Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: Will March Madness ever have an out player?
Last night I went out for a celebratory drink (to commentator wayne m: I understand that act is the cause for the world’s homophobia). My beloved UNC Tar Heels are headed to the Final Four. If you are a college basketball fan (no one here is because a certain GQ writer says so) you know Duke University is UNC’s hated rival and whenever Duke has a sub par year, the heart of Tar Heel nation beats a little bluer.
Which is why I was intrigued by a March 19 New Republic article. The writer Seyward Darby, a proud, yet calm Duke crazy, looked at a strain of homophobia that seems to be part of Duke U. hatred. Wiki-pages for players filled with misinformation about sexuality, an opponent telling the press the way three-point shooter J.J. Redick shot the ball was a sign of his supposed man-love, and missives on multiple message boards that sound like they were penned in the basement of the Westboro Baptist Church.
I think Darby stretches the envelope a little bit. Sports fans, and right now I’m talking about the straight ones, always add the gay tag to a player or team they dislike. I’m sure many a folk in Red Sox Nation have, after down-grading the skills of Derek Jeter, also added he sleeps with men. Homophobia is part of sports culture, from fans to players, and it’s one of the reasons I tend to enjoy my sports from a distance.
What an athlethe does off the court really shouldn’t matter, but it’s hard to imagine a Division 1 major sports player being out. The crowds would be brutal, the opposing team just as so, and religious teammates would more than likely revolt. And the media?! Lord help the kid because there is nothing more conservative, or annoying, than a sports writer. And let’s look in the mirror: we would be just as troublesome, wanting the athlete to carry the water for the movement as opposed to kicking butt on the field.
I’m not willing to speak for all of Tar Heel Nation, but as long as you pull 10 rebounds and 12 points a game, your mate for the night matters not. Just take me to the Big Dance so I can mock all my Duke friends.
PS: Did anyone see the Iowa State Cyclones’ comeback on Saturday night? It’s March madness baby!!!
Many pro contracts contain “morality” clauses which supposedly protect the good name and reputation of the team. For a collegient player to come out, he or she runs the risk of derailing a pro career before it even gets started. This is in addition to facing the rampant bigotry in sports. I guess the concept of a gay football/baseball/basketball player is much too big for many atheletes to wrap their steroid-fried brains around. They would prefer us to stick to diving and ice skating.
first a whole lot of coaches, players, and sports journalists need to COME OUT as supportive allies in order to create a safe environment into which queer players can come out. straight allies risk nothing by asserting their opposition to homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.
As an out sports professional, it is KILLER how all the females in sports are dubbed “dykes” but the men aren’t considered gay. Meanwhile, the MLS soccer teams? Gay I’ve seen with my own eyes. College sports? I mean what is gayer than their locker rooms? As a kid in college I would cover local sports and the locker room stuff is was even gayer than me.
Coming out when one is retired makes (dollars) sense, look what happened to Billie Jean King, however the visibility is never there. Tethering on one’s bank book and one’s moral code is difficult.
One would like to think that we’ve evolved and that an out sports figure could miss out on “breeder” endorsements but that the gay companies would come out of the woodwork to get behind these atheletes.
It’s dollars, like everything else. Or fear.
Or they are afraid of missing out on the naked wet sweatiness that they get to gaze upon. Or perhaps they are so gay in their sport, let’s face it they touch and jump on each other like a porn for any little celebration.
But with men in sports, they mostly just act like animals anyway.
Is it really that important? Could it be that if one were neurotic and predisposed to SAS, he feels it unnecessary to publicize his private sexual behavior? What a concept…..an LGBT individual that behaves like an adult.
There is also a women’s division in the NCAA and I am guessing that a good portion of them are gay and still hide it despite how many of them there are.Coaches too. I have attended over 75 games this year and notice literally thousands of gay spectators at each game. Couples are everywhere and are not, at least at the school I work at, looked upon as anything but gay couples supporting the teams.No need to hide.
