Tag: Michael Sam

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ESPN survey: 86% of NFL players say sexual orientation doesn’t matter

ESPN surveys active NFL players about the prospect of having an openly gay player on their team

ESPN conducted an anonymous survey last week of 51 active NFL players asking four questions regarding the possibility of an openly gay player being drafted and playing in the league.

Fifty-one players, almost an entire team roster, responded to four true-false questions. Although the survey showed that most players aren’t concerned with another’s sexual orientation, it also made clear the concerns that players would have with learning how to relate to an openly gay teammate.

Forty-four players said a teammate’s sexual orientation didn’t matter to them, and 39 said they would be comfortable showering around a gay teammate. But 32 players said they had teammates or coaches who used homophobic slurs last season, and when asked whether an openly gay player would be comfortable in a NFL locker room, just 25 players said yes; 21 said no, while five declined to answer.

University of Missouri’s Michael Sam came out last week amid much fanfare as he’s expected to be drafted in the third to fifth rounds this coming May. He was SEC co-Defensive Player of the Year and led his conference in tackles and sacks.

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University of Missouri students give Michael Sam standing ovation

Photo via YouTube

Returning to his alma mater with his football team mates to accept the 2104 Cotton Bowl Trophy, newly out football player and SEC Defensive Player of the Year Michael Sam received a standing ovation from the crowd at the Mizzou vs. Tennessee basketball game halftime.

Of course, Westboro Baptist Church felt the need to show up to protest Michael Sam’s return. But hundreds of students formed a “silent wall” to block Westboro as they publicly called Sam a “filthy pervert.”

Via Instagram

Via Michael Sam Twitter

Via YouTube

(via Buzzfeed)

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Texas sports anchor surprised his on-air “Unplugged: Celebrating Our Differences” goes viral

As this video as gone uber-viral across the interwebs, I wanted to post this response from Texas sports anchor Dale Hansen over his surprise that the video and message has become a “big deal.”

In an email to The Huffington Post, Hansen said he’s surprised at the response his segment unleashed. “Some people don’t seem to believe this — I honestly didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal,” he said, adding he’s received more than 700 “overwhelmingly positive” emails from around the U.S. and one from a young high school boy in Canada.

When asked for his thought process on taking such a firm stance and then broadcasting it, Hansen responded thus: “I write only what I believe — and I simply believe what I wrote. Seems like common sense to me — nothing more or less.”

I’ve had at least a dozen people email it to me and I’ve seen Hansen’s on-air opinion piece all over Facebook.

And I love it.

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Rush Limbaugh on gay players in the NFL showers

Now you KNOW this was coming.

Regarding the news of newly out potential NFL draftee Michael Sam, Rush Limbaugh ponders the presence of a gay man in a men’s locker room shower. 

As if THAT’s never happened.

Because men, gay or straight I guess, couldn’t possibly hold themselves back from coming on to anyone of the sex to which they are attracted???

LIMBAUGH: By the way, I probably shouldn’t ask this, but if it’s OK for a man who has sex with other men to be in a shower in an NFL locker room with other men, is it OK for a guy to be in a shower with women?

I hear that many husbands and wives/boyfriends and girlfriends ‘encounter’ each other in the shower now and then.  And I have no problem with that.  Gotta mix it up, you know? 

I will say though – Rushbo’s very first line on the audio sounds like he’s doing a comedy routine.

Now that you think of it…

(via Media Matters)

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Dallas’ Dale Hansen delivers smackdown on what’s “acceptable” in the NFL while gay players are shunned

Watch Dallas sports news anchor Dale Hansen deliver this SMACKDOWN on the hypocrisy of homophobia in the NFL in this knock-out “Unplugged” segment on Dallas’s WFAA News.

Hansen, who is straight, shares his support of Michael Sam and the inclusion of gay players in the NFL.

And he also lays down some hard truths about what we’ve deemed “acceptable” in sports, while gay players have been shunned.

From his on-air opinion piece:

“I’m not always comfortable when a man tells me he’s gay, I don’t understand his world but I do understand that he’s part of mine.”

He then quotes Audre Lorde, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

(via Instinct)

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Jonathan Vilma of the New Orleans Saints talks to Anderson 360 about coming out of college footbal star Michael Sam

Ok, I’ll give Jonathan Vilma this – he stepped up to this interview, answered the questions, and apologized for his inartful wording of a few weeks ago when he said he wouldn’t know what to do should he find himself showering with an openly gay player.

Last month, the New Orleans linebacker said of a hypothetical openly gay NFL player:

“I think he would not be accepted as much as we think he would be accepted. I don’t want people to just naturally assume, oh, we’re all homophobic. That’s really not the case. Imagine if he’s the guy next to me, and you know, 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?”

All this from the man who once tweeted: “Grown men should NOT have female tendencies. Period.”

Today, Vilma sees things in a different light.  Today Vilma says, “As long as he can play football, I’m A-OK with it,” he said “It doesn’t bother me at all.”

All that aside, perhaps tonight Vilma sees the writing on the wall.  Maybe he sees that Michael Sam, named Defensive Player of the Year in the SEC, voted “most valuable player” by his teammates, who helped lead his team to 12-2 and the Cotton Bowl title, can be a productive player in the NFL.

As the saying goes – “If you can play, you can play.”

As always, great to see NFL kicker Chris Kluwe add the voice of reason and reality to the discussion. He’s been there, he’s seen what happens in the locker room on this subject and he’s still “in it” as an ally for the LGBT community.

I’m hoping to see him back on the field next season doing what he does well in the NFL.