Sports Reporter
“I came out to my team this last August, and coming out to them, they rallied around me, they supported me, and I knew in that moment that this can happen anywhere,” said Michael Sam, standout University of Missouri defensive end in an interview with the New York Times last week. “If my team can support me, any team can support me…Hopefully society will rally around me and support me too.”
Sam’s optimism is expected of a player who has been graded as a possible third round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. He helped his team to a surprising 12-2 record and Cotton Bowl victory the season after his admission, turning in 11.5 sacks and 19 tackles for loss.
Despite the overwhelmingly positive response to the news that Sam may become the first active, openly gay NFL player in history, there is a marked difference between a player’s team knowing that he is gay and the entire world knowing it.
The NFL’s latent aversion to gay players is couched in euphemism. Players who stick out too much are called “distractions,” the same word coaches and managers use to describe guys like Aaron Hernandez.
Former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe alleged recently that he lost his job because of his outspoken stances on gay rights. In a story written by Kluwe for Deadspin in January, he described how he was harassed by Vikings special teams coach Mike Priefer and was eventually cut from the team, despite his punting averages remaining the highest in team history.
Just months before Kluwe’s release, reporters jokingly asked Priefer about a minor uniform violation (unrelated to any gay rights statement) that Kluwe had committed.
“These distractions are getting old for me,” Priefer responded.
Kluwe has yet to find employment with another NFL team.
Similar problems arose for NBA player Jason Collins after his announcement last April that he is gay. Collins may not be a superstar, but it seems more than coincidental that his career ended so abruptly just after coming out to the public.
NFL safety Kerry Rhodes, who was seemingly outed last year by a man who claimed to be his ex-boyfriend, is also having trouble finding work. The nine-year veteran was graded out as the fourth best NFL safety by Pro Football Focus in 2012.
“Distractions.”
It’s just an excuse for homophobia.
Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma told NFL network on Feb. 2, “I don’t want people to just naturally assume, ‘Oh we’re all homophobic.’ That’s really not the case. I imagine if he’s the guy next to me, and I get dressed, naked, taking a shower, the whole nine, and it just so happens he looks at me, how am I supposed to respond?”
My advice to Vilma, the rest of the league and professional sports as a whole is that if you don’t want people to think you’re homophobic, the best place to start is by not acting like it.
They had better get their act together soon, because the draft is on its way, and Michael Sam is not a distraction–he’s a football player.
crclark2@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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