Brendon Ayanbadejo: Four NFL players considering coming out as gay

Given some of the "distractions" teams seem willing to put up with, you'd think a guy being gay would be low on the list these days.

 

I have never seen it, but has anyone done a profile of just what is driving Ayanbadejo on this? It's great work but I have kind of wondered why he has become the symbol of the whole thing.

 

Small southern towns? Brilliant analysis. Also, I see you have no problem smearing Latin Americans, oh tolerant one. Of course, other ethnic/racial groups are well known for their overwhelming support of homosexuals, right?

 

He obviously was bullied by a Latin American baseball player while growing up in a small southern town.

 

I am not sure why my use of basic demographic facts upsets you, but college education leads to much greater acceptance of gay rights. And Latin culture with its heavily religious component is not as advanced on the topic. I've always said that.

You can go ahead and believe that two years in Macon, Ga., is no different from two years in Atlanta or Athens, Ga. You would be completely wrong, but you typically choose the most wrong positions you can in these discussions anyway.

 

This is different. Teams know how to deal with a guy who has a drug problem or has been arrested or any of that... They don't know how to handle this, because there's no precedent, and they would understandably be scared shitless about handling it the wrong way...

Also, if any player, even someone like Tom Brady, got arrested for doing something awful, it would get a fraction of the coverage that even a marginal player coming out would.

 

That's why I figure a player is very carefully working this out with his team, and why co-ordinating the effort among multiple players on multiple teams is a brilliant move. It's harder to go on about being a "distraction" if it's happening to four different teams.

 

The way NFL contracts work, I am sure that the players in question are also fairly secure, maybe having just gotten big bonuses that would make the cap hit tough if the team found a reason to cut them.

Coincidentally enough, the Ravens just got rid of Ayanbadejo. After he was quoted saying he thought this issue was part of it, the Ravens issued a statement and Ayanbadejo said he was misquoted and that it was just a football move. He's a 10-year vet who was mostly special teams anyway so I don't see a whole lot of controversy about cutting him, and it wouldn't be too surprising if his career is over on merit.

 

It will be interesting to see how this will be handled if it happens...

Knowing how the NFL handles weekly press conferences and conference calls with the media that covers the opponent, I'm guessing no team wants weekly questions about this, and that would seem to be a given for the first season after an announcement is made.

Maybe the best time to make an announcement like this would be right after the mini-camps when the players won't be around for 6-8 weeks until training camp starts.

 

It can be both. It's impossible to say, this is why he was let go, but it's not a reach to think it may have played a role. I doubt it helped him.

I've seen some teams do some pretty crazy things to prevent players from talking about political issues or supporting a specific candidate or talking about a specific religious issue. One instance that happened fairly recently, got really ugly between a team and a superstar over the player's desire to speak out on a political issue, that was controversial, but not overly so... Nothing on the level that something like this will be.

 

"We're in talks with a handful of players who are considering it. " Really??? WTF???

It all seems a little too orchestrated to me. It almost robs the guys' teammates of the opportunity to just shrug their shoulders and say, "So what? No big deal."

But who knows? Maybe that can give it to ESPN and Jim Gray?

 

He's just an activist type, I think, although he's the product of an interracial marriage. His father is Nigerian and his mother is white.