ESPN apologizes for reporting on whether Michael Sam is showering with his teammates after practice

Hotair ^ | 08/27/2014 | AllahPundit

[SeekAndFind]

I don’t get it.

After it found itself at the epicenter of a storm of criticism over a report on the shower habits of Michael Sam, the first openly gay player on an NFL roster, and his teammates, ESPN responded Wednesday morning with a further statement on the report.

“ESPN regrets the manner in which we presented our report. Clearly yesterday we collectively failed to meet the standards we have set in reporting on LGBT-related topics in sports.”…

In its initial response to the firestorm, ESPN reponded Tuesday: “In response to recent questions about Sam fitting in with the team, multiple Rams brought up the shower topic and we relayed that information as part of our reporting.” Clearly, it felt it was necessary to walk that back Wednesday.

Watch the report. From the term “shower habits,” you would think one of the anchors had asked, with a smirk, “So, has Sam dropped the soap yet?” But the exchange is low key and matter of fact. The anchor wants to know, go figure, how the NFL’s first openly gay player is fitting in. Remember him? The guy whose coming out last year was international news and inspired maybe eight thousand stories asking, “How well will Sam fit in?” Here’s ESPN following up, and here’s their correspondent with an update: He seems to be fitting in fine, although one Rams player thinks he might be delaying his own showers after practice so as not to make some teammates uncomfortable. However you want to slice that, it’s news. If Sam really is waiting to shower, it shows that he senses there might still be some awkwardness in the locker room and wants to introduce himself to the team gradually. If he isn’t, it shows there’s already some misunderstanding of his behavior

[driftless2]

Tilden is considered by many the first superstar of men’s tennis. That he was a known homosexual was probably one of the reasons a lot of people, like my father, thought it was a sissy sport. Of course many of the types who thought it was a sissy sport most likely never played it. Or couldn’t play it very wel. But while Tilden never admitted to being a homosexual, his public mannerisms left little doubt. Even Ty Cobb saw him play one time and exclaimed “who is this swish?”