Michael Sam openly gay

[Avery]

Sam is a DE. He lacks enough quickness to be a 3-4 OLB and by all accounts looked stiff at that position.

He's undersized for the position a little bit. Ideally, he could gain 15-20 lbs, but a team will draft him knowing that he's probably maxed out his frame. Still, he can create some pressure which is quite of the point.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

Back in 1991, me, my best friend and his brother(both Steeler fans) took me to the Thanksgiving game. This was my first time away from home for a holiday but loved it. His brother was a MD for the Navy and he footed the bill. After the game, we went out drinking a bit more then decided on some grub before we called it a night.

We went to Denny's and low and behold, Troy walks in with three of his friends, 2 males and a female. They sat in the booth behind us and we heard some of their conversation. Troy sat with some guy on his side and the other two sat on the other. I overheard Troy say he was out of dip and I happened to have two cans on me. I offered him a plug, he took it and thanked me, nothing more was said. His friend next to him playfully flicked his empty can on the table giggling.

Fast forward a few years, a story comes out that he might be gay. I never thought much of it with a who cares attitude. After some thought and media pressure, I thought back to that day in Denny's.......why was this guy giggling next to Troy like that? Could Troy actually be gay? Naw, noway, he is the Cowboy's QB. He got married years later, but who knows.....

To this day, I will always wonder...not from what I saw, but from the media's "opinion". They are powerful in instilling thoughts that are most likely incorrect. Aaron Rodgers is the next prime target, some say too much evidence against him, whatever.

Baseball example: Mike Piazza and Sam Champion......according to some, they had a love affair that went bad. Again, I don't care.

Moral of my story is.....the media does more harm than good and can ruin careers on false presumptions or exaggerations. Darn the media for tarnishing the images of two of my favorite athletes, not that I care one way or the other if true or not but I will never forget the skoal can action due to the media, it is always a thought somewhere in the back of my mind when that subject comes up about Troy.

This nation has made progress on sexual orientation but still a ways to go since it is still headlining. Jackie Robinson is an example, he broke the barrier for African-Americans and today.........there is no second thought to what color the player is in baseball which carried over into other sports. Many years from now, sexuality will not be questioned either. As our fearless leader would say -------- it's a process

I actually would think Skip Bayless was gay before I would ever think that about Troy.

Hopefully he will be drafted & be successful.

 

[65fastback2plus2]

Well, just to play devil's advocate, does this mean men should share a locker room with women as long as they show control?

This is EXACTLY one of the main reasons the NFL doesnt allow women.

 

[65fastback2plus2]

I once knew a gay, he played on our high school baseball team. While in the locker room, we would always, and when I say we I mean the straights, we would always shower in pairs, using the same shower, we would stand back to back so we could always have eyes on the gay. You see, we feared that the he would jump us if alone. Every straight had a shower buddy. Anyway, one day I was sick and didn't go to school, my shower buddy had to go at it alone. The gay had a field day with him, my shower buddy could not walk straight for a month. He later discovered he was also gay, so it wasn't a total loss for him. As for me, I never had another shower buddy quite like him, I was crushed. So as you can see I see where you are coming from. I feel you.

Way to show you have the ability to think on the level of a 2 year old.

 

[WoodysGirl]

But he is still a tweener: too small for defensive end and too inexperienced for outside linebacker. The obstacles facing the NFL's first openly gay player are difficult to anticipate. But we know the obstacles that face tweeners in this league. Life is hard for tweeners, unless they have 4.5 speed or the agility of a samurai (Sam has neither), regardless of their personal lives.

At the Senior Bowl, Sam was just a face in the crowd, another pass rusher lining up in drills and slamming into offensive linemen. And that's a problem. Before anyone else had formed an opinion on Sam, NFL scouts had done so. Analysts like Rang and our own Russ Lande had formed them. Even I had formed some.

