I thought that the poll that the Gear Magazine conducted in 1998 was really interesting because of the turnout that they received back from the major sports.
Gear Magazine only heard back from one team in both the NFL and MLB, but they did not state which team it was. The MLB team talked about how they did not think they would encourage a player to come out because of the peer pressure that would be involved. They also thought that coming out would be an ongoing problem and that they thought only 1-5% of major league baseball players were gay. I thought that these answers were some right and some wrong. I think that the players coming out really would be affected by peer pressure. Their teammates peer pressure would be never ending. The players would more than likely constantly tease and not feel comfortable around that player. I also think that the amount of gays in major league baseball would probably be under 5% because I think that the majority of the men in baseball are either married or you hear about their girlfriends. There really are very few men that are suspected of being gay. The statement that I disagreed with was the one about the ongoing problem. I really would think that the problem of having a gay teammate would eventually go away, at least within the media. The media would receive poor publicity if they said anything negative about that gay player.
The NFL also made a comment about how they would support any player that came out and said they were gay because they are a team. This was the only answer this team gave and I thought it was interesting because they made that comment, but refused to answer any more of the questions. In today’s society, I think that most teams would probably be fairly accepting of people being gay. The world has taken big steps as far as not making fun of people for being gay. There are cases such as Larry Johnson who make fun of people for being gay, but almost always they respond with an apology whether they mean it or not.
The final response was with the NBA and there were actually four teams who responded. Two of the four teams thought that there would be continuing problems and the other two thought there would be short terms. I think that this situation would be short term because eventually the media will go on to a new subject. I think that teams would support the player because there are only 12 or so players on a team and so if you exile a player, then the team could fall apart. Two teams also thought that their fans would be less supportive and I am not sure why. Being gay does make a person different than if they are straight, but it does not mean at all the their play will deteriorate. I think that fans would still like the player as long as he keeps playing well.
Overall, what do you think would be the situation within college sports? I think it would be interesting to see what the situation would be. I think the stats would be completely different than the major sports, but I am just interested what you believe.
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I'm not sure whether or not it would be a good idea to publicly announce that a male athlete was gay while still in college sport. Although most people have matured a lot since the time that they were in high school, I feel like there would be a lot of criticims made and potentially even statements/cheers/etc. that could be made about his sexual preference during the competitions that the athlete was participating in. I guess it would depend a lot on whether or not the teammates and coaches of the athlete were supportive and provided a lot of backing for the athlete, and treated him the same as they had before he made the announcement. If a majority of those individuals were not willing to provide any support for him, I feel like that would be reason in itself to keep the information to himself, at least until he had graduated and was finished with his collegiate athletic career.
ReplyDeleteI really do not think that it matters how mature people are. I think that people will still be negatively effected by someone coming out. It seems unfair to the people who want to live that life, but that is the way that people often are.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the most effective way would be for a person to simply be what John Amaechi did. He did not want to have all the people making fun of him and saying that he should not be playing against others. He would have probably also received criticism from teammates, fans, and the media. I just do not think that it is a smart choice to come out while still in a sport.
Just a couple comments: Billy Bean played in MLB and, after he came out, he found that several former team mates felt badly that he didn't think he could come out while he was playing. They said they would have supported him. Tom Glavine was one player who said it shouldn't matter if a player was gay. As for the media, I think they would actually be more supportive than other players. Remember, the media is supposed to have a 'liberal bias?' That is one reason that the journalist in New York supposedly wanted to "out" the player in New York.
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