Gareth Thomas profile in SI

Thomas is a professional rugby player from Wales who is openly gay. He might be the only out of the closet athlete playing a professional team sport anywhere on the planet.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1168953/index.htm

 

Interesting story but oddly written style for SI. Never heard of wriitter. Must be a freelance piece.

 

Very dry sense of humor there, Boom.

I've said this before, but as talented as the guy is -- way, way more talented than I am -- sometimes he just oughta tell the damn story, without the tap dance. This was one of those times. In fact, if you were going to parody his work KSK style, you'd probably come up with something like this piece.
I would love to read a story about Gareth Thomas in which the wife actually talked about what she thought and felt, instead of the author dramatically recreating it for me.

 

I wonder how much the writer know about rugby. The union game tends to be more physical, especially in the ruck.

There is also a top-level rugby union referee in Wales who is gay.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/06/gay-rights-rugby-union

I do know a couple of people who have dealt with Thomas over in Wales. He likes the drink and is quick to complain about not getting free drink tickets in the pub after a match.

 

I read the piece last night, and thought I was tired because I had trouble following it at times. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. While I don't advocate adding experts into a story for the sake of having an expert, but this story begged for it. He blames America for not having gay athletes, but really doesn't have anyone say it besides himself.

Also, how does the writer say there are no openly gay athletes without mentioning Glenn Burke

 

From what I understand after reading the story, I think the heavy drinking was part of his coping mechanism for dealing with being a closeted gay athlete in one of the most masculine sports in the world. Thomas has unbelievable courage and I hope the rugby world's reaction to his coming-out was as classy and supportive as Smith made it out to be in the story. Hopefully most of the demons in "Alfie" have gone away since getting rid of that burden.

 

I've never met anybody involved in rugby -- even American club rugby, the equivalent of beer-league softball -- who wasn't damn proud of his binge drinking. I don't think Thomas is a special case in that regard.

 

I play rugby and I don't binge-drink. I did when I was playing in college, but not now.

 

My sample size is admittedly quite small. I didn't mean to imply *all*.

 

Gotcha. A few of my teammates have been known to binge-drink, too.

 

It's safe to say there's a strong drinking culture associated with rugby, so the larger point stands that Thomas' drinking - even heavily- isn't the unusual aspect.

 

I will agree with that.