Posted on 10/31/2009 6:02:52 AM PDT by Zakeet
Athletes have heard the ugly words on practice fields for most of their lives. They hear them in the streets and at neighborhood hangouts.
But when Chiefs running back Larry Johnson used an antigay slur on his Twitter account and in the locker room this week, he struck a nerve that makes professional sports leagues wince.
The NFL, like other pro sports leagues, is perceived as homophobic. Of the more than 20,000 athletes who have played in the NFL, less than a handful have identified themselves as gay — David Kopay was the first in 1975, followed by Roy Simmons and Esera Tuaolo — and only after their careers had ended.
Now the image-conscious NFL — which fines players for wearing droopy socks or the wrong-colored chin straps, is frightened by the prospect of Rush Limbaugh as an owner and enforces a rigid personal conduct policy — is confronted with how to deal with gay-bashing.
“It seems like every single season I’m getting phone calls about some athlete saying a gay slur, and using the word ‘gay’ and ‘faggot’ and ‘homo’ and ‘queer’ in such a negative term,” Tuaolo said in a phone interview with The Star from his home in suburban Minneapolis.
“There are gay athletes in the NFL and in baseball and in the NHL … it’s so crippling to someone who is going to work knowing there is no support in their organization. What is also crippling to an athlete is hearing slurs like that thrown around like it’s just the thing to do. When you use the term ‘gay’ or ‘faggot’ or ‘queer’ and you use it in a negative term, it’s the same as calling a woman a ‘bitch.’ It’s demeaning to another human being. And it’s not right.”
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
The world champion Pittsburgh Steelers have a gay on their team. Number 22 if I recall correctly.
“Do you like stories of gladiators and football players?” —with apologies to the makers of “Airplane”
Watch the NFL, where you can sit back and relax watching fat black men slapping male as*. If you are into that kind of thing.
El is married to Abigal McGrew. They were married on 19 April 2008.
Everyone’s sex life belongs in the closet. These creeps ought to keep their sex life to themselves. I don’t want to know.
Hey, when you’re in the showers the last thing you want to find is a place to hang your wash cloth.
Homosexuals use words like faggot and queer to describe themselves, but we can’t use them?
Are we going to have to say the “F” word (no, that one’s already taken) and the “Q” word?
Ah yes, and the other terms we had in high school football:
“The Quarterback needs to fit it in tight to the Split End.”
“We’re gonna run a dive up the “A” Hole.”
“Tell the Running Back to squeeze between those two guys.”
Finally, a positive article about the NFL.
I am sure that NFL executives will get on a PC kick concerning homosexuality since they were successful in banning Rush Limbaugh from owning a team.
Maybe snoop,jlo and fergie will put out a song about it
They are also not fond of Jews. But, hey, no black can be a bigot, right?
Does this mean Tracy McGrady is Scots-Irish too?
NFL Homophobic? Too many guys squatting all over the place. Good grief!
I am so tired of hearing the term “homophobic”! To be ‘phobic’ implies a fear of something, usually considered irrational. I’m not afraid of homosexuals and I certainly don’t fear them. That’s why (for me) I prefer the term “homoabhorent”. I abhor the homosexual lifestyle and its all consuming path toward death and destruction.
Oh, one more thing regarding this issue. While discussing this with a liberal friend, the topic of religion came up, or more precisely, Christianity. He demeaned everything about Christ and His followers. I asked him why he was a “Christaphobe”? That seemed to end the discussion.
Brian
The percentage of homosexuals is professional sports (especially football) is probably much greater than the overall population. I mean c’mon. They’re injecting each other in the rear end with steroids. Constantly in the gym lifting. Taking showers together. It’s very creepy.
And the fans that practically worship these creeps are suffering from latent homosexuality. They are queer, they just don’t realize it.
This is all OK! But don’t you dare make a sane comment about the athletes, or you will never be allowed to own a team ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.