Sexuality in sports
Michael Sam in the NFL
Michael Sam is a man facing adversity and an incredible journey to overcome. By his recent revealing of his sexuality he breaks into a new culture that enables a new form of cultural citizenship. This term is coined by Joke Hermes a Dutch doctoral expert in popular culture brought to the surface in her book Re-reading Popular Culture. Hermes shows “to be human is to be subjected to continuous training and reforming; to be invited to find both individuality and social sense of self, to be a never-accomplished project”(Hermes 5). He is thereby opening the door for future players into the NFL with his eye opening revelation. As seen in outside the lines Michael Sam has elite game film like any other first round defensive end. Discrimination on sexuality leads players to not be recognized for their performance.
Michael started being recognized as he attended Hitchcock High School in Hitchcock, Texas. In high school, ESPN ranked him as the No. 75 overall defensive end prospect in the country he won First-Team All-District honors as a senior in 2008 as a defensive end, and also as an offensive lineman, and he was also named All-Houston Metro as a defensive end. In addition to football Michael lettered in lifting and track and field as a high school athlete. This got him many offers from Mizzou over Arizona State, Colorado State, Houston and Iowa State. This ultimately led to his decision to become a University of Missouri Tiger a place where he saw the most potential to win championships and have winning seasons.
Michael in college was a superstar athlete he registered 123 total tackles, 21 sacks and 6 forced fumbles. By no means are these the best numbers to ever be recorded but definitely good enough for a first or second round pick. That was until February ninth when Michael officially came out of the closet to the public on an edition of outside the lines with Chris Connelly.
Once Michael came out of the closet he lost all privacy, being bombarded by different reporters, or gay protesters. As shown in different tabloids the congregation of Westboro Baptist Church was seen protesting outside of the Missouri campus while the students stood as a human wall around the campus to shield the community from the hate while also giving closure to not only Michael but also to other LGBT members of their community. These students were trying to keep Michael and others form of sexual culture sacred and not a means of devils worship. The media was the main group of people making a big deal out of his coming out, making it all over news outlets but also through blogging all over the internet. Michael’s team seemed to be the complete opposite, being very understanding and just letting it slip by as though he had never said anything at all. His team decided that they were going to look at him as a player and not as a gay man who will try and rape them in the locker room or eye them down as some other players in the NFL and college levels have shown. Others like Connor Barwin an Eagles Linebacker say, “I think most guys in the NFL know someone or know someone who knows someone who is gay, but for some guys in this league, Michael Sam will be the first openly gay man they have ever met. Jonathan Vilma of the New Orleans Saints went on the record to say “imagine if he is the guy next to me and, you know, i get dressed, naked, taking a shower. The whole nine, and it just so happens that he looks at me. How am I supposed to respond?” “This leaves an open debate for those players that haven’t necessarily dealt with this in the past. He by coming out has a great opportunity to change the stereotypes that many in this country associate with homosexuality.” This was shown in a recent quotation from an interview by NFL.com. Barwin may be slightly biased because of his family and how he has an openly gay brother, yet he is helping opening ties between straight and gay people. Many of the different players in the NFL are very open on the subject and how they would have no problem with a gay teammate.
By opening the eyes of different organizations Michael has opened the door for athletes in many different sports most recently on April ninth a guard from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Derrick Gordon became the first openly gay men’s D1 basketball player ever. He went on to explain to the associated press in a recent phone interview that, “I was living life in shame,” he went on to say, “There was a time that I didn't want to play basketball anymore and that’s the worst feeling ever,” he said. “Right now I’m happy. I’m free just to live my life”(Ulman). The coming out seems to have a rejuvenating effect to these players, many seem to play much better as long as the people around them are accepting of them. This also seems to be the case for NBA player Jason Collins who has been playing with the Brooklyn Nets ever since he also came out. Jason has been wearing number 98 to show a personal gesture, a way of remembering Matthew Shepard, a gay college student whose own dreams were ended in 1998, when he died after being tied to a fence post, beaten and tortured for proclaiming his sexuality. It almost seems though that the people in basketball are more accepting of the gay cultural aspects because of the lack of personal contact.
Michael on the other hand had a much harder transition with all of the media attention because he is a gay male in a contact sport. Men in a contact sports are supposed to be uber masculine men that are raging with testosterone. That stereotype then transfers to the field with how they should act towards the opposing team, go to war for four quarters then debrief with their coaches than be the manly man off the field with their girlfriends and so on. This seems to be a very widely accepted cultural aspect of contact sports and football in general. Never has football had a feminine side where a player could not have an alpha masculine male mentality. That would make people start to question the strength and brute mentality of the gay player. He thereby threatens the social acceptance of the normal elite football player. By doing so he is breaking down barriers in a peaceful aspect in that he is a calm individual that is opening doors through proving himself not by means of retaliation or anger.
The way that Michael went about coming out was shown in his outside the lines interview first coming out to his team in August saying that they “took it great, they rallied around me, they supported me and I couldn't have asked for better teammates.” With this good response came some hardships that may be affecting him today. Later in the same ESPN report Michael talks about how he had a rough childhood in that he saw his brother shot and killed, and was the last one to see his brother before he was kidnapped and pronounced dead two years later. Chris Connelly the man conducting the interview says how this past could have crushed in which Michael responds it only made him tougher and stronger. He went on to say “Chris, at a young age I made the choice that I wanted to live, I don’t want to be in and out of Jail, I want to be somebody, I wanted my family to be proud of me.” This may explain some of the pressure on his shoulders that he may have got to the point where he couldn't handle it anymore. His biggest words towards his athleticism is that he hopes that people don’t just see a gay player that they see an athlete that knows how to play the game. Michael finishes the interview by saying some very cut and dry words, “I am Michael Sam, I am a college graduate, I am African American and I am gay.” This shows that Michael is strong and is proud of who he is. His family has also made many remarks about Michael in that his father had some words be misunderstood but, later clarified saying “My son did the right thing, and I am not against him at all. He has made a great statement in coming out, and that he should be able to play in the NFL. I love him unconditionally,” Sam Sr. said. “Once he gets on the field and hits (someone) once, they won’t think he’s gay”(Breech). This amount of support Is helping open the door for the for other people to join in his trend of cultural citizenship.
Michael Sam is helping open the door for hundreds of thousands of closeted individuals in America and more specifically the gay athletes that are afraid to come out of the closet for the fear of being discriminated against. While Michael may be not up to peoples standards as far as their form of athleticism he is still a defensive player of the year and a first line unanimous all-american athlete. Critics who are letting him being gay cloud their judgement on his ability on how he can play the sport of football will be proven wrong all in good time.
Hyperlinks:
http://books.google.com/books?isbn=1405148799
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/10429030/michael-sam-missouri-tigers-says-gay
