Men at Play

After a year spent documenting the working life and daily routines of players for an American Hockey League team, Michael Robidoux found that most peoples' perceptions of hockey players' lives as romantic and glamorized are unrealistic. The majority of professional hockey players work in a closed and discriminatory environment in the lower tiers of hockey on semi-professional teams. Players dedicate their lives to the goal of playing professional hockey and teams demand total commitment from their players, giving them complete control over almost all aspects of the players' lives. With the enormous labour turnover in the AHL and the surplus labour pool, players are extremely vulnerable: they must perform well or be replaced by the scores of other men willing to do the same job. With limited education and limited life skills, players seldom meet people who are not connected to the game and, when they do, they do so with trepidation. The constructed universe of the game consumes the players so that, in spite of any wealth they may accumulate, they often know nothing other than the game and have invested everything in an occupation where their services quickly become obsolete.

“"Robidoux employs an impressive array of ideas from sociology, anthropology, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, and feminist theory to interpret the homosocial, occupational culture of professional hockey players." Thomas Dunk, author of It's a Working Man's Town: Male Working-Class Culture"Men at Play is a well-researched and documented study, offering the first ethnographic study of the lives of professional hockey players. Robidoux completely explodes the myth of hockey players as spoiled and overpaid, and shows the enormous stress the players face, notably those players who are between the minors and the NHL." Jean Harvey, School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa”

"Robidoux employs an impressive array of ideas from sociology, anthropology, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, and feminist theory to interpret the homosocial, occupational culture of professional hockey players." Thomas Dunk, author of It's a Working Man's Town: Male Working-Class Culture "Men at Play is a well-researched and documented study, offering the first ethnographic study of the lives of professional hockey players. Robidoux completely explodes the myth of hockey players as spoiled and overpaid, and shows the enormous stress the players face, notably those players who are between the minors and the NHL." Jean Harvey, School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa

Robidoux is assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Lethbridge.

Players dedicate their lives to the goal of playing professional hockey and teams demand total commitment from their players, giving them complete control over almost all aspects of the players' lives. With the enormous labour turnover in the AHL and the surplus labour pool, players are extremely vulnerable: they must perform well or be replaced by the scores of other men willing to do the same job. With limited education and limited life skills, players seldom meet people who are not connected to the game and, when they do, they do so with trepidation. The constructed universe of the game consumes the players so that, in spite of any wealth they may accumulate, they often know nothing other than the game and have invested everything in an occupation where their services quickly become obsolete. Far from the sensational memoirs of those few players who make it to the top, Robidoux's Men at Play offers a bracing inside look at the dynamics of the fastest game on earth.

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