Pete Thamel: Sexuality In Professional Football

Sexuality in Sports Sexual identity is a growing concern in professional and collegiate sports as the issue continues to gain interest and attention with each athlete that announces they are homosexual. More explicitly, the significance of this issue is that it involves people being able or not being able to remain true to their self. Most people only know there are a few openly gay players in high profile sports, but do not recognize the effects such players can have on the many stakeholders involved. Players, universities, coaches, and fans are all affected by the issue. Some believe that the sexual orientation of players detracts from the mentality of the team coming first while the opposition believes players should be able to disclose
who they are without criticism. From competing in the sport of soccer, I have been exposed to discrimination regarding sexual orientation and tend to agree with the later as it results in a better environment for everyone. Despite my exposure to this form of discrimination I had never really thought about the prevalence of homophobia in sports until I overheard a couple of my current teammates making offensive comments about another teammate. Now, they were not meaning to be serious and I am certain the athlete being poked at identifies as a heterosexual, but I couldn’t help but wonder, what if he or another player in the locker room witnessing the mockery was actually a homosexual? Due to this occasion and my resulting thought, I became interested in learning more about the abundance of homophobia in sports. Therefore, my research will be centered on discovering if it is necessary for sexuality to play a significant role in the sports realm and if there is a solution to the homophobic environment that sports create.
My first thought at answering my big picture question was to see if I could find information on how homophobic environments are created in sports. I wanted to know this because in order for there to be a solution to this issue, I must find the cause of it first. I knew I would most likely need a scholarly article or book to efficiently answer this question so I chose to use the 1Search engine on Oregon State’s Library website. I searched “sexuality in sports” and found my first source; a scholarly book called Sport and Gender Identities by Cara Aitchison and published by Routledge in 2007. This book analyzes the role that sexual identities and gender play in sports. Specifically, chapter 7 argues that gender and sexuality are inseparably related in Western culture because of the ideals that are created and upheld by society (Aitchison 97). She claims that prevailing social messages tell men that based on their sex, they are supposed to act in masculine ways and one of the most common ways to do so is to show the desire to be sexual with a person of the opposite gender (Aitchison 97). Aitchison believes the reason this social behavior is popular in sports is because the sport scene is a place for one to show their dominance and masculinity (98). As evidence, she quoted a former professional soccer player from Europe who said, “The soccer world is a heterosexual world. Macho behavior and women predominate. Whenever soccer players are together they get vulgar, they talk about women and having sex. As a young boy I felt uncertain so that is why I didn’t want my fellow players to know [of my sexuality]. I couldn’t do anything other than pass [the ball]” (102). This quote shows the incredible amount of pressure society puts on athletes to behave as they are expected. It was from this source that I was able to see that the masculine nature of sport is the reason for sexuality’s significant role in male sports. This chapter mostly discussed sexuality in male sports, but I felt as though this ideology was applicable to women’s sports as well. Women would be expected to behave similarly, but just towards men rather than women. I now understood why sexuality plays a role in sports and that heterosexual behavior is what is expected by society, but I was uncertain why homosexuality was viewed as being a negative in sports and as a result would look to find another source that could answer my new question. In order to learn why homosexuality is undesired in sports, I once again used 1Search, but this time looked up “homophobia in sports”. This search immediately gave me an article that could be of great use due to its credibility of being from a scholarly journal. The article was published in 2008 by Routledge and written by Heidi Eng. It was called Doing Sexuality in Sport and it analyzed the relationship between homophobia and sport in Norway. The article included research that was conducted where closeted and open professional athletes were selected by snowball-sampling and then interviewed on their experiences of being a gay athlete. Eng’s main reason behind her research was to find a way to deconstruct heteronormativity in society. Her core argument is that heterosexual orientation is given a privileged position in sports (Eng 105). She elaborates by saying, “Heteronormativity makes sexuality both visible and invisible at one and the same time, hence doing sexuality is taken for granted by those viewing themselves as heterosexuals” (Eng 106). In other words, she is saying that because being straight is considered the norm in society, heterosexual acts are overlooked by homosexual acts due to their abnormality. Ultimately, this abnormality gives homosexual behavior a negative connotation. She interviewed an anonymous athlete that claimed the locker room scene was the most uncomfortable place for him because of the nudity and joking around. He stated, “Whereas this [environment] may not mean anything to [the other players], it meant something to me being gay” (Eng 108). He went on to describe the locker room mentality as the following: “if nobody is gay in here, then the sexual acts are not homosexual” (Eng 109). These quotes proved how homosexual behavior is considered unusual. The second quote also made me realize that most athletes are under the assumption that their teammates are straight. I could see how this assumption could create an environment where a gay athlete would feel uncomfortable and not have any desire to reveal who they really were. Eng believes coaches and managers are the targets for resolving the issues as they are in position to be role models and inspire accepting behavior. I agreed with her, but also found her proposed solution could be flawed in that there are some cases where the coaches may have homophobic attitudes. This led me to looking for a source that discussed how coaches and universities are involved in this issue of homosexuality in sports. I began to explore my topic on the web in order to find a website article as this type of source could be much more recent and relevant to my contemporary issue. I located an article on insidehighered.com that explored college recruiting and the impact sexuality can have at the collegiate level. The article, “Gag Orders on Sexuality, was written in 2013 by Allie Grasgreen and her main argument was that many universities are more concerned with their image and recruiting than allowing student-athletes to be open about their sexuality (1). More specifically, Grasgreen claims that if it appeared as though coaches tolerated homosexuality in their program then parents wouldn’t allow their children to attend that school (1). She went on to describe that it is actually not uncommon to find other programs using this idea to their advantage. She writes, “Women’s sports have a storied history of ‘negative recruiting,’ whereby coaches try to steer athletes away from other programs by suggesting they tolerate or condone homosexuality” (Grasgreen 2). In this quote, Grasgreen proposes that coaches emphasize the lack of family morals at other schools in order to get a player to cross those schools off their list of top choices. In conclusion, it is Grasgreen’s belief that the sports environment needs to be more accepting by creating a culture where athletes can be as open as they desire. I was most shocked to learn that some coaches and universities instill a code of “don’t ask, don’t tell”. This to me, showed the inability of the coaches and colleges to accept their players for who they were so I questioned if a coach would actually be able to help the negativity that is associated with homosexuality in sports because of the ideal image they are required to withhold in their program. This led me understand why we typically see athletes wait until they are finished with college ball to publicly declare their homosexuality. This realization caused me to want to find an article on the recent situation of the football player, Michael Sam, who announced his homosexuality after graduating and before entering the NFL draft. Due to the Michael Sam disclosing his sexuality in the past two months it was easy for me to find a hard copy of a Sports Illustrated magazine that contained an article discussing the situation.
