Of course, most people are going to obsess about where Tim Tebow is going next, and the continuing political farce that is Tebow Time.
Sadly, they miss that the biggest story of quite a while in sports is on the other side of the argument many have placed Tebow on politically.
Today, as Bob Barker would say occasionally, is a historic day.
And it truly is.
It's a day that I think a lot of people knew was coming, especially in the last couple of years about the discussion on major team-sport players being LGBT (up to and including All-World NCAA player Brittney Griner, almost indisputably the best women's college-basketball player in many years, coming out as a lesbian two days after being drafted into the WNBA).
Today, Sports Illustrated has stated that they have the exclusive interview for their next issue:
Jason Collins, a somewhat-journeyman center for six NBA teams over 12 season, has become the first currently-active major team-sport athlete to come out as a gay man.
Obviously, this is a watershed day.
And if anyone knows my contempt for David $tern, I can say one thing fairly: My contempt for the man does not extend to his political beliefs with respect to homosexuality.
The NBA has done more than any other sport, to my knowledge, for the promotion of acceptance of homosexuality. I truly believe that homophobic slurs by Kobe Bryant and Joachim Noah changed the outcome of an NBA championship (the year Dallas ended up winning).
But it's not just talk... In 2011, the NBA teamed up with GLSEN for what I considered to be quite a pleasantly-surprising commercial, especially given some of the playground-game talk to which the spot refers:
Say what you want about David $tern's NBA. It's NOT homophobic.
If the NBA is going to sanction no less than Kobe Bryant for his slur, it's not going to put up with anything against Jason Collins. One can almost-certainly expect that arena security is going to be notified to expel anyone from an NBA game that tries to deal with today's announcement with anything but respect.
So, in my own opinion, that it was an NBA player who was the first to come out is completely unsurprising and probably about the safest of the NBA/NHL/MLB/NASCAR/NFL conglomerate (and I believe the safety factor to be in about that order) for him.
He's a free agent, and the one thing I can say is that being gay will not prevent Jason Collins from playing again in the NBA should his talent warrant. I can't say that about all of the other leagues. I (and people I've spoken to on the subject) agree that we all fear what will happen to the first NFL player to come out, even though one of the most outspoken advocates in the league for LGBT equality, Brandon Ayanbadejo, has said that four current NFL players are considering it, and that they are in talks that they will do it in the same press conference together.
Today's announcement by Collins and SI is a step.
But it's ONE step.
But it is still One Small Step For Man, and One Giant Leap For Major Professional Sports.
You really need to read the Collins interview. One of the things I liked most about it is that the first person he came out to was his aunt, a Superior Court judge in San Francisco, CA.
She said she knew he'd been gay for years.
I'll leave you with this quote from the man himself:
"I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand."
-- Jason Collins, from the May 6, 2013 issue of Sports Illustrated
No comments:
Post a Comment