Footballe (future NFLer)r comes out of the closest.....

[xmas1997]

There's a lot of delusion at this site.
It is amusing to watch the idiots make excuses and feeble attempts to ridicule.
They have only themselves to blame for their uncivil actions.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

No reason to lie or make announcements, just be who he is. Somebody going to take him so worry about as it comes.

Assuming you don't buy the idea of being a role model for closeted athletes out there, there's something to be said for timing and taking control of the situation on a practical level. Like I said in the NFL thread about this (and like many other talking heads have been saying all day as well) there are execs and coaches out there that don't want the sort of media headache that will come with this big of a story (and like it or not it's going to be). So while I don't doubt that someone would take him there's reason to believe that it could knock him back enough slots that it might cost him some money on his first contract. That's not something a pro athlete wants to just "worry about as it comes." So why not go public now? It's months until the draft. Let the first big media wave come and go on his terms in the dead of the offseason. It gets at least some of the hoopla out of the way and gives him the chance to show some of those execs and coaches that he's got the maturity to handle the scrutiny that is going to come.

The alternative would leave a lot to chance, open up the door for a worst case scenario. He leaves well enough alone, no big announcements, just business as usual. Then someone leaks it the week of the draft and you have this whirlwind of media bull surrounding him on their terms. Those GMs that might have concerns get a ready made excuse to pass on the guy until the later rounds. Did he not foresee the level of media attention this would bring? Was he too scared to face that kind of media scrutiny? Did he not consider the sort of shockwaves this could send through a team if the news broke after he got drafted? Does that sound like a guy ready for the responsibility of leading a locker room? Then the story isn't him just being who he is, it's that he isn't who the NFL wants a player to be.

[Jacob1983]

I just don't get the whole being gay is brave and heroic trend. Since when did people get recognition because of who they bang? If you are a guy and like , that doesn't mean you are special. It just means you are a guy that likes. Nothing more, nothing less. I think Asian chicks are hot but I don't go around blasting it everywhere.

[Avante]

Assuming you don't buy the idea of being a role model for closeted athletes out there, there's something to be said for timing and taking control of the situation on a practical level. Like I said in the NFL thread about this (and like many other talking heads have been saying all day as well) there are execs and coaches out there that don't want the sort of media headache that will come with this big of a story (and like it or not it's going to be). So while I don't doubt that someone would take him there's reason to believe that it could knock him back enough slots that it might cost him some money on his first contract. That's not something a pro athlete wants to just "worry about as it comes." So why not go public now? It's months until the draft. Let the first big media wave come and go on his terms in the dead of the offseason. It gets at least some of the hoopla out of the way and gives him the chance to show some of those execs and coaches that he's got the maturity to handle the scrutiny that is going to come.

The alternative would leave a lot to chance, open up the door for a worst case scenario. He leaves well enough alone, no big announcements, just business as usual. Then someone leaks it the week of the draft and you have this whirlwind of media bull surrounding him on their terms. Those GMs that might have concerns get a ready made excuse to pass on the guy until the later rounds. Did he not foresee the level of media attention this would bring? Was he too scared to face that kind of media scrutiny? Did he not consider the sort of shockwaves this could send through a team if the news broke after he got drafted? Does that sound like a guy ready for the responsibility of leading a locker room? Then the story isn't him just being who he is, it's that he isn't who the NFL wants a player to be.

The NFL is big business, and players come and go. If this one player is gay it shouldn't be made out to be...OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!! ...and the league is smart enought to know this. They have an image to up hold.

Nodody in any line of work has to talk about their sexuality not even pro football, it's nobodies business. He didn't have to say anything no more than you or I did when we got our jobs, being heterosexual isn't a job requirement. The NFL understands this and knows they can't discriminate against anyone because of sexual preference. We do have labor laws.

The guy should have just been like everyone else, do his thing and let others worry about their predjudices.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

The NFL is big business, and players come and go. If this one player is gay it shouldn't be made out to be...OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!! ...and the league is smart enought to know this. They have an image to up hold.

Nodody in any line of work has to talk about their sexuality not even pro football, it's nobodies business. He didn't have to say anything no more than you or I did when we got our jobs, being heterosexual isn't a job requirement. The NFL understands this and knows they can't discriminate against anyone because of sexual preference. We do have labor laws.

The guy should have just been like everyone else, do his thing and let others worry about their predjudices.

You're right in that this shouldn't be a huge, "Oh my God!", moment and with the number of guys who have come and gone from the league it's all but statistically impossible that there aren't gay guys in the NFL at this very moment. Plus I think some are going way too far in lionizing this guy before he's ever played a single down in the NFL. I've heard a few comparisons to Jackie Robinson in particular that make me roll my eyes. There's facing adversity and then there's never being sure that you're going to make it from the locker room to the team bus in one piece. In a few years this guy could be a monstrous bust, act like a little , play the victim, and set back the cause of gay athletes everywhere.

