This country has waited far too long, but finally gay athletes are becoming socially acceptable in our national sports leagues.
On Feb. 23 the Brooklyn Nets signed 35-year-old veteran center Jason Collins to a 10-day contract. Collins announced that he was gay in April of 2013 in an essay published in Sports Illustrated.
Collins was not signed by any team during the first half of the NBA season, because of the supposed “media circus” surrounding Collins and his re-entry to the league.
The Brooklyn Nets came into the season with high expectations, and hoped to take down the Heat this season, but the Nets started off the season slow and fell to the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Brooklyn was able to climb back into the race and traded Reggie Evans to the Kings at the trade deadline. This opened up a spot on the Nets roster for a hustle player, Jason Collins.
The Nets didn’t sign Collins for the media hype, or even public relations. The Nets signed Collins because of his basketball ability.
Players around the NBA have voiced support for Collins through social media. Collins has been embraced in the locker room, which is a surprise to many following the Jonathon Martin incident.
The NFL is a whole different story though, and it is tough to translate the sticky situation of Martin-Incognito in the Dolphins locker room, but many players have started to take Martin’s side in the bullying scandal.
Michael Sam, an NFL Draft prospect out of Missouri, came out in an interview on ESPN just three weeks ago. Sam received support from all NFL circles, but there have been a few outspoken critics.
Multiple executives, anonymous at that, have spoken out against Sam, going as far as saying, as one did, “I don’t think the NFL is ready for an openly gay player.”
These executives have no right to criticize Sam’s decision to come out if they aren’t even revealing their own identity to the public.
Sam, the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, is a projected late third- to fourth-round pick by ESPN’s Todd McShay.
People often say that Sam will be criticized in NFL locker rooms, but at Missouri, Sam was embraced by his teammates – even after telling them that he was gay.
Collins was in the NBA for 11 years before coming out. He was in the locker room, taking showers with other players, but nobody even suspected that he was gay.
This is the culture of professional sports; just because a gay man is showering with his teammates does not make it sexual.
The rest of society has moved on. Now it’s time to get rid of homophobic behavior in NFL locker rooms.
