No Big Deal: The Modern Gay Athlete

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The tipping point is either here, on the way, or coming really soon.  Slowly but surely all  50 states are voting for equality.  Homosexuality, and the equal treatment of anyone who is a homosexual is around the corner.  And by around the corner I mean we still have a long way to go, but the prospect of true equality is seeming more and more inevitable.  The most recent example of this is Michael Sam.  For those not aware, Michael Sam is a collegiate athlete heading to the NFL this season who just came out as openly gay.  It was a big headline, but it will probably be the last big headline of someone coming out in sports going forward.  Why? Because we’re quickly becoming over this phenomenon of making it a big deal.

Jason Collins came out last year, and immediately it was thought to be the biggest story in sports since Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.  But then just as quickly it was digested and retracted by the masses as something that shouldn’t have been a big story.  Shortly after that, a WWE superstar (I know wrestling isn’t technically a sport, but the athletes carrier a similar clout) came out rather generically, and the world kept on turning.  To my surprise the WWE community as a whole supported him and quickly moved on.  Matter fact many implied that gay wrestlers have existed within the wrestling world for decades and no one cared before.  Now if the NFL didn’t exist I would’ve thought we were completely in a new era of openness and equality in the world of sports.  But let’s be honest, the NFL is probably the most testosterone driven, and most chauvinistic  sport out there.  They were the last sport to integrate female refs as proof.  So in my mind the NFL would’ve been the final frontier to truly pull us into the new world of openness.  Or better put not-giving-a-fuck-ness.  Cause honestly Jason Collins is old and run down, and had he actually been signed, that would’ve maybe indicated a level of hypersensitivity that almost shoots too far beyond true equality.  It’s less about caring, and more about having complete apathy to ones sexual preference.

I thought we would be waiting a much longer time for this.  I also thought it would be some high profile, already a star, NFL athlete.  Instead, it’s a college kid, with nothing to gain, and actually, possibly a little to lose. This argument is tangential and off topic a bit, but when you look back at what the coaches allowed to happen at Penn State, the slew of coaches that leave their team high and dry when sanctions come about, and even the cover ups by certain college officials; you gotta wonder if we’re paying the right people the millions of dollars college sports makes.  Michael Sam may have publicly just came out, but by all accounts he’s been out to his teammates for a while.  No word of hazing, abuse, or even a slightly rough season.  Instead the team was rather successful and more specifically Michael Sam had a great season. At a time when the country is seemingly pushing out the old guard and transitioning to the new, I have to say I’m rather positive on what the new will bring.  The news here is more about how the “adults” will react.  How the GMs, the coaches and scouts will all react.  Because the news is definitely not about how his peers have already reacted, and how they will continue to not react.  So hopefully when the dust settles he goes in the fourth or fifth round like he was projected to, prior to coming out, and if not it’s because his ’40 time was bad. And if that’s the case, then sure it’s a big day, but in the end it’s really no big deal.

Matt Cargile

About Matt Cargile

Matt Cargile is the Editor in Chief of rookerville.com. He also works in finance, but refuses to read any news printed on pink paper. He is a child at heart with adult means. His childhood dream was to either become a magician or the leader of the next great empire and somehow both these things make complete sense. He's contradictory in nature, but is always consistent.

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