No one in any line of work SHOULD have to talk about their sexuality. You and I didn't. Nothing I do at my job is ever going to come to much public scrutiny, nor will a million people I've never met ever give a about much of anything I do in my private life. We're not NFL players. I think it would be great if this guy could have just gone to work, played the game, and never had to give any of this a second thought. I think where you and I fundamentally disagree is that I don't think "just being himself" was ever going to be a real option here. There shouldn't be any media concern about a player's sexuality. Team mates shouldn't give a about what the a guy does behind closed doors. But there is media concern, and lots of players have said that does matter to them. My point is that there was going to be a firestorm around this issue some time or another. I outlined what I thought was a potential scenario in which just sitting back could hurt his draft stock and put him in a tougher position to thrive in the league. I'm just talking about one athlete recognizing the realities of a situation and doing what's right for his career, which in this case was to get out in front of the story on his terms.

[leemajors]

You're right in that this shouldn't be a huge, "Oh my God!", moment and with the number of guys who have come and gone from the league it's all but statistically impossible that there aren't gay guys in the NFL at this very moment. Plus I think some are going way too far in lionizing this guy before he's ever played a single down in the NFL. I've heard a few comparisons to Jackie Robinson in particular that make me roll my eyes. There's facing adversity and then there's never being sure that you're going to make it from the locker room to the team bus in one piece. In a few years this guy could be a monstrous bust, act like a little , play the victim, and set back the cause of gay athletes everywhere.

No one in any line of work SHOULD have to talk about their sexuality. You and I didn't. Nothing I do at my job is ever going to come to much public scrutiny, nor will a million people I've never met ever give a about much of anything I do in my private life. We're not NFL players. I think it would be great if this guy could have just gone to work, played the game, and never had to give any of this a second thought. I think where you and I fundamentally disagree is that I don't think "just being himself" was ever going to be a real option here. There shouldn't be any media concern about a player's sexuality. Team mates shouldn't give a about what the a guy does behind closed doors. But there is media concern, and lots of players have said that does matter to them. My point is that there was going to be a firestorm around this issue some time or another. I outlined what I thought was a potential scenario in which just sitting back could hurt his draft stock and put him in a tougher position to thrive in the league. I'm just talking about one athlete recognizing the realities of a situation and doing what's right for his career, which in this case was to get out in front of the story on his terms.

[Avante]

You're right in that this shouldn't be a huge, "Oh my God!", moment and with the number of guys who have come and gone from the league it's all but statistically impossible that there aren't gay guys in the NFL at this very moment. Plus I think some are going way too far in lionizing this guy before he's ever played a single down in the NFL. I've heard a few comparisons to Jackie Robinson in particular that make me roll my eyes. There's facing adversity and then there's never being sure that you're going to make it from the locker room to the team bus in one piece. In a few years this guy could be a monstrous bust, act like a little , play the victim, and set back the cause of gay athletes everywhere.

No one in any line of work SHOULD have to talk about their sexuality. You and I didn't. Nothing I do at my job is ever going to come to much public scrutiny, nor will a million people I've never met ever give a about much of anything I do in my private life. We're not NFL players. I think it would be great if this guy could have just gone to work, played the game, and never had to give any of this a second thought. I think where you and I fundamentally disagree is that I don't think "just being himself" was ever going to be a real option here. There shouldn't be any media concern about a player's sexuality. Team mates shouldn't give a about what the a guy does behind closed doors. But there is media concern, and lots of players have said that does matter to them. My point is that there was going to be a firestorm around this issue some time or another. I outlined what I thought was a potential scenario in which just sitting back could hurt his draft stock and put him in a tougher position to thrive in the league. I'm just talking about one athlete recognizing the realities of a situation and doing what's right for his career, which in this case was to get out in front of the story on his terms.

I don't see how making it clear to everyone he has no good business sense is going to help him. Once again he has done nothing wrong nor does he deserve to be treated like anything other than just another young guy looking to play football. Let the media expose themselves for what we all know they are, that is not his concern. I'm not talking about hiding or evading, I am talking about drawing attention to himself when he didn't need to go that route. Instead of being a quiet young gay boy he's now a...I'M GAY!!!!!!!! He comes off being aggressive about it, that won't help.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

I don't see how making it clear to everyone he has no good business sense is going to help him. Once again he has done nothing wrong nor does he deserve to be treated like anything other than just another young guy looking to play football. Let the media expose themselves for what we all know they are, that is not his concern. I'm not talking about hiding or evading, I am talking about drawing attention to himself when he didn't need to go that route. Instead of being a quiet young gay boy he's now a...I'M GAY!!!!!!!! He comes off being aggressive about it, that won't help.

