In a weekend that featured multiple headline-grabbing sports stories, the most significant of all was Michael Sam's public announcement that he was homosexual. Sam, a graduated senior of the Missouri Tigers, was the SEC co-defensive player of the year, and is projected to be a mid-round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. Sam will likely be the first openly gay athlete who is actively playing in any of our four major sports. Others, like Jason Collins and John Amaechi, have announced that they were homosexual after their playing careers ended, but Sam is only beginning his NFL career, and his announcement is much more significant in terms of the sports world than the announcements of Collins and Amaechi.
The National Football League is one that is based upon results. Owners, coaches, players, and all personnel from top to bottom are judged on what they can produce. A general manager needs to put the best team on the field that he can. A player needs to go above and beyond to earn his stripes. Even down to water boys and ball boys, they all are judged based on how well they do their job. On the surface, Michael Sam's situation will hopefully be the same. However, because Sam's open homosexuality is something that no team has had to deal with before, I don't think his case will be as easy as some may hope.
Even though the NFL is a results based business, it is still filled with thousands of people coming from many different backgrounds and cultures. Whether it is race, religion, language, or anything else, the NFL is a melting pot of a business. It is considered to be a "man's game," and even though it might not be publicly acknowledged by players, coaches, and executives, there are definitely standards attached to what defines a "man" in the NFL world, and homosexuality is definitely not part of that definition.
It is easy for people around the league today to say that Sam's announcement will not have any effect on how he is viewed throughout the NFL world, but I think there is no doubt that once Sam actually joins a team (which I am presuming will happen), we might see a bit more hesitation by some to accept Sam into the "man's world" that is the NFL.
Sam reportedly announced to his teammates and coaches at Missouri that he was gay prior to this past season, and it appeared to have no impact at all upon how they viewed Sam. He was a great player on the field, and that was clearly what mattered most. The fact that they accepted him off the field as well exemplified the attitude of acceptance that the Missouri football program demonstrated. However, college football and professional football are two entirely different trades. In college, most of the team is together both on and off the field, and the players are all immersed within the same collegiate world. In the NFL, things are not quite the same. Some players on the same team come from wildly different cultures, and come from all over the country. Football players on the Missouri Tigers spend most of their time in and around the same campus, and are somewhat sheltered from the outside world. Players on any given NFL team do not enjoy the same type of camaraderie.
NFL teams consist of all types of different races, age groups, and most of all, personalities. While a school like Notre Dame consists mostly of Catholic males, an NFL team is made up of players of all different faiths and religions. Likewise, a team like the Stanford Cardinal is made up of mostly well educated men who have graduated from college. Any given NFL team has players with education levels ranging from valedictorian graduate to college dropout. This abundance of cultural and societal differences makes the NFL a far different world than college football. And that is why being a gay football player in college will be far different from being a gay player in the NFL for Michael Sam.
With each NFL team consisting of an active roster of 53 players (plus coaching staffs, practice squad players, and all different types of other personnel), that means that there are thousands of people employed throughout the league. The likelihood of multiple privately gay members of the league is extremely high. However, there is still a reason that Michael Sam's announcement comes as a revelation. It is because the NFL is different from every day society. The league is definitely full of people who accept others no matter their personal differences, but there is also no question that it also contains a plethora of people who are unwilling to accept people with different attitudes. This discrimination might be based upon race, religion, political affiliation, or any number of different factors, but it is undeniable that the NFL, like any other professional organization, is full of bigots. That is why Michael Sam's public proclamation of his homosexuality is only the beginning of a story that will last long into the future. Sure, it is easy for teams and players to say the right things right now, in February, but once the draft rolls around and training camps open, will 100% of the NFL population be so accepting of Sam? In a perfect world, that would happen, but I have a hard time believing that, in the real world, it will indeed happen.
Daily Nets Update: The Nets have two winnable games before the All-Star break, and if they can get two wins, they can go into the break with a good shot to at least avoid both Miami and Indiana in the first round of the playoffs. The team has been playing much better lately after a subpar start, but a record below .500 is still far beneath expectations going into the season.
Daily Rangers Update: The Olympic break is officially underway, so there will be no NHL for a few weeks. It will be a nice respite for some, but when league action commences again, the Rangers need to continue their solid play so they can hopefully move up into the top four of the Eastern Conference, thus gaining home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Spring training is just around the corner, and that means expectations are high for each and every team in Major League Baseball. The recent signing of Bronson Arroyo certainly did not make tidal waves of headlines throughout the league, but hopefully it can be a solid pickup for Arizona. We still don't have a true number one ace on the staff, but the arrival of Arroyo means that we have plenty of pitching depth, and spring training should be very interesting when it comes to determining which pitchers will make up our Opening Day staff.
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