Archives
10:10:00 PM EST
Hearing Ernie, Kenny, Chuck and Reggie on TNT
It's Not Happening Anytime Soon
If Sheryl Swoopes' coming-out party made me realize anything, it's that today's society is not ready to accept a gay male athlete. Look at the media coverage that swirled for Swoopes. Imagine if that player a) was a guy and b) played in a league we care about -- dunking for Utah, pitching for Houston, tackling in Chicago, skating in Detroit. Actually, no one cares about hockey (sorry, Off Wing), but the first three examples apply.
A colleague of mine (who runs the Gay & Lesbian site here on AOL) asked me about Swoopes, what I thought of her announcement, etc., and our conversation led to gay males who may or may not (but certainly are) currently playing a major sport. You know they're out there, and you know they're not coming out. Most fans aren't ready for that and most players aren't either. And if the WNBA is hesitant to market to lesbians, I don't see the NFL Network buying ads on Out Sports anytime soon.
To this point, the Mighty MJD (who is an extraordinarily thoughtful and insightful blogger when it comes to covering gay issues as they pertain to sports), posts player commentary on gays in the NBA, including quotes from Paul Pierce and Danny Fortson that make it sound like they'd rather box Tommy Morrison (who is HIV-positive) than box out a homosexual.
Anyway, back to my conversation with my colleague, which evolved into how difficult it would be for a player to come out while playing in one of the three major leagues. Here's how I ranked them (from easiest to hardest):
3) NFL -- Yep, the most macho sport would be the easiest for a homo to be loud and be proud. Think about it. If Ray Lewis Swooped out of the closet he'd still be able to run around the field like a maniac and punish people physically to his heart's delight. Even an offensive player like Hines Ward (or whoever) would be able to run like hell, block like hell and basically take all of the hatred and discrimination thrown his way and use it on the field. And people would respect that.
2) NBA -- Hoops allows for the highest trash-talking quotient given the one-on-one nature of the game and proximity of fans to the court, but a gay player could still cross somebody up, take it to the hole and dunk on the entire arena. Seriously, if a gay dude threw one down on Kenyon Martin he'd be getting pre-game daps across the league (although probably not from Fortson).
1) MLB -- This would be damn near impossible. The game is based in failure (even the best players fail seven out of 10 times) and many of the players never went to college (meaning they never really broadened their horizons past high school, small towns and baseball). The razzing wouldn't stop and there would be no way to stand up to it other than blocking out the friction. Not that it's the same thing, but all of these reasons (and many, many more) add up to why Jackie Robinson was an unbelievable human being.
There. I've managed to mildly offend hockey fans, people who dislike gay people and professional baseball players, so I think I'm done for now.
Written by dcsportsguy Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | 
digg this
-
Sorry....but a WNBA player coming out of the closet is about as thrilling as a male figure skater coming out of the closet. Aside from the fact that it is most likely the best female hoops player in the past 10-15 years [and that includes Leslie, Tarasi and Holdsclaw]...to me personally...it doesn't seem so Earth shattering.
Now...when Greg Louganis came out....boy, was I thrown for a loop!!!
-Sportz -
I think the sad irony of this is that an athlete who came out would be mocked as a sissy, but he'd have more courage than just about anybody in sports.
-
I was a Thespian in high school.
11/5/05 2:14 AM