Sam is a quick defensive end who often moved inside on passing downs. He can quickly penetrate the line of scrimmage, and he will also sometimes beat an offensive tackle to the outside. Sam finds cracks to slip through on the offensive line, battles hard against the run and hustles until the whistle. But he is short and small for a defensive end at 6-foot-1 and a half, 260 pounds. Sam could move to outside linebacker, but he almost never dropped into coverage for the Tigers: he was much more likely to move to the interior line, a place where he would get steamrolled in the NFL.
"Overall, I think he lacks the top end pass-rush skills to warrant being a high selection by a team that runs a 4-3 defense," Lande told me (he will write a full scouting report for Sports on Earth later in the week). "Additionally, his stiffness and lack of front-line pass-rush skills would cause me to not draft him high if I was going to ask him to play outside linebacker in a 3-4."

http://www.sportsonearth.com/articl...-for-coming-out-but-hes-not-a-top-draft-pick?

 

[InDakWeTrust]

I'm with most of you guys. I'm 26 and have shared several locker rooms with gay men back in high school. When you're of this generation they are around you at the bar or club. Some are open and some keep it to themselves. What will hurt Sam is the narrow mindedness of NFL front offices. I highly suggest reading former punter Chris Kluwe's story about how he was cut for seemingly supporting
gay and civil rights groups.

 

[Risen Star]

Does a gay man go into a men's restroom or a woman's restroom? A men's restroom of course. In school and growing up, girls and boys are grouped together and participate in gender specific activities. They are of the male gender and are associate with and participate in male specific roles.

It is only when an individual is transgender does that role reverse. So it would be unreasonable if we would view a non-transgender gay male through a different lens and put expectations on them we associate with women as you are doing. The vast majority of gay men are responsible human beings and know how to behave in our society and what is expected of them as a man.

The reason they are grouped together is privacy over a sexual nature, isn't it? You don't want women dressing in front of a group of men because of that, right?

So then why does that no longer matter when you allow a gay man into a male locker room? Can you really fault any player who wouldn't want to shower around the guy anymore than you can blame a woman who wouldn't want to shower around men? I can't.

And I'll throw out another question for the board. Sam says this shouldn't matter whatsoever in terms of his football career. I agree with him a thousand percent. But then why did he feel the need to announce something like this that, in his own words, is completely irrelevant and meaningless?

Attention?

 

[Risen Star]

about as fair as "what's wrong with racial profiling? because in the end, if you did nothing wrong, nothing will happen."

There's an obvious difference between males, straight and gay, sharing a locker room versus both genders sharing a locker room. Since before bathrooms/locker rooms were invented, men and women typically do not expose themselves in front of each other, unless they had an intimate relationship. Among the same gender, it just isn't as taboo. Some may think that they have never shared a locker room with a homosexual, but odds are, if you use a locker room, you have been in one with someone who was a homosexual. So to not allow a gay man to use the locker room with his team mates is discrimination, since there is no reason beyond his sexuality to exclude him as opposed to a man sharing a women's locker room since that is typically not allowed.

I don't agree. The reason why men and women typically don't expose themselves in front of each other has to do entirely about sex and sexual attraction. I see no difference between that and a gay man sharing a locker room with other men. There is just no difference whatsoever. If that's okay, then open up all locker rooms to everyone. It's all okay.

 

[Risen Star]

And you didn't answer my question of what's the correlation between a gay man a woman?

He is a man in a men's locker room. Why does it go any further than that? So I'm guessing you want seperate public bathrooms just incase a gay guy tries to pee next to you at a urinal? Because obviously that guy is going to be staring at you the entire time.

Pretty ridiculous that this conversation even needs to be had to be honest.

What's ridiculous is you can't recognize why we have had gender specific bathrooms all this time. It's not because of just randomly separating the genders. It has to do with sexual attraction and privacy.

 

[tm1119]

The reason they are grouped together is privacy over a sexual nature, isn't it? You don't want women dressing in front of a group of men because of that, right?

So then why does that no longer matter when you allow a gay man into a male locker room? Can you really fault any player who wouldn't want to shower around the guy anymore than you can blame a woman who wouldn't want to shower around men? I can't.

And I'll throw out another question for the board. Sam says this shouldn't matter whatsoever in terms of his football career. I agree with him a thousand percent. But then why did he feel the need to announce something like this that, in his own words, is completely irrelevant and meaningless?

Attention?

You're 1st point is still incredibly ignorant and really doesn't need to be answered any more clearly than it has been several times.