Again, we're obviously starting from two very different points. You seeing it as needlessly drawing the attention, I view it as dictating when he would deal with the attention that was going to come one way or another. Let the media expose themselves, just make them do it in the middle of February so that by the time the combine comes around they've run out of stuff to write and can go back to ranking the QB class. From what I saw yesterday while every media outlet was talking about it they all showed the same clip from the same interview where he came out. If that's the only media appearance he's made discussing it I don't view that as being aggressive about it. If he's been doing more then I'm unaware of it, though to be perfectly honest to this point my knowledge of the situation comes from channel surfing for a couple of hours yesterday and seeing some stuff on FB. Please correct me if I am wrong there. Now there's plenty of time for him to start throwing himself in front of cameras to talk gay rights and marching in pride parades. Basically doing anything but getting himself ready for the combine is going to be a mistake. Now's the time for him to be "a quiet young gay boy".

Really the more I think about it the more the timing of it is ing brilliant. The perfect time window both for him and to allow the NFL to preserve and protect its image on all fronts. If he lets the news break during his senior season then he looks like a attention and puts his team mates in an awkward position. Their season wraps up right as the NFL playoffs are starting up and the last thing Goodell wants is anything to distract from the games themselves, or even worse risk the odds on media day for the Superbowl. 1000 reporters, a few hundred players and coaches, some of them your most visible stars - too much opportunity for someone to say the wrong thing and have it on every television set for the next six months. Which brings us to now: just far enough past the Superbowl that most casual fans are ready to be done with football for a while, minus your hardcore draft nuts. Most national media outlets aren't carving out big time blocks for NFL discussion anymore, to say nothing of the fact that there's an Olympics going on. Almost every player and coach is somewhere on vacation so you don't have any where for all the media to descend upon any team's personnel en masse looking for a sound bite. And it's about as far away from the draft and training camp as you can be in the offseason. GMs that might need a pass rusher but know that their players or fans won't stand for it can quietly focus their scouting elsewhere, draw up plans to trade out of whatever range of picks that he might be projected in, and figure out how to make those moves look like the most natural ones in the world. The teams that are really high on him, outraged fans be damned, can pick him up after all the uproar has had a few months to die down. There's a lot of ways that he could this up but I think the first step has been perfectly played.

[Avante]

Again, we're obviously starting from two very different points. You seeing it as needlessly drawing the attention, I view it as dictating when he would deal with the attention that was going to come one way or another. Let the media expose themselves, just make them do it in the middle of February so that by the time the combine comes around they've run out of stuff to write and can go back to ranking the QB class. From what I saw yesterday while every media outlet was talking about it they all showed the same clip from the same interview where he came out. If that's the only media appearance he's made discussing it I don't view that as being aggressive about it. If he's been doing more then I'm unaware of it, though to be perfectly honest to this point my knowledge of the situation comes from channel surfing for a couple of hours yesterday and seeing some stuff on FB. Please correct me if I am wrong there. Now there's plenty of time for him to start throwing himself in front of cameras to talk gay rights and marching in pride parades. Basically doing anything but getting himself ready for the combine is going to be a mistake. Now's the time for him to be "a quiet young gay boy".

Really the more I think about it the more the timing of it is ing brilliant. The perfect time window both for him and to allow the NFL to preserve and protect its image on all fronts. If he lets the news break during his senior season then he looks like a attention and puts his team mates in an awkward position. Their season wraps up right as the NFL playoffs are starting up and the last thing Goodell wants is anything to distract from the games themselves, or even worse risk the odds on media day for the Superbowl. 1000 reporters, a few hundred players and coaches, some of them your most visible stars - too much opportunity for someone to say the wrong thing and have it on every television set for the next six months. Which brings us to now: just far enough past the Superbowl that most casual fans are ready to be done with football for a while, minus your hardcore draft nuts. Most national media outlets aren't carving out big time blocks for NFL discussion anymore, to say nothing of the fact that there's an Olympics going on. Almost every player and coach is somewhere on vacation so you don't have any where for all the media to descend upon any team's personnel en masse looking for a sound bite. And it's about as far away from the draft and training camp as you can be in the offseason. GMs that might need a pass rusher but know that their players or fans won't stand for it can quietly focus their scouting elsewhere, draw up plans to trade out of whatever range of picks that he might be projected in, and figure out how to make those moves look like the most natural ones in the world. The teams that are really high on him, outraged fans be damned, can pick him up after all the uproar has had a few months to die down. There's a lot of ways that he could this up but I think the first step has been perfectly played.

I do agree with some of that.

It's looking more and more like the guy might be a little flakey, he told the world about this before he did his parents? His dad found out about it watching tv????? Something isn't right here.

So he doesn't have any business sense, he doesn't understand how things should be done. I see this whole thing becoming a big mess,

[xmas1997]

I think it will quickly become "old news", only to maybe resurface just before the draft, and become fodder for the sporting news.
But after the first team to draft him answers some awkward questions it'll all die down again until when and if he becomes a central part of a team in the Super Bowl, or unless he makes it an issue later on.