughts. In trying to figure out what would interest people enough to read yet another opinion piece on how they're living their lives wrong, I thought of Scott. I texted him the roughest of outlines one night, just to see what he'd think. At that point, I wasn't thinking of including anything about our past encounters. My only motivation was maybe, just maybe, he'd be willing to share my piece once I'd published it. He's expressed many the same sentiments, so I figured there was a chance.

That night, he did agree to share it, with the condition that he could read it over before I published it and withdraw that agreement if he didn't feel comfortable with what I wrote. I, of course, agreed to that.

Then he texted again the next morning, saying he'd mentioned my idea to Kip, and Kip had joked I'd get a lot more views if I shared our history. Scott told me I could go that angle if I wanted, but that he wanted editing rights. I was more than happy to oblige.

So that's what you have here. The juicy hook of Scott Hunter gossip, and now, some tips from one of those folks who has lots of practice being completely normal about knowing a professional athlete is anything but straight.

And yes, I know the people who most need these will probably ignore them.

I know the people who will take this as intended were probably already following them.

But I have to try. So without further ado…

Tips on Being a Decent Human to Famous Athletes, from Some Random Guy

1. As already stated: it's none of your f*cking business. Remember this.

What does this mean, exactly? Well, stopping the speculation about everyone's lives would be a great start. I know that it's fun to think about what your favorite players are up to when they're not on the rink (or field or pitch or whatever the setting of your choice of sport). It's easy to get caught up in; it seems harmless. And sometimes, it is. I'm not telling you to stop texting your friend gifs of some teammates you think are cute together. But I've seen far too many occasions where it's not actually harmless.

It's not harmless when you're bringing your daydreams into a space where the people you're dreaming about might reasonably see.

It's not harmless when you're tagging the athletes or their teams or their actual partners or journalists or anyone in their professional or person lives.

It's most definitely not harmless when you're stalking people from a celebrity's private life, whether online or in person.

It's not harmless to the athletes or their friends and families.

Stop doing it.

If you want to gush about queer players in the NHL? Be happy for Scott Hunter. Be happy for Ryan Price and Eric Bennet and Troy Barrett. Now that they've decided to share it publicly after being all-but-forced to, be happy for Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander. They've all given us their consent to know their sexualities and their relationships. There are plenty of pictures and anecdotes and cute little interactions they've publicly shared. Stop trying to dig for more.

2. For the love of whatever you hold holy, stop trying to guess who might be gay.

The closet exists for a reason, and it is the duty of everyone who's not in it, whether queer or straight, to hold up those walls for anyone who's inside.

Once again, I'm not telling you to stop doing this inside your own mind or in private. Stop doing it in public. Stop asking athletes about it. When a team posts asking what questions you have for their athletes, stop trying to word your questions in ways to get soundbites to fit your fantasies.

These are real people. Real people who are already dealing with insane amounts of pressure.

Your guesses might be right. They might be wrong. The next player to come out as gay might be the one you least expect (remember Troy Barrett, anyone?).

Regardless, it's not your business.

Stop acting like it is.

3. People are, in fact, allowed to touch each other without sleeping together.

The sentiment I may be the most sick of seeing is "they're so comfortable with each other, they're definitely f*cking."

My friends (or enemies, I'm not picky about readership)—in the words of my all-time favorite advertisement, that's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.

Sports are physical. People show affection through touch. Sleeping together is not the only way for people to feel comfortable with each other.

Sure, that cute rookie D-pair from your favorite team might be a couple, and that's why they are all over each other and know each other so well. Or, you know, they could be friends.

If recent developments should have taught us anything, it's that you can never guess. You never know people's private lives. You especially don't know them based on their public personas.

4. Know the time and place.

I've touched on this one already a number of times, but it deserves its own piece. A huge, huge part of living in a community, as humans do, is knowing which behaviors are appropriate and when.

I mean, I'm assuming that, if you're reading this, you're a men's hockey fan, or at least you're aware of it at some level. Think of the tamest fight you've ever seen on the ice. Maybe there weren't even punches thrown. Just some shoving, some light stick taps.

Would that be appropriate in, say, the middle of a grocery store? Nope.

Same thing with all the speculation about these athletes and their relationships. Keep it in your group chats and your personal blogs and things of that sort.

It's really, really, not that hard.

5. If an athlete chooses to share something of their lives with the public, accept it. Celebrate it. But leave it there. Don't take it any farther.

Take the recent situation with Greg Huff's kids. He chose to share, on his public Instagram page, a photo of him and his kids at the beach. You could see his face, but not his kids', who were busy building a sand castle. It was a really sweet photo.

It should have been left at that.

Next thing you know, there's a picture in the tabloids of that same moment but from the opposite angle, showing his kids' faces and the back of his head. That was not, even for a millisecond, okay. I mean, come on. It's wrong to share a picture of anyone without their consent. But kids? Kids?!

The tabloid should've had decency not to publish it. But the picture also should never have been taken, let alone sent to them.

People in the public eye are still entitled to their private lives.

It absolutely blows my mind that some people think it's okay to ignore people's privacy just because of what job they have. How would you feel if someone liked how you did your job, then decided to use that as justification to follow you and your family around and post pictures?

It doesn't matter that "they chose this." Yes, they chose to play at a professional level. They chose to put the work in, to abuse their bodies, to follow restrictive diets and work out plans and almost never have a day off, to be some of the best athletes in the world.

They did not choose to have their personhood violated.

Oh, and also. If an athlete chooses to share something of their lives? For f*ck's sake, believe them.

Everyone, say it with me. Hayden Pike is happily married to a woman. He adores his wife and kids. He is not mad that Ilya Rozanov got Shane Hollander and he didn't.

We know this, because all of them have told us this. Multiple times.

Believe them.

6. If an athlete chooses not to share something of their lives with the public, but you know it anyway? Take that to your fucking grave.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Brad.

Listen, I did this for years, and I know I'm not the only one. It's really not that hard. All you have to do is think for two seconds and realize that not betraying someone's trust is worth more than any money or fame you can get from doing so.

Should Hayden Pike have watched that video back? Perhaps. But it's clear from the sample videos posted publicly on his account that he is not a planner. Or an editor.

Should Brad have kept that video to himself? Yes. Absolutely.

7. Remember—these athletes are people too.

I know, everyone. I know. Sometimes, it feels like professional athletes are a concept. An idea. Anything but an actual, real-life person.

They're rich (many of them are insanely rich).

They're famous (some of them are insanely famous).

But they're still people. People who deserve kindness and respect.

If you want to talk about Shane Hollander's real estate purchases and question the ethics of being a landlord? That's fair game.

If an athlete is engaging in actual harmful behavior that needs to be called out? Please, please bring that to light.

But their relationships? Their families? Their day-to-day lives? Zip it.

Huh. Is that all?

Yep. It's really not that hard. Here's quick recap, if you need one.

1. I'm shamelessly using my connection to Scott Hunter to grab your attention and prove my legitimacy. He's promised to publicly share this so you know I'm telling the truth.

2. Being a public figure doesn't take away someone's rights to be treated with kindness. Don't harass anyone. Keep private things private. And most of all, be a decent fucking human being.