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He is open now, but wasn’t when he played for the 49ers or the Raiders.

Really, the exact opposite is true. Nobody cares what you think about gay people. But you are not allowed to infringe on a person’s rights because he is gay. And an employer (i.e., the NFL) is not allowed to discriminate based on a person being gay.

Last, you know who made lots of sports fans uncomfortable? Jackie Robinson. Why should that darkie get to play with those good wholesome white boys. Can’t some of these commenters see how their comments are exact parallels to the crap that was said back then?

Seriously though, there are a ton of practical reasons an NFL team wouldn’t want a gay player: from cohesion destruction in the locker room, to the media circus, to the vehement negative reaction of many hardcore fans, to the need to tippy-toe about everything said in an otherwise testosterone filled and foul mouthed environment so as not to provide ammunition for some future hostile-workplace lawsuit

Oh and one last thing. For the guy who isn’t very smart: gay is not = to pedophile. You as a “straight” man have the same predilection to abuse children as has been proven time and time and time again. Anyone who would hurt a child has their own category which has nothing to do with sexual orientation.

Florio, have you ever considered the possibility that fans might be reacting more harshly the more we read stories that push a particular social agenda? That maybe it’s not so much a reaction to the idea of a gay player but a reaction to the media’s push of what some call a gay “agenda?”

I probably don’t share your views about gay issues. But I wouldn’t actually care if a player was gay. All I really care about is whether or not they can play. But as soon as the media begins using that person to push a set of beliefs that many Americans don’t share, THAT’s when people become uncomfortable with the idea. People don’t care as much about a player being gay but about the person being used by the media as a proxy in a conflict over social values.

I think your advocacy of this issue may be accomplishing the opposite of what you intended it to. One reason why football attracts such a wide swath of Americans is because we want to have something we can focus on in order to get AWAY from politics.

Florio, give it a rest. Go are start your new own gaytalk.com site where you can luxuriate with your kinded buddies. Leave the rest of us alone and stop trying to force your agenda on the NFL. This game is much too big for your interests.

Also, if you stereotype yourself and make a big deal of it you only complicate your own life. Go to work, keep quiet, do your job, clock out and go home.

And having sex with another dude is a behavior, not a characteristic. Skin color is a characteristic. The freckles I have are a characteristic. Manti Te’o pounding another dudes nether regions is not. It’s a behavior, and me and any of the guys in the locker room have the right not to like it without fear of being accused of bigotry because of it.

It’s called freedom of association.

There’s a difference between tolerance and acceptance. It’s not the NFL’s job to legislate that

The NFL has no way to make people change their feelings or opinions. This is something gets fixed at home and how people are raised. There are laws about discrimination based on race and that hasn’t been successful due to the fact the battle on hearts and minds has not been won on the fundamental level yet, a law will not work that is already very evident.