When MN football player came out as gay, his teammate said: 'That takes balls, man"

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Gay or not, he was an invaluable part of the team.

Practice players are the unsung heroes.

The team are a band of brothers, many kudos to the coaching staff for inculcating a culture of caring for each other as a band of brothers.

They are molding players into good hard working people which will transcend far beyond long after they graduate.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Back to the original post - someday, this will not be a story. but in the current climate, a D1 FB player coming out is still newsworthy - whether he was a star or a backup. Sounds like an intelligent young man. Hope his coming out is not an issue in his teaching career.

And, for what it's worth - every team needs backups. you need guys to run the scout team and to practice against. without players like McAvoy, who show up every day and never get any of the glory, college FB could not exist in its current form - unless we want to go back to one-platoon FB. He may not have been a big name, but he was still a D1 FB player - he suited up and played in games. That's more than most of the people on this board can say.

If SportsFan24 is out there, maybe he can chime in on the relationship between the starters and the reserves.
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First off let me enjoy that I'm not the only parent out there giving bad advice (Wisconsin vs hide who you are.)

Reserve players?

You can't field a team without them. Players develop and plateau. Today's reserve can be tomorrow's starter. As a result players don't get caught up are create some sort of hierarchy. They all are players. Also players tend to hang with guys with the same interests. Walkons hang with starters.

Players cheer for each other. And they have mad respect for guys who put in the same amount of work as guys who play every play while they don't play at all.

Think about the debate of players being compensated vs the value of their scholarship. There are players on the team who practice just as hard, take MORE hits in practice. Work out just as hard and have harder academic requirements and only see the field on game day during warm ups.

Harder academics you ask? Yes, harder; kids who don't play AND have academic issues aren't on the team very long. The position for kids who won't play for 4 years is reserved for kids who boost the team GPA.


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Ogee Oglethorpe said:
The college football locker room, or community in general, is really the one place where I would think he SHOULD have been able to come out sooner. Starters, backups, in the locker room there really isn't much of a differentiation. The bond is there because everyone there knows that EVERYONE goes through the same thing Sunday-Friday; everyone makes the same sacrifice, everyone has to work just as hard, and all while going to class. There is something about being with a group of guys that are going through the same hard work, making the same sacrifices, for multiple years that brings on a feeling that you would do anything for those guys. Often many of the guys that never see the field are some of the most popular on the team.

I have an UNBELIEVABLE admiration for guys that can stay on the roster for 4-5 years knowing they will never play. Anybody can quit and often these guys were STARS where they played HS. Going from BMOC at your HS to just another schlep on the scout team is a huge blow to the ego, and there are many that can't take it and they walk away, say they need to focus on school, etc. For those that stick it out through their eligibility, I have the UTMOST level of respect. It's a sacrifice that most people will never understand.

Kudos to this young man, I wish he would have known that he could have made this move sooner. For whatever reason, the O-Line bunch is often the tightest group on the team; the rest of the piggies would have been fine with it for the most part.
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You said it far better than I did.


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Sportsfan24 said:
You said it far better than I did.


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Thanks for the great post. Glad to hear he was accepted and that he pursued his love of football. I'm glad we are getting closer to the day when any young person does not have to live in fear of people finding out they are gay.
 


Sportsfan24 said:
Harder academics you ask? Yes, harder; kids who don't play AND have academic issues aren't on the team very long. The position for kids who won't play for 4 years is reserved for kids who boost the team GPA.


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I have a friend who's son is a walk on currently they put the same academic pressure on the walk ons as the regular team and provide the same help and he is very appreciative of it. I would agree that the one difference is that the stars probably have more rope to recover if they perform badly, but they don't have to be 4.0 and driving up the GPA to stay on the team.
 

LakerFan said:
I have a friend who's son is a walk on currently they put the same academic pressure on the walk ons as the regular team and provide the same help and he is very appreciative of it. I would agree that the one difference is that the stars probably have more rope to recover if they perform badly, but they don't have to be 4.0 and driving up the GPA to stay on the team.
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Great points; I would also add that walk on's get no help what so ever in meeting entrance requirements.


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hungan1 said:
Gay or not, he was an invaluable part of the team.

Practice players are the unsung heroes.

The team are a band of brothers, many kudos to the coaching staff for inculcating a culture of caring for each other as a band of brothers.

They are molding players into good hard working people which will transcend far beyond long after they graduate.
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Regardless of this topic, I don't see how a scholarship player who barely sniffs the field is invaluable. I can put a value on it, low.
 

Millennials could care less about these sorts of stories.
 


