Football preparing the ground for first gay players

After NBA player Jason Collins broke that barrier this week, the National Football League is making sure it will be ready for any coming out party.

Earlier this year, at least three college football players said they had been asked about their sexual orientation during NFL recruitment interviews, sparking calls for the NFL to do more to fight discrimination.

Just hours before Collins' coming out statement was published by Sports Illustrated on Tuesday, the NFL - America's most popular sport, with $9 billion a year in revenue - released a ‘workplace conduct statement' regarding sexual orientation.

“Like I said, gay: you’re speaking to a combat veteran.”

I served, you served, and now its over. You know what they call retired generals once they’ve left the base for the last time? Mister.

It isn’t gay to enjoy watching any team do something well.

For my money, I’m sick of sending people to do the fighting when we should be sending missiles. We should have wasted Afghanistan and probably Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Iraq after 9/11 and then not apologized for it.

Let the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

Ticket prices are too high, especially in a recession. TV ratings are still high.

There are a lot of "football" sports around the world -- soccer, rugby union, rugby league; American football, Canadian football, Celtic football.

American football certainly isn't the worst or the least interesting of them all.

A sport's popularity isn't written in stone, but the NFL could make it a little softer or duller without the home viewing audience deserting.

Given the fate of the USFL and other new leagues, I don't think you're going to see a competing league displace the NFL either.

You said you served, so thank you. That isn't exactly saying you served in combat, so I'm going to assume that you didn't.

For purposes of this discussion, let's assume that you did: if you had, you'd have experienced real teamwork, real risk. You'd have seen and experienced what it was like to be hunted by other human beings while hunting them. More than likely, you'd have been wounded and you would have known the pain and fear that comes with that territory. Most of all, you would have learned that the men you served with were the best people you'd ever know and ever would know, since you would know that any one of them would die fo you.

When you came back, you would have run into the self interest, indifference, callousness of your fellow citizens. You would have seen the trite garbage they occupied themselves with, including watching oversized and overpaid individuals cavorting on playing fields and then calling them "sports heroes".

Imagine your disgust.

"There are a lot of "football" sports around the world -- soccer, rugby union, rugby league; American football, Canadian football, Celtic football"

and of course the best football of all,AFL.

Rule #1 no poofters!

Joking aside I can't imagine the creative tsunami of sledging that will greet the first AFL player to come out.There's always lots of rumours but no official coming out that I can recall.

I just chose to look at it differently than you. We provided the luxury of human frailty.

All people are broken. Children and women are careless. Athletes are artists are narcissists. Capitalists with vision are driven to the exclusion of their families best interests.

Vigorous defense of the Constitution, legitimate laws and statutes, and the border of the United States affords civilians these sorts of shortcomings. It’s my belief that as long as we put God in the front of our nation and Army, then we will continue to be allowed these indulgences.

So, yeah, I have to put up with Bonds, and others juicing thenselves into the Hall of Fame and pissing on the legitimate achievements of men who got there without those enhancements, multi-million dollar contracts, no-trade clauses, limos, and other things the modern athlete get.

I also have to put up with the fact that the folks that run the NBA, NFL, and MLB will insist on the public financing stadiums in order to benefit the very few investors who put in as little as $600,000 and walk away with almost $16M. (That would be a very prominent R in Texas who did that, by the way - so much for self-reliance and small government).

However, our all volunteer force allows us these pleasures and annoyances.

I still watch a good pitching duel, and I follow the west coast teams I grew up with, as well as the Yankees from when I was stationed in NYC.

I learned a long time ago that your attitude determines you altitude. Watching a great golf shot, or a diving catch and a throw from a rolling recovery to first base to pick the guy off at first is poetry.

Pele would make kicks that to this day make grown men literally weep. I think he labeled soccer, ‘The Beautiful Game’ and legitimately got away with it because just to watch him play a simple league match was to exceed the expections of that generalization.’

To go along with all of that, sports is a constructive outlet for the competitive spirit within all men that spur us on to do truly great and constructive things.

The world is full of overgrown children, and it was ever thus. The only thing that matters is the company you keep.

Nicely written reply.

I came back with a wholly different perspective: I saw the price we paid and that it was just us paying it. To see people occupying their lives over trivialities seems to be a filthy waste of our lives. The Constitution allows the free exercise of our wills, more or less, but responsibility should hold us to higher values, higher callings of our lives. Instead - we have idiots whiling away their existence with video games or drugs or pornography.

Professional sports aren't quite that low on the totem pole but they are pretty much a waste of oxygen. I have never cared much for how somebody else does something, unless it's a skill I need to learn. The whole idea of wasting my limited remaining time watching someone throwing a ball is incomprehensible. I have better things to do.

My sport is long-distance rifle competition. As we say in the Marine Corps, "It is a sad fact but true that no enemy soldier has ever been killed by a basketball, a baseball, a football, a golf ball or a bowling ball: that has always been the task of a skilled rifleman".

Funny you should say that - I just received a grant to buy my BSA Troop 5 rifles. They are also, every one, members of the Traditional Bowhunters of Washington.

They have given us a franchise to provide meals for their archery events. The Troop makes money for programs, learns how to be bowyers and fletchers, and they get to do all the courses for free.

The US military allows for all the diverse pursuits we pursue. Some of those things may indeed be a waste in every respect, but all I see is a 1000 flowers all in the pursuit of happiness. All under the aegis we provide, or have provided.

I’m a scoutmaster, and that’s my hobby I guess. The next generation better stand for something, or we may all fall together.

Thanks for your service, and I hope you find peace.

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