CALIHAWK1":3dhsqyvc said:
Im not disputing Vick or Tebow or their circumstances. What I am pointing out is that Dungy publicly put his arm around Vick and was in contact with teams trying to help Vick find a home and he has said he would love to have Tebow on his team. Tebow asks for the attention as much as anyone. Taking his shirt off after practice, choosing NY over hometown Jags.
Simply disagree on Tebow and Vick. They were both totally different situations. Vick was a non-story after the Eagles signed him. Tebow was a much bigger media event than Sam, but didn't have the risk of a locker room nuclear disaster. I do think that Dungy's faith very likely played a factor in his Tebow fandom, but I would not say the same about his Sam comments. Why are those "Christian" comments on Sam when many other teams thought the same exact thing and are not devout Christians themselves?
Sam is not the first openly gay player in a major sport. Neither is Jason Collins. In 1990, there was a UK soccer player by the name Justin Fashanu who came out near the end of his career. Obviously, Europe is a lot more progressive on the topic of homosexuality than the US, so you would think his decision would have gone relatively smoothly.
But while the mainstream culture of Europe is very progressive, the sports culture there is vicious and reactionary. Anti-gay slurs are commonly chanted at soccer matches to insult opposing players, etc. Fashanu wasn't just the first openly gay player, he was also the first black player to earn a one million pound transfer fee. He was actually a pretty good player in the pros.
Unfortunately, he took a lot of abuse for his sexuality from fans, teammates, and even family, and it would eventually result in him taking his own life.
Distractions don't get any bigger than that. There has only been one other active UK soccer player to come out in the 2+ decades that followed.
Now, I do think that most people in the Rams locker room will probably be on their best behavior and I'm not saying that Sam is a disaster waiting to happen. But clearly the risk is there, and this has been underscored by numerous bigoted / homophobic tweets by NFL players over the past year, including the day Sam was drafted and kissed his boyfriend.