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Brendon Ayanbadejo: Four NFL players considering coming out as gay

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Steak Snabler, Apr 5, 2013.

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  1. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Would do so collectively to minimize the backlash:

    http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9137573/brendon-ayanbadejo-says-four-players-considering-coming-gay

    It's going to happen sooner or later, and this seems as good a way as any.
     
  2. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I hope it happens. I'll bet it doesn't happen before the season starts.
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I'm starting to feel like this 6-12 month stretch is going to stand out in the history books as the time when gradual progress was chucked aside and change happened because people demanded it. Great to see but still surprising.

    I think athletes would be particularly able to handle the stuff from fans because hey have to do it at every road game anyway. The stuff would be more personal now, sure, but still possible to block out. If any of them are black, I'm sure they've heard just as bad along racial lines as they will about sexuality.
     
  4. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    The best time to do it would be during mini-camps. Teams are together, you won't be disrupting too much and there will be media there.
     
  5. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    I really hope this happens like he says; would be proud to say I was alive to see this; just like Jackie Robinson or the civil rights act (both of which I obviously missed)
     
  6. jackfinarelli

    jackfinarelli Well-Known Member

    I was alive to see both the Civil Rights Act and Jackie Robinson - although I was only 4 years old when Robinson played his first game. Both were landmark achievements and steps forward in the American culture. However, both of them were ugly at the time they happened. I fear this might too be "less than completely wonderful".
     
  7. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    And lest we take things for granted: The Equal Rights Amendment drive came storming out of the gate, with wide, evolving support, but eventually ran into a brick wall and has disappeared virtually without trace.
     
  8. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    Unless the players are stars -- which they won't be -- it won't make much of a difference. Except for the damage it does to the players' careers.
     
  9. dog eat dog world

    dog eat dog world New Member

    Hell, there's a production company setting up already to document the every move of the first gay athlete that comes out in a major sport. I'm surprised, for all the bonus money that will bring, there's not a race between them. Maybe they've decided to split the money.

    Having said that, I'm looking forward to the first polygamist to come out.
     
  10. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest


    Professional athletes have never given a fuck what the fans think. It's their peers they worry about.
     
  11. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    There is one superstar who is widely rumored to be and I would be stunned if he is in this group. He's gone to such extreme lengths to hide it that he would have so much to answer for, that I can't imagine it would be him...

    I agree that unless it's a pretty big star it won't make the impact that people want/need it to. No matter how much the team supports the player coming out, unless the players in question are stars, it's going to be seen as an unnecessary distraction.
     
  12. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    A few years ago, I might have agreed, but given we now have a majority of the Senate open about their support of same-sex marriage, I don't think this will affect players' careers. Let's put it this way -- the first (maybe marginal) coach, player or executive to use a gay slur toward any of those players is the one whose career will be up shit creek.

    Anyway, the first to come out as an active player will be a big deal, just because that person is the first. And, no doubt, having a player in one of the manliest -- and most popular -- of sports will make it even bigger. I suspect the teammates of any of these four players will already know (or if they don't, I'm sure the players will tell them first), so the locker room will not be an issue.
     
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