Actually, some teams went whole hog "gay" when that what's-his-face "out" ball player sucked the face of his "boyfriend" publicly. It was more widespread than you remember.
If a bunch of players came out of the closet and were wearing Rainbow cleets, fairy flapping in the end zone,then perhaps it would have.
I get it, teams were trying to sign him if he had been good enough. But we also weren’t dealing with a year and a half of the media trying to start Civil War II. Plus, this latest NFL incident/protest has been going on for a full year.