[QUOTE=Marley23]
Navratilova’s best years were in the early 80s, and she’d already come out by then. She was an active and successful player, on and off, until about a year ago. I’m sure she had clothing and equipment sponsors, but I can only think of one commercial she did, and it was in the late 90s.
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And honestly I think that her lack of commericals has more to do with the fact that she’s not most peoples idea of an attractive person than her sexual orientation.
Well, there certainly are gay athletes out there already - perhaps not out, but they’re there - I absolutely believe it. I think fan reaction would be muted. Plenty of people who hate or dislike the team Piazza plays for think he’s gay, anyway. The metric in sports is winning. If Kobe Bryant was a scrub on the bench and he caught a case, there’d be a lot of outcry to trade him, void his contract, etc. But he’s the best player on his team, possibly the league. So people got over it real quick.
There’s a somewhat analogous situation in the music world. Rob Halford of Judas Priest is gay. Most metalheads I knew in the 80s when they were huge weren’t the most sensitive and accepting guys. But I’ve never heard a metalhead dis Halford. They respect him because he’s good at what he does. I was actually pretty impressed with the fan response when he came out. A lot of people said, “Well, it makes sense, with the leather and all,” and others seemed to say, “He’s a legend, no big deal.” I think the reaction of other rockers helped as well. There were a lot more people supporting him than chastising.
I’m not an athlete, but I know a few guys who are. I think if the star in question was checking guys out in the shower and hitting on them there’d be trouble on the team. But most gay guys that I know are pretty careful about keeping their private lives separate from work until they know people are accepting, so I doubt it would be something that would affect the day-to-day workings of the club. Especially if the guy was the best in the league. I think guys want championship rings, endorsements, and contracts more than they care about playing with a gay guy.
LeBron’s comment was pretty dumb. You know, if you’re winning, and your teammate is doing his job, I don’t think people care if they’re fucking 10 women at a time, snorting coke off the backs of puppies, or anything like that. The idea that grown-assed men need to know every detail of each other’s lives is ridiculous and almost certainly not true.
[QUOTE=Hippy Hollow]
There’s a somewhat analogous situation in the music world. Rob Halford of Judas Priest is gay. Most metalheads I knew in the 80s when they were huge weren’t the most sensitive and accepting guys. But I’ve never heard a metalhead dis Halford. They respect him because he’s good at what he does. I was actually pretty impressed with the fan response when he came out. A lot of people said, “Well, it makes sense, with the leather and all,” and others seemed to say, “He’s a legend, no big deal.” I think the reaction of other rockers helped as well. There were a lot more people supporting him than chastising.
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As a former 80’s metalhead, I can tell you that everybody already knew, even in the 80’s, and considered it a non-issue. It was so widely known that I was surprised when he “came out,” because I thought he’d already been out for years.
Looking back, it does seem odd that 80’s headbangers would accept it so casually, but I guess there was precedent for it in the rock world in general. A lot of metalheads also liked Queen and some of the glam stuff and just took it as a given that some of those guys were gay (though I don’t think the case was ever proved against Rod Stewart). It wasn’t such a big deal to have a token gay headbanger. Plus Halford was so good as a metal singer that he was able to appeal to his audience just on talent alone.
I think we can can learn a lot from Esera Tuaolo’s experience as a gay athlete in the NFL. He was not out while he played, but he seems to think that the would have been a lot of negative repercussions if he had come out.
Several colleagues that he’s known openly admitted they would seek to injure him because he is gay. These are people on his own team. Anyone who thinks a star football player would be openly accepted is fooling themselves. All it takes is one half-hearted block from an indifferent teammate to end your career. A QB would be at even greater risk. There is no way an openly gay player would be able to exist without seriously disrupting team chemistry (through no fault of their own). That alone would effectively end their career, or seriously limit their success on and off the field.
Based on the reaction of other gay-unfriendly environments in recent years, I suspect that it would be exceptionally difficult for any athlete to be the first to come out, but that acceptance would come surprisingly quickly.
It’s easy for people to talk shit when it’s all theory. “I don’t want a gay teammate, blah blah blah,” but when Steve Superstar comes out as gay and he’s the guy who threw 43 touchdown passes or scored 29 points a game or whatever, and you know the team’s going to waive your ass if you can’t get along, you’ll learn acceptance pretty quickly.
True story: I joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1989. At that time, it was illegal for a soldier to be a homosexual. Gays were not welcome, and the environment was openly prejudiced. Jokes about gays were not only allowed, but freely used by instructors to belittle students on basic training. One of my drill insfructors stated “I hate homosexuals!” It was simply an accepted part of the program.
There was talk in the early 90’s of getting rid of the rule against gays, and the near-universal opinion of those who cared enough about it to think about it was that it was a horrible idea that would destroy esprit de corps and they would never, ever accept a gay soldier.
In the early 90’s the Forces eliminated the rule against gay soldiers, anticipating that it would be struck down in court anyway if they didn’t change it first. So what happened?
None of the trash talk scenarios of doom happened. Gays have gained amazingly quick acceptance in the Forces; a year or so ago two guys actually got married, in uniform, on base. When it came time to actually do something about it, all the bigmouth shit-talkers shut their yaps.
It is also worth inspecting a comparable situation in pro sports, that being the integration of black players. When baseball first prepared for integration in 1947 the shit that was talked up was amazing. There were serious remours of entire teams refusing to play. And when Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers, he did take a lot of shit. But two interesting things happened:
Acceptance by baseball was, to be honest, a lot faster than I would have expected if you’d asked me how it would go in 1947.
People talk a lot of shit, but most of them back down when the rubber meets the road.
[QUOTE=brickbacon]
I think we can can learn a lot from Esera Tuaolo’s experience as a gay athlete in the NFL. He was not out while he played, but he seems to think that the would have been a lot of negative repercussions if he had come out.
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But again, Tuaolo’s playing career ended almost ten years ago, in 1999.
[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
But again, Tuaolo’s playing career ended almost ten years ago, in 1999.
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True, but it only takes one asshole to end your career. I don’t think the whole locker room would turn against the person, but you have a lot of quasi-religious and macho-homophobic people in most sports locker rooms. All it would take is for one, in a key position, to decide to not give 100%.
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting]
generally respected sport writer, Michael Medved
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I take it that the “generally respected” label is to clarify that you are referring to some “Michael Medved” other than the jackass who is the best-known person of that name, yes?
[QUOTE=Steve MB]
I take it that the “generally respected” label is to clarify that you are referring to some “Michael Medved” other than the jackass who is the best-known person of that name, yes?
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Because I was researching another sports-related question at that time, all sorts of misappellations got attached here.