The article, “How will news that Michael Sam is gay affect his NFL draft stock?” was published on February 9th of 2014 and written by Pete Thamel. The general idea behind Thamel’s work was that Sam’s decision to come out will affect where he is selected in the draft because NFL teams are not prepared to take on the negative publicity associated with signing an openly gay player (22). Thamel quoted an analyst explaining such thought, "I don 't think football is ready for [an openly gay player] just yet. In the coming decade or two, it 's going to be acceptable, but at this point in time it 's still a man 's-man game. To call somebody a [gay slur] is still so commonplace. It 'd chemically imbalance an NFL locker room and meeting room" (23). This NFL insider is saying that even though homosexuality is gaining more support, issues would arise for an NFL team in the locker room setting and with the media due to the lack of full support for homosexuality from the players and the fans. Whereas this insider may be correct in that fans could cause issues, I don’t believe he is correct with the locker room issues. At the end of the day, the team just wants to win. Players can learn to accept differences between each other if it means winning rather than losing. This newly formed opinion of
mine caused me to wonder more about the stake that fans hold in the issue of homosexuality in sports and how the media plays a role as well. Therefore, I would attempt to find another magazine article that discussed how an openly gay player could be a distraction.
I went to google and looked up “gay players a distraction in sports”. I discovered a magazine article by Chris Kluwe that was published after the coming out of NBA superstar, Jason Collins. Not only was this a recent source, it was credible considering it was published by CNN. Kluwe’s general argument in his 2013 Special to CNN article “An Openly Gay Player in the NFL is Not a Distraction” is that a gay player will not be a distraction in professional sports and that people need to stop believing this (1). More explicitly, Kluwe states that players and fans need to act mature and focus on winning rather than get caught up in the media if one of their teammates comes out (2). He writes, “Why do people have this absolutely idiotic notion that being gay has any sort of effect on how well a player can play football, or basketball, or baseball?” (Kluwe 1). In this passage, Kluwe is implying that the sexual orientation of a player doesn’t have any effect on a player’s performance; therefore, no one should worry about who that player is dating. What I gathered from this article is that a simple solution to this issue is being informed. One of the challenges in today 's society is ignorance. If people expand their knowledge of the subject through research than perhaps they would open their minds and ultimately, their appreciation of the differing perspectives associated with sexual orientation.
Through my research, I learned more about the prevalence of homosexuality in sports and the different stakeholders that are affected.
Although my thoughts and opinions were essentially maintained throughout this process, I did gain more knowledge to fully support my opinion for unit three. Players, teammates, coaches, universities, and fans are concerned with winning, but some may say their real concern is to avoid a negative image to ensure positive consequences for their program. Due to the fact that these consequences are caused by the norms and expectations of society, and the role of media, I will attempt to use a media source to shed some positive light on homosexuality. To be more specific, I will show that perhaps the real issue to consider is that of acceptance compared to that of equality; that all men are created equal and that society should consider accepting each person for who they are as long as their beliefs do not interfere or are imposed on them. If the American society really wants to be true to the statement that all men are created equal than taking an all-embracing approach would have a positive impact on the differences of opinions that generate conflict in the sports
realm.

Works Cited
Aitchison, Cara. “Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Theory in Sport.” Sport and Gender Identities: Masculinities, Femininities and Sexualities. Routledge, 2007. 96-103. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Eng, Heidi. "Doing Sexuality in Sport." Journal of Homosexuality. 54.1-2 (2008; 2007): 103- 123. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Grasgreen, Allie . "Gag Orders on Sexuality." Insider Higher Ed. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. .
Kluwe, Chris. "An openly gay player in the NFL is not a distraction." CNN. N.p., 1 Apr. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. .
Thamel, Pete. "How will News that Michael Sam is Gay Affect his NFL Draft Stock?" Sports Illustrated 9 Feb. 2014: 22-25. Print.