Michael Sam - NFL's first openly gay prospect

[thrill]

haha nice

[heyzeus]

It is absolutely galling that some GMs (who aren't brave enough to go on the record) think that having a gay player on their team would be an unforgivable distraction, but someone like Riley Cooper or Michael Vick or Donte Stallworth, who actually killed a human being while drunk driving are perfectly fine.

[Socnorb11]

Broncos GM John Elway's position:

"I applaud Michael Sam and wish him the very best as he continues the pursuit of his NFL dream," Executive Vice President of Football Operations John Elway said Monday. "As we look toward the combine and draft, we will evaluate Michael just like any other draft prospect — on the basis of his ability, character and NFL potential. His announcement will have no effect on how we see him as a football player."

"Having spent 16 years in an NFL locker room, the bottom line is that it’s about treating others with respect and earning that respect," Elway said. "By all indications, it appears Michael has done just that throughout his football career.”

[lukethedrifter]

Am I the only one who was unaware how progressive Vince Lombardi was on gay rights, among other things?

Long before it was fashionable, Lombardi was a champion of gay athletes, if only because he was a champion of all athletes, at least those who helped him score more touchdowns than the other guy. It didn't matter if they were white or black, or if they dated men or women or both, or if they dated interracially or not.

"Like the saying goes," Susan Lombardi said by phone, "my father treated them all the same. Like dogs."

Actually, Vincent Thomas Lombardi treated his Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins as anything but. No, winning wasn't everything, or the only thing. In Lombardi's playbook, winning placed a distant second to simple human decency.

In 1969, the year before his death, the only year he coached the Redskins, Lombardi worked with at least five gay men -- three players and two front-office executives, including David Slattery, who would come out in 1993. In his defining biography, "When Pride Still Mattered," author David Maraniss described the scene of Lombardi charging an assistant to work with one of the gay players, a struggling back named Ray McDonald. "And if I hear one of you people make reference to his manhood," Lombardi is quoted as saying, "you'll be out of here before your ass hits the ground."

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_ ... on-collins

[docellis]

I can't believe the ratio of positive to negative responses on various comment sections.

I do want to ask people who say things like "He yielded to sin"....is this a sin everyone has to fight from "yielding" to? Or is it just you, negative commentor, who also fights your urges, who sympathizes with the urges, and who denies them. How many of these comments are coming from people who are "fighting" their homosexual urges?

Most straight people (I think) have varying levels of interest in same sex relations. But most straight people know they are straight. Discussing "fighting" or "yielding" to urges is different.

[ThatGuy]

I think what offends me most is the suggestion I keep seeing that Sam needs to "remain professional" around his future teammates. The hell? We've got a guy who garnered the respect and support of his teammates while leading his team to a top 5 finish as a member of the most difficult conference in college football, and these people think he needs a lesson in how to be a professional? Good grief. Any player who is uncomfortable with the thought of Sam as a teammate only feels that way because he's making some pretty lame assumptions about both Sam's character and gay men in general.

I do want to ask people who say things like "He yielded to sin"....is this a sin everyone has to fight from "yielding" to? Or is it just you, negative commentor, who also fights your urges, who sympathizes with the urges, and who denies them. How many of these comments are coming from people who are "fighting" their homosexual urges?

It's an interesting question, because I can pretty much guarantee that the kind of person who would say that gay people need to "fight their urges" would never, ever own up to having any such urges himself.

[docellis]

Off shoot: multiple ex players voiced apprehension about "the showers".

These dudes are millionaires and still showering together.

Can the NFL afford a few private shower stalls???

[thrill]

The shower thing is the dumbest, funniest load of bull [expletive] ever. "I just don't want to be in a shower with a gay guy who might be attracted to me."

Couple things: Hey NFL, you have a gay teammate. At least one. Right now. Have you felt ogled?
Also, anyone who has ever showered at their gym after working out: You've probably showered with a gay person. Did you feel ogled?

This implication that a gay player would just be popping boners constantly in the shower with his straight teammates is just galling on so many levels. First the assumption that you're so attractive a gay man wouldn't be able to restrain himself. Then the assumption that you don't already have a perfectly gracious gay teammate who isn't making you feel sexually threatened. Then the complete disregard for the sexual restraint of men in general. If for some reason I was showering in a locker room with a woman, I'm not going to be uncontrollably aroused. I'm not going to be staring, mouth agape, dick in my hand. The assumption that it's somehow different for gay men is just so absurd that I can't believe people can say that [expletive] with a straight face. The irony is that this ridiculous fear of being sexually objectified by a predatory man is the same fear dumb creeps like this instill in women on a daily basis.

[stlouie_lipp]

It is absolutely galling that some GMs (who aren't brave enough to go on the record) think that having a gay player on their team would be an unforgivable distraction, but someone like Riley Cooper or Michael Vick or Donte Stallworth, who actually killed a human being while drunk driving are perfectly fine.

Stallworth's reaction.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/ex-n ... ent-021114

[ThatGuy]

Stallworth's reaction.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/ex-n ... ent-021114

The comments below that article are the worst I've seen yet. I particularly enjoyed the guy who made sure to point out that he's ready to "defend his rights" in the coming onslaught of pro-gay news coverage. As far as I can tell, the only "right" that's being taken away from the anti-gay crowd is the freedom they used to have to demean gay people without fear of catching a ton of flack for it.