Entrenched NFL Homophobia
The homophobia that flows through the NFL is not just with poorly educated players saying stupid things. It’s central to the whole system. University of Colorado tight end Nick Kasa was asked by a team executive at the combine, “Do you like girls?”
Meanwhile, NFL teams are openly investigating whether former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o is gay after his bizarre relationship with a nonexistent woman deal.
It’s incredibly depressing and no doubt deeply intimidating for gay players afraid to come out. Not only do they face homophobia from teammates, despite the brave few speaking out, but from the entire structure of the NFL.
Obviously, the teams are going about it in a ham handed and insulting way, but I do wonder if on some level it’s a legitimate concern for their draft decisions. Again, if they are asking so they know not to pick a guy, that’s reprehensible. On the other hand if they’re asking so that they know they need the support system in place to deal with the depressingly inevitable reaction to the first out player both internally and externally, that seems reasonable.
My guess is that it’s more the former, which sadly makes sense in a narrow and amoral “more trouble than he’s worth” analysis given the baggage Te’o already carries combined with his less than stellar onfield performance in Indy
Hahahaha! Th NFL doesn’t do “support systems.”
I’ll spare you the suspense: it’s the former. With a side of simple homophobia on the part of management.
Right. It’s the old “I’m not homophobic, of course, but I have to think about the team.”
NFL coaches and management hate nothing more than “distractions,” defined as anything that might distract a player from complete focus on preparing for the next game. The reaction to the first out NFL player will be the mother of all “distractions” for himself and his team for weeks if not months.
Which makes the concern rational, but doesn’t outweigh the fact that asking the question violates league rules, the laws of some of the states in which the teams operate (where does Indiana, where the interviews took place, stand?), is lousy PR and is morally reprehensible.
Yeah, that was what I was getting at but you said it better.
The homophobia is of course disgusting. I must say that, all things considered, I consider the worst aspects of heterosexual men to be far more repulsive than those of homosexual men.
At the same time, it is a fact that the NFL is an organization which profits by causing its participants permanent brain damage. On the whole, I’m pretty sure which repulsive behavior I would like to see eliminated first.
Watching or supporting football in any way is, as far as I’m concerned, on the same moral level as cheering at a street fight or while watching bombs fall.
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
Homophobia kills far more people in our society than football ever did.
Congratulations on your cheap, smug moral superiority. Where do I send your prize?
Smugness is its own reward.
Wow talk about the pot and the kettle
Congratulations on your well-thought out critical engagement with the issue at hand.
” I must say that, all things considered, I consider the worst aspects of heterosexual men to be far more repulsive than those of homosexual men. ”
Oh look…stereotyping! How enlightened.
Why would Nick Kasa like girls? He’s like 22, 23 years old. If he’s hetero, he should be dating women.
Sounds like the U.S. Military in 1939.
It reminds me of the scene in “Dr. Strangelove” where the homophobic US General (played by George C. Scott) asks the English officer (played by Peter Sellers) about whether he has any of them “preversions”.
That was Colonel “Bat” Guano, played by Keenan Wynn. But General “Buck” Turgidson would probably have had the same concern.
Should have asked if he liked gladiator films.
Twenty years ago, who would have thought that the NHL would be the first professional league to deal with gay players in a supportive way.
In that atmosphere, kudos to Chris Klewe! Tough, articulate, and funny. You’ve gotta read the things he’s written.
E.g., this … (NSFW) …http://leftaction.com/action/thank-chris-kluwe.
It’s true – his interviews with deadspin have the perfect mix of profanity, incredulity, and intelligence. If only more players were as outspoken.
Kluwe, an honors student in Political Science at UCLA, was clearly ruined by those damn lie-beral elites in the academy.
I am not an employment attorney, but how is this any different from a company asking an applicant at an interview whether he or she is gay? Since asking such a question at a job interview constitutes unlawful discrimination, why the absence of outrage over this and why have I yet to read anything concerning the illegality of such questioning?
As much as I love to watch football games, I am getting more repulsed by the NFL with each passing year.
asking such a question at a job interview constitutes unlawful discrimination
Maybe in your state, but not generally. Neither the feds nor most states have a law prohibiting descrimination in employment against gays (or any other member of the GBLT sandwich).
Looking at it at a city/county level does improve things (in terms of the number of NFL teams covered), but there are still some that are left out.
I’m fairly confident that an employer could not ask that here in New York.
Well, it almost certainly violates their collective bargaining agreement.
Since asking such a question at a job interview constitutes unlawful discrimination…
Sexual orientation is unfortunately not a protected class in most states, or at the federal level. Most NFL teams are in fact in covered locations, but some aren’t.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_employment_discrimination_in_the_United_States
…how is this any different from a company asking an applicant at an interview whether he or she is gay?
1)Most applicants are not applying for a job where your co-workers will see you naked on a regular basis.
2)Few people would want anyone who is attracted to their sex seeing them naked on a regular basis.
3)Few jobs pay gazillions and have the employees as the public face of their business. I think they can ask pretty much anything they want. Don’t like it? Don’t answer…or better still, find another job.
I love the smell of glibertarianism in the morning.
Jennny’s not a glibertarian, just a weird angry cryptofascist.
Gay people don’t think about your junk nearly as much as you seem to obsess about theirs (or at all).
Why would you answer a question about employment law if you don’t actually know anything about employment law?
Next thing you know, an employer won’t even be able to ask a potential employee if they have any Negro or Jewish blood in them. Liberals would have that be illegal. Don’t employers have the right to know everything about people who work for them?
I eagerly await Jenny’s treatise on the Constitutional roots of the one drop rule.
Would you want to work with someone, well, shifty? If they don’t have anything to hide, they will have no reason not to answer.
“2)Few people would want anyone who is attracted to their sex seeing them naked on a regular basis.”
In other words, Speakeasy ain’t got no one who wants to get nekkid for him. Not a shock.
2)Few people would want anyone who is attracted to their sex seeing them naked on a regular basis.
You might was to rethink that one, jackass.
Many a gay man has said that the homophobic straight dudes who freak out the most about being hit on by other men… really don’t have much to worry about. Sometimes the phrase “not with a 10-foot pole” is employed.
G-d forbid that hetero men be objectified by homosexual men!
I would think that this would almost be a personal issue for Roger Goodell, since has an openly gay brother.
If Goodell had showed any signs of not be a moral monster, this might be true. But Mr. “Player SAFETY!!!1!!one!!11! Now how about those two more games per season?” Commisioner, not so much.
Another reason you should root for the Ravens!
Still better than the Dez Bryant question, it’s a credit to the man that he didn’t beat a gm.
If it’s true that Dez had just told Ireland that that his mom worked for his dad, who was quite literally a pimp, it was kind of a natural follow-up question.
I was watching ESPN in the mess deck this morning, and was treated to the truy bizzare spectacle of listening to a black man defend the NFL draft people inquiring about players sexuality as “understandable” because “there’s a lot of prejudice”.
My mind boggled.
“Not only do they face homophobia from teammates, despite the brave few speaking out, but from the entire structure of the NFL.”
Well, there is also this.
And this.
And this
And this.
And so on.