SAN ANTONIO - The biggest story in sports this week is also the one that seems to make some folks uncomfortable. So lets cut to the chase... If you're a diehard football fan, do you care if one of the players on your team is gay?
Apparently, some NFL teams think you might. Or at least think it's an issue.
During the NFL combine this week, Colorado tight end Nick Kasa says one team whom he won't mention asked him if he had a girlfriend. When he answered no, they asked, “Do you like girls? Are you gay?”
Manti Te'o denies reports that teams asked him if he is gay, but Katie Couric did ask him on national TV. He said no.
Teams spend millions on players, but before doing so they want to know everything there is to know about a player. Apparently now, that includes sexual orientation.
But why does that matter?
By law it shouldn't. By NFL rules it shouldn't. And by common sense in 2013 it shouldn't.
So again, why does it matter?
The prevailing answer you hear and read is telling... it matters because it does.
It matters because some think it would be a distraction to the team. It matters because the NFL locker room is sacred. Macho. It's not for “guys who are different.”
I'm not sure what that means, but we heard the same excuses when Jackie Robinson broke into major league baseball. Robinson's “difference” was obvious. He was black. Robinson was ridiculed, humiliated and, at times, emotionally tortured. Only years later was he seen for what he truly was; a hero and a pioneer.
There is no Jackie Robinson in the NFL. No openly gay player. Not yet anyway.
Will an active player ever admit he's gay? Absolutely. But after this week, I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.
That's my two cents. Let's hear yours.
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