Posted on 04/29/2013 11:24:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Two weeks ago we were writing about a terrorist attack, today we’re writing about gay basketball players. A blogger’s life for me, my friends.
Easy prediction: 75 percent of the public will be casually supportive or casually disapproving but either way almost entirely indifferent. Fifteen percent, including lots of pols, celebrities, and the media, will support him enthusiastically. The other 10 percent will hassle him on the court or from the stands either because they dislike gays or just to spite the 15 percent of “opinion leaders” on the other side. Collins will get a standing O at his first home game next year — if he ends up being signed — and some fans on the road will get nasty with him when he fouls someone too roughly. He’ll do a few ads. Then, after a few months, with rare exceptions, everyone will get bored with it.
By its nature, my double life has kept me from getting close to any of my teammates. Early in my career I worked hard at acting straight, but as I got more comfortable in my straight mask it required less effort. In recent days, though, little has separated “mask on, mask off.” Personally, I don’t like to dwell in someone else’s private life, and I hope players and coaches show me the same respect. When I’m with my team I’m all about working hard and winning games. A good teammate supports you no matter what.
I’ve been asked how other players will respond to my announcement. The simple answer is, I have no idea. I’m a pragmatist. I hope for the best, but plan for the worst. The biggest concern seems to be that gay players will behave unprofessionally in the locker room. Believe me, I’ve taken plenty of showers in 12 seasons. My behavior wasn’t an issue before, and it won’t be one now. My conduct won’t change. I still abide by the adage, “What happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.” I’m still a model of discretion…
Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start. It all comes down to education. I’ll sit down with any player who’s uneasy about my coming out. Being gay is not a choice. This is the tough road and at times the lonely road. Former players like Tim Hardaway, who said “I hate gay people” (and then became a supporter of gay rights), fuel homophobia. Tim is an adult. He’s entitled to his opinion. God bless America. Still, if I’m up against an intolerant player, I’ll set a pretty hard pick on him. And then move on.
The most you can do is stand up for what you believe in. I’m much happier since coming out to my friends and family. Being genuine and honest makes me happy.
Collins technically isn’t the first active player from a big-four sport to be openly gay, he’s the first active player to go public with it. (Glenn Burke, an outfielder for the Dodgers and A’s in the 70s, was out to his teammates and coaches but didn’t announce it publicly until after he retired.) Early reaction is what you’d expect:
Proud of @jasoncollins34. Don’t suffocate who u r because of the ignorance of others #courage #support #mambaarmystandup #BYOU
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) April 29, 2013
NBA commissioner David Stern releases statement supporting Jason Collins twitter.com/BuzzFeedNews/s…
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) April 29, 2013
Jason Collins’ team @washwizards: “We are extremely proud of Jason and support his decision…” twitter.com/BuzzFeedNews/s…
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) April 29, 2013
The White House:
“Here at the White House we view this as another example of the progress we’ve made and the evolution that has taken place,” press secretary Jay Carney said when asked if President Obama had a statement on Collins. Carney said he had not talked to the president directly about Collins.
And the Big Dog:
Former President Bill Clinton on Monday congratulated NBA center Jason Collins for becoming the first openly gay male American professional athlete.
“I have known Jason Collins since he was Chelsea’s classmate and friend at Stanford. Jason’s announcement today is an important moment for professional sports and in the history of the LGBT community,” Clinton said in a statement.
It’s early yet, though. Someone in some league somewhere inevitably will say something disapproving, whereupon he’ll be shredded in the press until he formulaically apologizes.
By the way: None of this is a surprise, and Collins almost certainly isn’t the the only active big-four athlete who’ll be out by the end of summer. NFL player Brendon Ayanbadejo told the Baltimore Sun on April 5 that “up to four players” were discussing whether to come out on the same day, to take the heat off of each of them individually. There’s been endless whispering in the media over the last month about MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL preparing for this sort of thing. Advertisers have been preparing too, with Nike practically dangling cash in front of gay athletes to get them to speak up:
Nike asked Welts to deliver a message to anyone thinking about becoming the first openly gay athlete in major U.S. team sports — the company wants him as an endorser.
