'How Sports Illustrated Botched the Michael Sam Story'

Don't you think at least part of that improvement is due to the media's truthful depiction of homosexuals as normal people?

I doubt you'd find many mainstream news outlets years ago that took a stance on its moral acceptability either way.

That aside, no homosexual person ever took a vow to stay hetero and then broke it.

That's what adulterers do, though. Some while even lecturing others on the sanctity of the pact they just broke. That's another difference.

 

The coming out IS the story. The gayness IS NOT the story. Therefore, a coming out story is not a major story until the coming out. The anticipation of an imminent coming out of a viable NFL prospect is a niche story in the gay community, so if you're a journalist serving that market (and you weren't in on the rollout like outsports.com) then you could have written something like

and so on and so forth.

But that story is niche. It is too attenuated for the general public. The big story is in the announcement itself.

 

The media's protection of someone's sexual orientation reminds me somewhat of its general policy against identifying rape victims. In both cases, I completely get it. In both cases, at the same time, the policy serves to reinforce the stigmas associated with both IDs.

 

I don't think the anticipation was a niche story. I think Sports Illustrated could have written that story, that way, as well. My guess is that the only reason they did not was due to concerns he might change his mind. Though that never seems to matter to anyone when it comes to coaching hires.

 

And you don't see why that concern is what makes it not be a mass appeal sports story?

 

I don't see why that concern would not exist in the niche market, as well.

Or, again, when a coaching hire is imminent but not finalized. Or a free agent signing.

 

In a gay niche media environment, even the serious planning and preparation of an NFL draft prospect with a somewhat high profile would be of deep interest, even if he eventually changes his mind and backs out, whereas the more typical sports fan would not care about that. I think most people here get that.

 

I completely disagree. When Brendan Ayanbadayjo, for example, said that there had been a planned or still-planned mass coming-out by gay NFL players, it received a lot of mainstream attention that typical sports fans cared about.