You should never be afraid to
be yourself. After all, is a life spent living a lie truly a life at all? With
the recent coming out of active NBA player Jason Collins, many questions have
been brought up throughout the country. Is it the right time for someone to
come out of the closet while still playing? Is he going to be shunned by teams
based on him being truthful to who he is? Are his teammates going to accept him
into the locker room? All these are valid and important questions, but perhaps
the most important question has yet to be broached. Should sexuality, or a
hetero or homosexual nature, have any place in sports? To me, this answer is
no. Sports are sports, you can either play or you cannot. What you do off the
field should have little effect on how you are perceived on it. However, things
are not always as easy as they should be; a team’s locker room, front office
personnel, and fan base can all play a part in how players are treated.
Enter into any professional
locker room, and it plays like a scene in a badly written movie. Testosterone
fills the air, along with the smell of the blood and sweat that put these men
in a position to make a living playing a game. They are modern day gladiators,
putting on a show for a public that pays to see them at their top form. Players
don’t think twice about playing through pain or injuries; some just shoot
themselves up to numb themselves to the pain, all for the greater good of the
team. These men’s livelihood depends on the cohesiveness of the team, knowing
that your teammates will sacrifice their personal glory for the greater good,
because together everyone achieves more. However, when trust becomes an issue,
everyone can suffer. I would say it would be better to be open and honest from
the start, rather than living a lie and having to endure locker room talk that
would probably be offensive. But, thinking everyone is heterosexual, could you
blame them for speaking in an archaic way? I think everyone is guilty of
speaking a little wildly when in the company of friends. Being accepted in a
locker room is probably easier than we give a team credit for. In today’s day
and age, I would argue almost everyone knows a gay person. The next hurdle for
a player coming out is dealing with the team’s front office personnel, which
has to deal with more than just winning games.
When a player prepares to come out, inevitably
they will tell their coach, general manager and owner first. From there, the
team has to formulate a plan to get ahead of the soon to come media wave. A
good owner will stand with and for that player, because that is the right thing
to do. Sometimes, things do not go as smoothly. For example, Giants manager
Dusty Baker recently told a story about a teammate he had back in the day that
he sure was gay. His name was Glenn Burke and many people credit him and Dusty for inventing the high five celebration. He never formally came out, was traded, and was
eventually retired by the age of 27. Unfortunately, there are still some owners
who would just rather get rid of a suspected problem than deal with it head on.
Also, they have to deal with the headaches their players can cause them. When
Collins came out, Mike Wallace of the Miami Dolphins tweeted about how he could
not understand the decision to be with a man with so many beautiful women in
the world. Even though Wallace did his best to try and back pedal, the team was
forced to make a statement to the media about how they did not agree with
Wallace’s statement. While it is refreshing to see organizations standing
behind their players, the worst part of coming out in a professional sense may
be the interactions with fans.
Buying
a ticket to a sporting event affords the ticket holder certain opportunities.
You may see your team win, you may see history being made, or you might even
catch a foul ball. Too bad for the players, it also gives you a right to
heckle, and fans can be merciless. Part of the fun of going to a live event is
the feeling of being a part of a controlled mob. Everyone rooting for the home team,
and cursing the opposing team. However, there are always going to be people who
take things way too far. I would not be surprised if Jason Collins receives
taunts that would make a sailor blush. Just having to endure that night after
night is reason enough to keep it a secret. The only way unruly fans will
change, is if fans start policing themselves. I know we have some protection
under the first amendment, but there is such a thing as common decency. For the
most part, fans are respectful of one another. The best example of that came in
the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon. During a game at Yankee
Stadium, the fans sang along to the song Sweet Caroline, which is notoriously
sung at every Boston Red Sox home game. While this would have been considered
blasphemy just a year ago, it paints a bigger picture of how sports can unite any
group under a common goal.
In a perfect world, sexuality would
be taken out of sports. The scantily clad cheerleaders would be gone from
sidelines, as well as the ring card girls who serve no other purpose than to be
objectified. Some might claim that these are traditions, and have been going on
for over a century. To that, I would say traditions are meant to be broken. Not
that long ago, it was tradition not to have anyone of color play baseball. It
used to be tradition that Women could not vote. The thing that makes this
country great is our willingness to adapt, to admit things are not wrong and
change them. With that, I see no reason that, in time, sexuality will be a
non-topic in terms of sports.
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