I am delighted to post the great news that Michael Sam, who came out earlier this year, is now the NFL’s first openly gay player. Sam is now a Ram.
I have been following the draft each day to watch the selections of my beloved Bears. However, I have been increasing nervous that Sam might not be drafted. It is a great day for the Rams, the NFL, and the country in my view. Sam shattered one of the most virulent barriers in professional sports. While many players and coaches are entirely supportive, the homophobia has a long and disgraceful history with individual players and some owners.
I am very happy with the choices of the Bears. I was a bit surprised by the selection of Ego Ferguson, LSU defensive tackle, but I have come to trust Trestman’s instincts. He was criticized for picking Kyle Long last year and it proved an inspired choice.
Sam was selected as the 249th overall pick in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He was an All-American and the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a senior at Missouri. It took guts to come out and the Rams secured a noble place in history with this selection. Perhaps in my lifetime the sexual orientation of a player will no longer be such a controversy. In the meantime, watching a player like Sam on the field will do more to overcome stereotypes than every public campaign by every advocacy group in the country. While many people do not like football and may be underwhelmed by this news, it is the most popular sport in the country and watching a gay man play this sport could be a transformative moment for some.
As for Sam, he tweeted “Thank you to the St. Louis Rams and the whole city of St. Louis. I’m using every (ounce) of this to achieve greatness!!”
Many of us want to join Sam and say “Thank you St. Louis Rams.”
“Sin..”
This is a made-up word as it requires a likewise made-up deity with such frail sensibilities it seems to need its worshipers to call for the death of perfect strangers, if we’re to take the likewise fabricated “scripture” at all seriously.
Let us not beat around the bush, George. You can play phony victim with the “god makes me do it” but death is the required result of your infantile “scripture.”
“Noah said ..”
More fairy-tales used to bully those with whom you not only disagree, but have to denounce in the most absurdly awful way imaginable. Support for this argument grows thankfully more quiet by the hour.
Actual love requires none of what you are preaching, and falsely condemning.
Abe,
Being gay is a choice. Don’t blame God for your choice. Second, praying for salvation.
George, did God make a mistake when he created gays? How can you believe in a God that’s not omnipotent?
George,
For damnation? Which one are you praying for?
James
Noah said what I said and the people responded just like you. Why are you so blind?
Abe
Exactly. Prayer is your only hope.
James
Wrong. Sin always breeds judgement. The word fool was created for people like you. The reason being that you haven’t pulled the scales back from your eyes. I told max what scripture says and I will let it speak for me.
He will pray for our damnation, er.. I mean salvation.
“but the judgement of God is coming”
No, it isn’t. This represents simply more childish bullying against those you REALLY do not like. You’ve made that clear enough. That you seem to relish in hellish judgements of people you do not know personally takes us back to about age 4 as far as constructive argument is concerned.
Perhaps a louder stamping of the feet is now in order.
“I judge no one but God will.”
That does not reflect your commentary here today, sorry. Bullying by any other name is still bullying.
Max-1
Do you honestly believe that Christ would accept homosexuality? Show me one scripture, just one that advocates he would. All through scripture that lifestyle is condemned. Revelation 21:8. States there shall be no abomination in heaven and homosexuality biblically is referred to as an abomination. I judge no one but God will.
James
The closet may stay empty but the judgement of God is coming just like in the days of Noah.
Max 1
You are not a Christian. There is no such thing as a gay Christian. Read your Bible.
I saw a documentary on the first openly gay players in rugby. This guy was already an established star. When he came out, as is often the case, his mates went, “Well Duh!!” But he said he knew they were really OK when they started busting his balls w/ raunchy humor, just as they do w/ hetero mates. The locker room is the least PC place on earth. Many here would have a stroke if they ever heard it.
Saint Louis is an upscale city and kudos for this choice by the Rams. There will be jokes about the Ram name and Sam but if it gets bad put it in spam. This guy is a good player. Go Rams. Beat da Bears.
“I have never yet encountered, or even yet heard of, any human who has ever had even so much as a phantasm of a wisp of an iota of the actual power that would be needed to be an enemy of mine.”
Words of concrete truth from J. Brian.
George, you are in for a lifetime of heartbreak. No one is going to go back into the closet for you. No one is going to shred a single marriage license for you. And no one is going to adopt any weird magic-thinking just to express the rank exclusion that is no longer sponsored by the federal government, and in this case, the NFL.
The NFL.
It’s over, George. Marriage equality is here to stay.
J. Brian, What a heartfelt comment, thank you.
I would load up on Garrett’s popcorn. But, that’s just me.
While many people find it appropriate to use nom de plumes for Internet communication purposes, I find that the Code of Ethics of the National Society of Professional Engineers (of which I am a member) makes my posting on the Turley Blog using a pseudonym a serious ethics code violation.
For clarity of identification, this being of the public record, my license as a Wisconsin Professional Engineer is 34106-6. I find that I have neither need nor use for being anonymous.
While I was yet a toddler, it became clear to me that I did not fit society’s notion of a boy, nor did I meet society’s notion of a girl. I found that I was some of each, some of both, and some of neither.
Having been met with intense to agonizing prejudice, I surmise, because of being autistic and transgendered, I find I can profoundly empathize with people who do not happen to conform to prejudice-grounded social norms. It is not that I want to be a violator of social norms; I have never figured out any way to stay a live without violating many such norms.
I rejoice at the news about Michael Sam. Some day, people somewhat similar to me may be accepted as actually valid humans. For that possible future, I seek to direct my life effort.
As my older brother was dying from cancer in 1986 and January of 1987, it came to my thoughts that my being transgendered might have become a nifty gift. I was willing, once I figured that I was on a soon-to-die-of-cancer path, and that my family history strongly suggested to me that testosterone was, far more likely than not, a probable potent carcinogen for me, being transgendered made my parting ways with testosterone a welcome, and profoundly life-enhancing experience.
I am unable to imagine any XY human finding a bilateral orchiectomy to be a profoundly life-enhancing experience except as that human genuinely has a transgendered inner nature.
In the early 1990s, I was a member of the Chicago Gender Society (mostly TG, TS, and TV folks) one of my friends there asked me, “Why don’t you cross-dress?” My answer was, “What makes you think I am not cross-dressed now?”
To save money and bother, I never set about to change my gender of record, and never got a wardrobe that would be socially-correct for my inner gender sense; I could never think of any reason to bother.
My method of managing prejudice directed toward me is simple. Because I never want nor welcome prejudice directed toward me, such prejudice cannot possibly be about me. Therefore, I always interpret any and all such prejudice as being about the person who treats me with prejudice, and thereby learn of the lives of people who are unable to understand me and my life because, as my best hunch has it so far, their life experiences have not allowed them to understand themselves accurately. Therefore, I totally forgive anyone and everyone who has acted toward me in any way I experience as prejudicial.
I have never yet encountered, or even yet heard of, any human who has ever had even so much as a phantasm of a wisp of an iota of the actual power that would be needed to be an enemy of mine.
p.s.
GO SAM!!!