This Fall, You Can Find Me on the Golf Course on Sundays

This Fall, You Can Find Me on the Golf Course on Sundays

This Fall, You Can Find Me on the Golf Course on Sundays

As you may have heard, the SEC defensive player of the year, Michael Sam, recently announced that he is gay. No big deal I thought, it's 2014, and generally speaking as a nation I feel we are slowly but surely moving in the right direction concerning basic civil rights for all of our citizens. By the end of the day, I realized I had made a huge error in judgment. The only stories that followed were about how the NFL would deal with this distraction, whether his announcement would hurt his draft stock, the impossible locker room environment that people believed would follow and so on and so forth. I read nothing about social progress, and saw nothing even resembling support from the NFL camp. One "unnamed" scout (read: coward) said that many of the scouts already knew Michael Sam was gay because scouts often spy on prospective NFL draftees. He then went on to explain how he graded Sam as having "character issues" as a result of his homosexuality. Character issues! This is coming from the organization that will condone almost any criminal behavior if the player can help the team win. Obstruction of justice in a homicide? No problem, you still average 12 tackles a game, right? Fight, murder, and bury dogs in your backyard? No problem, just keep working out in prison, there's always a home for you here in the NFL when you get out. DUI vehicular manslaughter? It's all good, you can still run fast right? Domestic assault, drug abuse, reckless endangerment-- the list goes on and on. Apparently, being gay is where the NFL draws the line. Well, homophobic bigotry is where I draw the line. You can find me on the golf course on Sundays this fall.