Michael Sam ?

[NinerSickness]

What's the difference? Sam doesn't think of himself as a gay football player.

He certainly acted like one at the combine.

"I don't like this attention for being a gay athlete.

Wait; are you getting this publicist & people offering me money to campaign as a gay athlete?"

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Sick, have you ever felt compelled to do something you would have preferred not to do? This could be something as simple as doing homework while in school. Assuming you have, while you were doing that thing, did you wish you didn't have to?

 

[Crimsoncrew]

He certainly acted like one at the combine.

I'm going to assume you're joking.

 

[NinerSickness]

Sick, have you ever felt compelled to do something you would have preferred not to do? This could be something as simple as doing homework while in school. Assuming you have, while you were doing that thing, did you wish you didn't have to?

Sure I have. But Sam isn't acting out of compulsion; he's going to try to ca$h in on this. Why else would he have a publicist?

 

[Crimsoncrew]

There's nothing inconsistent about Sam wanting to live in a world where people accept homosexuality (not while I'm alive). That's not my point. What's inconsistent is that he's lamenting the ATTENTION he's getting about the issue when he's the one who's actively garnering that attention.

Those civil rights marchers didn't lament the fact that people called 'em civil rights marchers. If they did they would've been full of crap.

"I don't want to be known as Joe the civil rights marcher; I just want to be known as plain old Joe. Now where can I put these fliers & signs I brough?"

And out of curiosity, when you say "not while I'm alive," are you saying that Sam will not live in a world where people accept homosexuality while you're alive? Or am I misreading that?

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Sure I have. But Sam isn't acting out of compulsion; he's going to try to ca$h in on this. Why else would he have a publicist?

You've never tried to capitalize - financially or otherwise - on something you wished you didn't have to do?

 

[NinerSickness]

And out of curiosity, when you say "not while I'm alive," are you saying that Sam will not live in a world where people accept homosexuality while you're alive? Or am I misreading that?

As long as I'm alive there'll be at least one person who doesn't accept homosexuality as morally ok.

That said, I would've been fine with him playing for the 49ers if he were any good (which it's looking like he's not), and I wouldn't have said anything negative about his experience at the combine if he didn't play the sympathy card to which I previously referred.

 

[NinerSickness]

You've never tried to capitalize - financially or otherwise - on something you wished you didn't have to do?

Not really. That seems kind of disingenuous. Kind of like Steve-Martin-esque televangelists telling people not to be covetous & greedy while asking for donations to your Porsche fund via "tithing."

 

[clyde_carbon]

Address the Jackie Robinson question, Clyde.

No, I'm not gonna answer your ridiculously bad analogy/question. If you saw the Sam interview at the combine, you knew he didn't mean what you're trying make it seem he meant.

It was in the context of - stop asking me questions about my sexuality because I wanna be looked at like the rest of the players.

It's hypocrisy at its finest. If you don't see it, well, I'm sorry.

 

[clyde_carbon]

What's the difference? Sam doesn't think of himself as a gay football player. Everyone else does. Labels are often out of the hands of the actors.

Except for the fact that, you know, he does.

 

[clyde_carbon]

You've never tried to capitalize - financially or otherwise - on something you wished you didn't have to do?

Where the hell are you getting this from? How do you know Sam wishes he wasn't gay?

 

[TobyTyler]

You lost me on what you're saying there. I see a guy purposely garnering attention and at the same time lamenting the attention he draws.



I honestly have no idea. He wasn't the first black baseball player though; he was the first pro' black baseball player. A number of black men played baseball back then (a few still do even ). And he wanted to be a pro' baseball player, so there's that. Did he wish he weren't black?

Ha ha! That made me laugh.

 

[TobyTyler]

He certainly acted like one at the combine.

"I don't like this attention for being a gay athlete.

Wait; are you getting this publicist & people offering me money to campaign as a gay athlete?"

He's the poster boy for the gay agenda who are pulling the strings behind the curtain playing Jeppetto to Sam's Pinnochio.

 

[TobyTyler]

As long as I'm alive there'll be at least one person who doesn't accept homosexuality as morally ok.
That said, I would've been fine with him playing for the 49ers if he were any good (which it's looking like he's not), and I wouldn't have said anything negative about his experience at the combine if he didn't play the sympathy card to which I previously referred.

Ha ha, didn't you call me a bigot for not accepting young thug behavior?

 

[NinerSickness]

Ha ha, didn't you call me a bigot for not accepting young thug behavior?

You're confusing me with someone else.

 

[TobyTyler]

You're confusing me with someone else.

Sorry

 

[MHSL82]

Not necessarily. It depends what he means with the statement above. For instance, he could mean: "I wish homosexuality was universally accepted and no one cared about it." Or: "I wish other openly gay players had come before me, so my coming out wasn't such a big deal." Or: "I wish I could just live my life without people reporting on who I date, but that's out of my control, and I have spoken to/heard about several closeted NFL players whose closeted lifestyle placed an enormous emotional and psychological burden on them."

He is a pioneer. He will become a symbol whether that was his primary motivation or not. Expressing his desire to be treated the same as everyone else can be separated from his acknowledgement that that is not a realistic hope/expectation.

Out of curiosity, do you guys think Jackie Robinson craved the attention he received? Do you think he just wanted to be a baseball player, even as he was clearly more than that?

Honest question: Did Jackie Robinson have public causes like "Stand with Jackie" or promotions with special interest groups? I know that social media wasn't the same back then and it was harder for organizations to form around racial equality and pitch promotions to Robinson, but these things lead to some resisting more than they otherwise would. It appears aggressive to them. In their eyes, Jackie just played and took the brunt. Sam is trying to play, promote sexuality equality, and tell you that you are ignorant/bigotous if you don't join them - even when one says, "I don't care, just play."

There may be a need to push the issue and in this day and age, promotions and social media is the way it goes. But there's a bit of a feeling of over saturation,being forced, or guilt tripped. Take to this cause or you're going to hear it anyway. The coverage of Favre was like this. How often did you hear someone say Favre was stuffed down our throats, just play or retire? There was always a choice to turn off ESPN, but still it felt forced to many.

It's a fact that even those who support equality don't want to hear it all the time. It's historical, not get to it. The button could be distributed by others besides Sam.

 

[clyde_carbon]

You're confusing me with someone else.

Honestly, I'm not a person to judge what's morally wrong or right, BUT - I absolutely HATE how people are demonized and villainized the moment they question homosexuality.

If you have right to think homosexuality is okay, another person has the right not to. Some people just can't understand the concept.

 

[MHSL82]

I know my response was already long but I had one more thing to say. Some people feel that Jackie Robinson couldn't choose whether people knew about his race. He could choose to play or not play. People now think that Sam chose to play versus not playing. He chose to be openly gay versus not being openly gay. The rest is an agenda.

They don't have a problem with him playing and they don't have a problem with him being openly gay. They have a problem with him promotional about it. I know that he, in order to spark change that he believes in, has to be promotional about it. People have a right to be against the promotion of it without being labeled as ignorant. It's not the same as being against him playing or against him being gay. It's not even the same as being against him openly gay. It's against him being promotional about it.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Where the hell are you getting this from? How do you know Sam wishes he wasn't gay?

I'm not saying he wishes he wasn't gay. I'm saying that on some level, he likely wishes he wasn't the first openly gay NFL player (assuming he gets to that point).