“They made it clear to me Nike would embrace it,” Welts, 60, now president of the National Basketball Association’s Golden State Warriors, said in a telephone interview. “The player who does it, they’re going to be amazed at the additional opportunities that are put on the table, not the ones that are taken off.”…
“We’ve passed the tipping point to where national advertisers are no longer afraid of the gay market,” said Mark Elderkin, chief executive officer of the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Gay Ad Network.
That calculus would be complicated for a superstar, especially in a sport like football, but not for an average aging player like Collins. So this is really just phase one: Now there’s a man on the court whom everyone knows is gay, but who doesn’t draw much attention otherwise. Phase two will be when an all-star, who carries his team, comes out. How much more pressure will he deal with from teammates and fans?
Exit question from DrewM: If people want to boo someone for their personal lives, why not boo these guys?
Update: That was fast. Dolphins WR Mike Wallace apparently tweeted “All these beautiful women in the world and guys wanna mess with other guys SMH…” That tweet’s now gone, per TMZ, replaced by this:
Never said anything was right or wrong I just said I don’t understand!! Deeply sorry for anyone that I offended
— Mike Wallace (@Wallace17_daKid) April 29, 2013
Update: Like I said, the other leagues are preparing.
The baseball world voices its support for @jasoncollins34: atmlb.com/ZLYgwk
— MLB (@MLB) April 29, 2013
The other players are gonna ream him with whispered taunts and insults on the court.
The media would love that. They'd have a six part "inspirational" documentary on "overcoming homophobia on the court", and compare him to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.
He'd enjoy that, no doubt.
Neither were Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird... don’t tell me they’re all gay too! :(
= = = = = =
Obviously a different era....<: <:
Rush had a couple of good comments.
Would the NFL have ‘hit squads’ for gay players?
If you sack the ‘gay’ QB too many times would it be a hate crime?
I kind of think this 38(?) yo is setting himself up to playing for the next 12 years...Class action suits etc...
Think it was the old Tank McNamara strip that had the Black Basketball Player ‘white wash’ himself because he was less than mediocre as a Black but near Super Star Status as a White.
I’ve always hated that “coming out” euphemism.
They can’t even claim he’s a star, that wouldn’t pass the laugh test.
I have already heard a Jackie Robinson reference. Disgusting.
No ones gonna give a crap, until it’s a young, good, player.
I’m sure he was good in college or he wouldn’t have been drafted. Tim Tebow was great in college.
I have not watched “Shep” in years but the last time I did he looked gaunt, and I was thinking AIDS.
They'll probably working on that next. It's weird how all straight liberals really seem to get off on this "gay rights" stuff whenever someone announces they're in favor it. They really live in some delusional fantasy that it's 1964 and they're marching with Martin Luther King Jr. against the evil KKK. Libs truly believe the RATs are the party of civil rights and will ignore the irony that they're the ones who actually ended up on the "Wrong side of history" when we had the real civil rights struggle in this country.
The hive mind in the sports media really makes me sick. I heard exactly one guy say he doesn’t care.
And the one guy (Chris Broussard) who doesn’t celebrate faggotry might be fired caused he used the s word (sin).
It’s the cause celebre of our time, they will jump down each others throats to show how tolerant they are. I bet half of them aren’t nearly so pleased but the peer pressure is too much, they are like children, the media. “Look at me I’m progressive too!!! More progressive than you!!! But me no I am 100% straight, make that 1000% percent”!
The young players and stars have something to lose. Despite what the teams say the last thing they want is their star player to “come out”, that’s what we call an “off the field distraction”.
I heard something posited, about a coordinated effort to get multiple players in all the major sports to do it together to keep the heat off any 1 individual, barf.
When I watch sports I want a break from politics, g*d damn it.
Oh I’m suddenly reminded of this show on USA I saw, about a psychologist who works for a football team. “Necessary Roughness”.
The star QB for the fictional NY team “came out”, at HALFTIME of a game they needed to win, and he led the to team to victory in the second half, the lone guy on the team who didn’t care for it was isolated as the jerkass he was made out to be.
