Question for those who remember the early 1990's

[Thomas D]

By which I mean people older then let's say 24 or so.

Did you think by the time we got to 2012 there would be an out gay active athlete in one of the 4 major team sports in North America? Because if you'd have asked me in 1998 I would have been sure there'd have been one by now.

[dead0man]

Sport, especially professional sport, is more "manly" than even the military.  Locker rooms are notoriously bigoted places...I don't see it happening with an active player anytime soon.  My guess is it will be broken by an already out college....ahem...."stud" that some forward thinking team or another will take because the guy is just so talented.  My guess is the NFL breaks it first.  Followed by baseball and the NHL.  But I hate the NBA so my biases may be at play here.

[afleitch]

I don't think it's anything to do with 'manliness' per say; sport is all about signings, sales and sponsorship so there's misplaced concern over the monetary value of an outed player. It's really all an 'Emperors new clothes' scenario; people think that teams care, managers care and the public care more than they actually do.

Gareth Thomas, one of the most capped rugby players in Wales came out a few years ago. None of his team mates cared, his club didn't care and the suporters didn't care. It's getting there.

[dead0man]

I don't think it's anything to do with 'manliness' per say; sport is all about signings, sales and sponsorship so there's misplaced concern over the monetary value of an outed player. It's really all an 'Emperors new clothes' scenario; people think that teams care, managers care and the public care more than they actually do.

It's not those people that the gay athlete is worried about, at least not first and foremost.  It's his fellow aggressively male athletes that he is worried about.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Did you think by the time we got to 2012 there would be an out gay active athlete in one of the 4 major team sports in North America?

Why on earth would I have pondered such a thing?

Though, there was an 1986 TV movie with Scott Baio called The Truth About Alex.  Baio is the QB and his best friend and star wide-receiver Alex Prager is a closet gay who gets caught flirting with a man in a restaurant bathroom.  When word spreads that there is a "fag" (movie's language, not mine, of course) in the looker room all hell breaks loose and Baio’s hot girlfriend begins to question whether she is being served “tainted beef” (my language, not the movie’s) and also if she is “No 1 or No 2” (her language, not mine).

Famous line from the movie:

Coach (film session of previous game, asking gay receiver Alex Prager a question shortly after word has leaked out to some members of the team):  “Prager, why did you miss that block?”

Wide, burly Linebacker (out loud in front of the whole team and coaching staff):  “Because, he’s a f****t!”

---

Lesson: an open gay in the locker room just would not be good for team cohesion.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Found the Movie!


Part 1/4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILdzwB7ruK0&feature=relmfu

Part 2/4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZBFA6IJsW8

Part 3/4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz8yxsm4T3I&feature=relmfu

Part 4/4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhbriLrDNwg&feature=relmfu

---

here's the part where he is outted in front of the team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILdzwB7ruK0#t=13m14s

here's the part where Baio's girlfriend asked if she is No 1 or No 2 in line for his Johnson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz8yxsm4T3I#t=4m57s

[opebo]

I remember the early 1990s well enough, but I certainly knew no more about football then than now.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

don't show Naso this movie, it has a bunch of girls with mid-80's hairdos...he might start taking off his clothes again.

[Joe Republic]

Lesson: an open gay in the locker room just would not be good for team cohesion.

Indeed, Gareth Thomas - who plays one of the girliest sports there is - certainly proved this.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Lesson: an open gay in the locker room just would not be good for team cohesion.

Indeed, Gareth Thomas - who plays one of the girliest sports there is - certainly proved this.

who?

[Joe Republic]

Funny, you're an IT consultant* or somesuch, and yet you've never heard of Google or Wikipedia?  They came in handy for me after afleitch mentioned his name here.


* Who uses Internet Explorer, and has his OS set to look like Windows 95, as I recall.

[opebo]

Wide, burly Linebacker (out loud in front of the whole team and coaching staff):  “Because, he’s a f****t!”

---

Lesson: an open gay in the locker room just would not be good for team cohesion.

Isn't the lesson that having bigots on the team is bad for team cohesion?

