Why does being gay equate to emotional indifference and drinking like a fish?
Answering for Diogenes here, I took that to mean emotional indifference to a girlfriend, specifically, indicating perhaps some ambivilence there. And the drinking as an indication of inner turmoil, as one might expect from someone who is gay in a conservative southern town.
It doesn’t “equate” to it, it just explains those things in some cases – especially in small, conservative communities (and I was talking about “indifference” to romantic relationships with women, not indifference in general).
Without the relationship stuff, the writers would run out of material real fast. I like the show, and I think they do a good job of making the “relationship stuff” as realistic as possible so you’re not always rolling your eyes as you do with some shows. As for Riggins being gay, that would make him an entirely different character. He’s the stud football jock who sleeps with all the chicks. If he were gay, he wouldn’t be doing that.
Sarahfeena: Did you try to get cast as the lady next door with the little kid? 
Yeah, but you keep forgetting that these things take place in a conservative Southern town. The correct inference to take from that fact is that the intolerance towards gays and minorities is on a scale totally unimaginable to the good people in Northern towns like Detroit and Philadelphia.
I have to say, I so totally bought into him as the stud football jock, I would have a very hard time seeing him as gay.
Hell, yeah…I’ll take that role! Actually, I started watching the show because I’ve geen a big fan of Kyle Chandler since his days on Homefront, years and years ago. I watch everything he’s in! I read and liked the book, too, and I thought it was an interesting premise. Riggins is just a bonus. 