var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};Sports Illustrated granted anonymity to more than a half-dozen NFL executives and asked them to share their candid and honest responses to the news that the NFL may get an openly-gay player, now that Michael Sam just came out.
Their thoughts were brutal.
SI sums up their thoughts by saying that “from a purely football perspective,” Michael Sam’s decision coming out “will make his path to the league daunting.”
Daunting?
Those SI spoke with, including NFL executives and coaches, “project a significant drop in Sam’s draft stock, a publicity circus and an NFL locker room culture not prepared to deal with an openly gay player.”
A few quotes:
“I don’t think football is ready for [an openly gay player] just yet,” said an NFL player personnel assistant. “In the coming decade or two, it’s going to be acceptable, but at this point in time it’s still a man’s-man game. To call somebody a [gay slur] is still so commonplace. It’d chemically imbalance an NFL locker room and meeting room.”
“I just know with this going on this is going to drop him down,” said a veteran NFL scout. “There’s no question about it. It’s human nature. Do you want to be the team to quote-unquote ‘break that barrier?'”
“There are guys in locker rooms that maturity-wise cannot handle it or deal with the thought of that,” the assistant coach said. “There’s nothing more sensitive than the heartbeat of the locker room. If you knowingly bring someone in there with that sexual orientation, how are the other guys going to deal with it? It’s going to be a big distraction. That’s the reality. It shouldn’t be, but it will be.”
Last night, when the news broke that Sam had come out, the NFL issued a statement claiming, “Michael is a football player. Any player with ability and determination can succeed in the N.F.L. We look forward to welcoming and supporting Michael Sam in 2014.”
Apparently, some look forward to welcoming him to the unemployment line.
What’s that line from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar?
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
Here, a few smarter responses:
//storify.com/davidbadash/the-smarter-responses-to-michael-sam-s-coming-out/embed
[View the story “The Smarter Responses To Michael Sam’s Coming Out” on Storify]
Hat tip: Talking Points Memo