An NFL player came out as gay this week. And no one cared.
In 2014, a University of Missouri linebacker named Michael Sam became THE story for the NFL. He was the first openly gay player drafted. ESPN and all of sports media force-fed the story to us about inclusion, opportunity, and breaking down barriers.
NFL fans didn’t like the stories. Not because Sam was gay, but because he wasn’t a good player. His ascendance was all based on his sexual orientation. NFL fans want to watch good players play the game. They don’t want to watch politically correctness in action.
Compare that to the response to Las Vegas Raiders (I’ll never get used to saying that) player Carl Nassim.
He came out this week. And no one, except Joy Behar, cared. Nassim’s jersey is now the top seller on NFL.com.
This is important not just because representation matters, but because it shows that Americans evolve in their social views. It shows that America is not a systematically racist or homophobic place.
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