And he came out because he knew so many people already knew and the story would be public sooner or later. Would you rather tell your story and put it in your own words or would you rather have some stranger tell it from a 2nd hand source? Plus this is a pretty much a civil rights movement lead by him at this point. Someone HAD to come out and be the 1st openly gay player in the nfl. Good for him for having the courage to do it

 

[Risen Star]

You're 1st point is still incredibly ignorant and really doesn't need to be answered any more clearly than it has been several times.

Or in translation - I have no response to that other than well, we typically separate the genders. Completely ignoring why we've done that all these years.

And he came out because he knew so many people already knew and the story would be public sooner or later. Would you rather tell your story and put it in your own words or would you rather have some stranger tell it from a 2nd hand source? Plus this is a pretty much a civil rights movement lead by him at this point. Someone HAD to come out and be the 1st openly gay player in the nfl. Good for him for having the courage to do it

Actually, I wouldn't care. The reason why so many people knew is he told them. I wouldn't have told them then either. I would just play football and let my own sexual preference be truly irrelevant to my career as a player.

 

[Common Sense]

Sam is not a LBer. he's a DE. Dont look at his size. They tried him at OLB at the SR bowl and he was awful

Leo is the way Seattle plays Clemons and Avril. It's tailor-made for "tweeners."

 

[LatinMind]

Leo is the way Seattle plays Clemons and Avril. It's tailor-made for "tweeners."

Actually they play Bruce Irvin Leo. Clemons and Avril are WDE. Sam should never be in coverage.

 

[tm1119]

Or in translation - I have no response to that other than well, we typically separate the genders. Completely ignoring why we've done that all these years.



Actually, I wouldn't care. The reason why so many people knew is he told them. I wouldn't have told them then either. I would just play football and let my own sexual preference be truly irrelevant to my career as a player.

If I have to explain to you why a person should be treated equally regardless of their sexual orientation then you're honestly not even worth talking to you.

And if you honestly believe he should have to live his life as a lie because he's different from you then you're even more close minded and ignorant than I thought. You're honestly coming off as a bigot. Just stop while you are behind.

 

[Risen Star]

If I have to explain to you why a person should be treated equally regardless of their sexual orientation then you're honestly not even worth talking to you.

And if you honestly believe he should have to live his life as a lie because he's different from you then you're even more close minded and ignorant than I thought. You're honestly coming off as a bigot. Just stop while you are behind.

The overly sensitive "tolerant" crowd.

I don't see it as living as a lie. If sexual orientation is truly irrelevant, then why is it important that everybody knows he's gay? You can't have it both ways. Either it doesn't mean anything or it does.

You seem to be a waste of time to talk to about this. I already knew your responses. I just wanted to expose them for the politically correct nonsense they truly are. I'm all for treating everyone equally.

Anybody who can blame a man for not wanting to shower around a gay man but doesn't blame a woman for not wanting to shower around a straight man is just wrong. There is no difference between the two.

And if you are truly about tolerance, you'll respect the fact that others don't feel the same way walking into that locker room as you do. It's an individual decision and I can't fault any player for wanting him out of there.

 

[theSHOW]

I doubt this will affect his stock at all. Teams know of gay players in their organization for years. If they can play, they'll pay them and play them. Lombardi and his team knew of a gay player and Lombardi told his assistant coaches that if he ever catches them questioning his manhood or making gay slurs, he would fire them on the spot.

Sure, there are a lot of people that are not the same way...but this was in the 60's and the point is that it's an example of a team knowing full well of a gay player and handling it just fine. If they have the skills, they'll play them and pay them. If they don't, they won't.

I'm a bit conflicted because I'm not sure what Sam is doing is more admirable than the gay players that kept it quiet out of fear of public backlash. And I'm not really sure why they should have felt obligated to come out since...it is technically nobody's business. OTOH, it may help those who are ashamed of their sexuality.




YR

the Packers? lol

 

[WoodysGirl]

 

[Macnalty]

If he is BPA when we draft I say go for it. Lets move on to real football drama.

 

[LatinMind]

These NFL exec's have no soul. They know they will drop him plenty, and most right off their draft board. But smart enough to release something like this to keep activists at bay. Draft day he will drop and drop and drop. And they will mention his height, his weight tweener status ect.

 

[theSHOW]

I think Michael Sam should switch positions but not to a linebacker, TE is most fitting