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Funny, you're an IT consultant* or somesuch, and yet you've never heard of Google or Wikipedia?  They came in handy for me after afleitch mentioned his name here.


* Who uses Internet Explorer, and has his OS set to look like Windows 95, as I recall.

yo, every Fortune 100 company I have worked at, and that's close to 2 dozen of them, has their desktop appearance set to Windows Classic style, regardless of which version of Windows they're using.  And, yes, I could have looked him up, but if I haven't heard of him, then he probably isn't an...

...athlete in one of the 4 major team sports in North America...

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Lesson: an open gay in the locker room just would not be good for team cohesion.

Isn't the lesson that having bigots on the team is bad for team cohesion?

No, the lesson is:  if you're making a movie advocating pro-gay issues, then you better play the victim by sticking to the issue of bigotry, cause you certainly can't use the issue of morality.

[Rooney]

Isn't the lesson that having bigots on the team is bad for team cohesion?

If no bigot could be on a sports team American sports would not exist.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

where is Naso?

[minionofmidas]

By which I mean people older then let's say 24 or so.

Did you think by the time we got to 2012 there would be an out gay active athlete in one of the 4 major team sports in North America?

I didn't think about such issues in the early 90s.

[Beet]

By which I mean people older then let's say 24 or so.

Did you think by the time we got to 2012 there would be an out gay active athlete in one of the 4 major team sports in North America?

I didn't think about such issues in the early 90s.

^^^

This. Although I'm older than 24, I didn't even know what homosexuality was (well ok I dimly was aware of it as a fringe perversion) until Ellen DeGeneres came out.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Funny, you're an IT consultant* or somesuch, and yet you've never heard of Google or Wikipedia?  They came in handy for me after afleitch mentioned his name here.


* Who uses Internet Explorer, and has his OS set to look like Windows 95, as I recall.

missed that dig...how exactly is using IE contrary to being an IT consultant?  The last client I had which used a browser other than IE was way back in the mid-90's during the days of Netscape.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

I wouldn't be surprised if within a decade, high-schools will not allow students to object to showering with gays.

The forced public acceptance of homosexual has to happen.

[afleitch]

I wouldn't be surprised if within a decade, high-schools will not allow students to object to showering with gays.

The forced public acceptance of homosexual has to happen.

Why would someone comfortable in their sexuality object to showering with gays?

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Why would someone comfortable in their sexuality object to showering with gays?

Oh, I know, the problem is with me, right?  Dude, it has nothing to do with being comfortable in your sexuality - I don't want to shower with ugly women either.

[afleitch]

Why would someone comfortable in their sexuality object to showering with gays?

Oh, I know, the problem is with me, right?  Dude, it has nothing to do with being comfortable in your sexuality - I don't want to shower with ugly women either.

Well yeah the problem is with you. I've never heard anyone say, even off handedly that they wouldn't want to shower with me. I gym four days a week and shower each time. I can assure you it's the self declared straights who tend to shoot a glance at my ample junk.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Well yeah the problem is with you. I've never heard anyone say, even off handedly that they wouldn't want to shower with me. I gym four days a week and shower each time. I can assure you it's the self declared straights who tend to shoot a glance at my ample junk.

dude, if you had your way, you would trade your junk for something better designed for your desires.  See, when I look at my wife, I think, "Damn, I want that body right now."  But, when you look at her, you probably think, "Damn, wish I had her body right now."  Our remarks may sound the same, but they mean two totally different things. 

[afleitch]

Well yeah the problem is with you. I've never heard anyone say, even off handedly that they wouldn't want to shower with me. I gym four days a week and shower each time. I can assure you it's the self declared straights who tend to shoot a glance at my ample junk.

dude, if you had your way, you would trade your junk for something better designed for your desires.  See, when I look at my wife, I think, "Damn, I want that body right now."  But, when you look at her, you probably think, "Damn, wish I had her body right now."  Our remarks may sound the same, but they mean two totally different things. 

I like my junk and what I do with it; why on earth would I want to be a woman. I have sex with men like a man