by Jesse J. Lewis, Sr.
I am not a homophobic. I just don’t in believe in same sex marriage and I do not believe that two men should be on national television kissing each other.
I realize that this person should be judged on his football talents. Time will tell whether he has any talent. The LA Rams selected Sam, defensive end, on the 249th pick in the 2014 NFL draft.
Sam is the first openly gay NFL player, but he is far from the first gay man to play football. Retired NFL veterans like Wade Davis and Esera Tualo played while still in the closet, and gritted their teeth when teammates cracked gay jokes, used slurs or said out-and-out hateful hints.
In the last few years, there’s been a sea of change in the way American society understands sexuality. As polling by The Washington Post Recently showed, 55 percent of Americans opposed same-sex marriage in 2003 – but now, 59 percent support it.
Sam told The New York Times, he came out to his teammates as part of a getting-to-know-you exercise.
“I looked in their eyes,” Sam said, “and they just started shaking their heads – like, finally he came out.” He hadn’t dropped a bombshell on his teammates; they’ve long since guessed and had never cared. They didn’t just tolerate him, they supported him – celebrated him, even. One teammate went with Sam to a gay pride rally in St. Louis, and others went out to gay bars with him.
We all know that the media will spend all their time on him instead of football when the season opens. My guess the next thing Sam is going to do is marry his lover at a halftime show during the Super Bowl playoff, just in case the Rams get to that level.
The one thing we must keep in mind–he has not yet made the team.