The guys still have a few decades before they can embrace their identities. The girls tend to be themselves a little more openly.
Tyler H. is a total bottom,lol. Go UNC!!!!Or Michigan State. The officials have made some very bad calls this year and I think will come under more scrutiny. My ladies team won the SEC Chamionship but the men, not so hot. I was surprised our President overlooked the ladies when he did his brackets. They have played just as hard and some of their games have been much better than the men’s games. It’s typical. The ladies can have a much better record and only have 5,000 fans show up and a last place men’s team can still fill the arena.
grownupjock, it would be a dream come true if a bunch of coaches, players, and sports journalists were to all come out simultaneously!
But tell me, even if a few (or many) players decide to come out of the closet, particularly in Division I sports such as football and basketball, are fans going to stop calling people homophobic slurs to try and make them feel bad? NO. Idiots will always be idiots, though we will make an impact on their bigotry.
What will speak far louder to the fans than sexual orientation is productivity. What true die-hard fan is EVER going to be unhappy about a championship won by their team even if all the starters are gay? That kind of stuff runs in their blood deeper than religion ever could.
Random fact about Duke U.: the organization “gay? fine by me.” http://www.finebyme.org/ was started at Duke to combat the homophobia.
Where’s our gay Jackie Robinson when we need him?
James Withers is 100% right in his article. Anti-gay bigotry is heavy in sports and gay people need to support gay athletes.
James, with the disproportionate amount of African Americans in college basketball, and the disproportionate levels of homophobic bigotry and prejudice in the black community, why would this surprise you?
Another great benefit to fixing homophobia in the black community might be that it helps fix it in some other communities as well. You can’t tell me it doesn’t have an effect.
This society from the president on down is homophobic, so the answer is no. RE: BUY PRODUCTS FROM SPAIN.
RJ, are really that big of an idiot? Let me ask some more questions:
Do you wear a wedding ring? If you work at a desk, do you have a picture of you and your wife and kids displayed? Or do you keep them in the drawer?
At work, do you ever discuss a great dinner out that you and your wife had? Or a good movie you’ve seen together?
As your vacation approaches do you eagerly share the destination and how much you are looking forward to being with your wife rather than being at work?
Do you scurry to a quiet, private corner to take a cell phone call from your wife? I didn’t think so. Do you end that call publicly with, “Love you too.”?
If you are single do you discuss the merits of a movie based on the attractiveness of one or more of the female actors?
Two more points and I’m done. All of the things above publicize your sexual orientation. None of those things even indicate – even hint at – your sexual behavior. Orientation and behavior are in no way synonymous.
Secondly, I agree with you that what one does in the bedroom is quite private and shouldn’t be public information. But the fact is that just I am persuaded by your inane posts that you are straight . . . I still have no idea what you do in your bedroom.
Why do you assume that to reveal one’s orientation is equal to revealing one’s sexual behavior? Doing so is only a tactic of fearful, timid people who must set up straw men in order to avoid the real issue.
Neil
cm,
My. My. Play that race card baby. I would join but the game bores me.
I will simply repeat what I’ve said many a time: homophobia, no matter who espouses it, needs to be fought.
Sincerely,
James
Go UCONN!
cm, so was it black homophobia that prevented (and still prevents for all I know) NHL star Mark Messier from coming out of the closet? I have heard that rumor for a very long time.
Or what about the story of homophobic rants at New York Rangers games that was in the NY Times?
And let’s not even talk about the homophobic and racist rants at British soccer games.
cm, so black homophobia is the reason NHL star Mark Messier has never been able to come out of the closet? Does black homophobia account for the homophobic fan rants at New York Rangers hockey games? How about the homophobic and racist rants at British soccer games…
I spent some time in Washington North Carolina. I’m sorry that this Minnesota boy
was not very thrilled with the experience
because our black brothers were also not too
accepting. But we know what the sisters especially must be going through, not to
mention what the “he-men” have to say about it.