Hollywood fantasy at it’s finest.
Haha. Very true, for some bizarre reason, they always feel the need to point out that they're a "1000% TOTALLY HETEROSEXUAL STRAIGHT MAN" who supports gay rights, although no one who is against the gay agenda has ever argued that only gay people support gay rights. (obviously the gay lifestyle wouldn't even be in the news if "only gays" were promoting it, given that they're around 2% of the population)
Of course, if the reverse happens, and some openly gay person points out that they support Chick Fil A, oppose gay adoption, or (perish the thought!!) opposes gay marriage, the response from the left is to cover their ears and scream "LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!". After all, we know ONLY homophobic bigots who "hate gay people" oppose those things. NO WAY a gay person could, according to the liberal media.
>> When I watch sports I want a break from politics, g*d damn it. <<
I get the same thing shoveled in my face to watch sci-fi to escape the rot of western civilization, and then the writers just have to make up some distant alien planet where there's a happy gay couple. You can't escape this stuff, it's everywhere. The only positive thing there is it drives the liberals nuts that there still has never been an "openly gay" character on Star Trek, despite how "progressive" Star Trek has been in the last 40 years with all the different races and ethnic cultures featured in the franchise's 40+ year history. Really irks the left since it defeats their "gay is the new black" meme. "Why won't progressive Star Trek have a gay character when they had the first interracial kiss on TV?! AHHH they've fallen behind the times NOW... such a halt for PROGRESS!!" they scream in frustration as they tear their hair out. To make up for it, they've gotten several of the actors to come out in real life, and then live out their delusional fantasy that the totally straight character they portrayed on TV is also gay ("Mr. Sulu goes to PRIDE!")
It is a shame that Tim Tebow wasn’t a better Quarterback. He really could have changed football and be such a good role model. I hope he changes position and gets picked up. Tim should not be stubborn.
Heinlein wrote it a long time ago.
It’s the cause celebre of our time, they will jump down each others throats to show how tolerant they are. I bet half of them aren’t nearly so pleased but the peer pressure is too much, they are like children, the media. “Look at me I’m progressive too!!! More progressive than you!!! But me no I am 100% straight, make that 1000% percent”!
What do you expect? The "sports media" is essentially just a subdivision of the MSM. For example, ESPN and ABC are both subdivisions of Disney, and NBC, CBS, and Fox have their own multiple sports channels now. Plus the vast majority of the ownerships of the professional sports teams and certainly the buffoons that run the leagues are all into social engineering causes that fit in nicely with the left's agenda (including internationalism). And the players and coaches pick up on this and know how to kiss the rears of their bosses by echoing their views.
I saw where some nitwit who wears a baseball uniform compared Jason Collins' situation to Jackie Robinson's. That's not only stupid, but it's also disrespectful to Robinson's achievements and legacy.
“I saw where some nitwit who wears a baseball uniform compared Jason Collins’ situation to Jackie Robinson’s. That’s not only stupid, but it’s also disrespectful to Robinson’s achievements and legacy.”
Right you are. Robinson was not hired because he was black. He was hired because he was good, and would help the Dodgers win. Greed trumped racism.
This idiot blows a few stereotypes about black athletes (no pun intended).
Yes, those were the days that winning mattered more to baseball ownerships (and even players) than politics did. That's because the financial incentives (greed, as you put it) for winning were greater - in terms of percentage of income gained - in comparison to what they are today.
But another consideration in the decision to hire Robinson (and other black players shortly thereafter) was to lure more black fans to the ballpark - "greed" if you will, again.
You know what would REALLY be funny? If this joker was straight, and concocted this story as a ruse to make money: )
I used greed as a tongue in cheek jab at liberals. It was the invisible hand of self interest that trumped racism. If you ever read Milton Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom,” you will also realize that it also trumped the Hollywood blacklist.
Have no reason to think he isn't gay, but some straight "copycats" could definitely take your suggestion to heart.
Good points. Yes, "Capitalism and Freedom" was assigned reading in my college economics class back when. (Unfortunately, there were more leftist-oriented classics that were forced down our throats as well.)
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