SJUgopher said:
I'm a millennial and I care about these types of stories. This is different than everyday life.
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See, for most if not all millennials this is no different at all than everyday life. Friends, family and coworkers of mine have come out and they are treated no differently than they were before. Someone being gay or straight has absolutely no effect on me whatsoever and it never has, so good for him for coming out I guess but this is becoming (or for me, has always been) normal everyday life.
 



SJUgopher said:
I'm a millennial and I care about these types of stories. This is different than everyday life.
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13gopher said millennials could care less, so he is saying that millennials do care about the issue.

If he had said that they couldn't care less, that would imply that they have no care at all.
 

'13Gopher said:
See, for most if not all millennials this is no different at all than everyday life. Friends, family and coworkers of mine have come out and they are treated no differently than they were before. Someone being gay or straight has absolutely no effect on me whatsoever and it never has, so good for him for coming out I guess but this is becoming (or for me, has always been) normal everyday life.
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Not in college football. I think that is why some are making a bigger deal out of this.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Not in college football. I think that is why some are making a bigger deal out of this.
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Exactly. In most walks of life anymore sexual orientation isn't that big a deal but in the locker room and especially in football it is still not common for players to feel comfortable coming out. The sad part it is that what is holding it back is the stupid macho guy attitude to things. Impossible to put a number on it but law of averages says there are already a lot of gay athletes coexisting with straight athletes on teams all across the country with no issues.

What needs to happen to really break down the wall is that a star player in the prime of his career needs to come out. To this point it has been mostly fringe guys or retired players. I think the day is coming soon when one of the star players will have the courage to do it and then hopefully sports can join the majority of the rest of the world and make this a non issue as it should be.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Exactly. In most walks of life anymore sexual orientation isn't that big a deal but in the locker room and especially in football it is still not common for players to feel comfortable coming out. The sad part it is that what is holding it back is the stupid macho guy attitude to things. Impossible to put a number on it but law of averages says there are already a lot of gay athletes coexisting with straight athletes on teams all across the country with no issues.

What needs to happen to really break down the wall is that a star player in the prime of his career needs to come out. To this point it has been mostly fringe guys or retired players. I think the day is coming soon when one of the star players will have the courage to do it and then hopefully sports can join the majority of the rest of the world and make this a non issue as it should be.
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Everyone who has ever been on a football team more than likely has played with a gay team mate..........not actual played with....you know what I mean[emoji857]


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I guess Gopher hole is the no sense of humor site...
 

MNVCGUY said:
Exactly. In most walks of life anymore sexual orientation isn't that big a deal but in the locker room and especially in football it is still not common for players to feel comfortable coming out. The sad part it is that what is holding it back is the stupid macho guy attitude to things. Impossible to put a number on it but law of averages says there are already a lot of gay athletes coexisting with straight athletes on teams all across the country with no issues.

What needs to happen to really break down the wall is that a star player in the prime of his career needs to come out. To this point it has been mostly fringe guys or retired players. I think the day is coming soon when one of the star players will have the courage to do it and then hopefully sports can join the majority of the rest of the world and make this a non issue as it should be.
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aaron rodgers
 

MNVCGUY said:
Exactly. In most walks of life anymore sexual orientation isn't that big a deal but in the locker room and especially in football it is still not common for players to feel comfortable coming out. The sad part it is that what is holding it back is the stupid macho guy attitude to things. Impossible to put a number on it but law of averages says there are already a lot of gay athletes coexisting with straight athletes on teams all across the country with no issues.

What needs to happen to really break down the wall is that a star player in the prime of his career needs to come out. To this point it has been mostly fringe guys or retired players. I think the day is coming soon when one of the star players will have the courage to do it and then hopefully sports can join the majority of the rest of the world and make this a non issue as it should be.
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Maybe it will take a millennial star athlete to break down that final wall, but yeah, it'll happen, and very likely sooner than later.

I think it's probably quite a bit easier now for gay youth than it ever used to be (unless you go back to ancient Greece or Rome), although that's not to imply that it is entirely easy or that things are fair and equitable, because it is not and they are not, and the reality is that suicide rates for gay youth are still totally, completely, and unacceptably high. But an example of how things are different now, my 6th grader has a kid in her class who is openly gay, which I find to be incredible, ya know? 12 years old and having the intestinal fortitude to openly and simply be himself, and he's allowed to be that way, which is what's really striking. He doesn't receive a rash of sh*t from his peers, he's not bullied or tormented, in fact he seems to be very well-liked and quite popular. It seems like no one really cares or thinks about his sexuality all that much, which is exactly how it should be, as it's just a non-issue. He's just simply who he is and he's accepted as such, and I just think wow, what a stunning contrast from the way things used to be. Damn, when I was a kid, if a child were even suspected (as if that were a horrible crime or something) of being gay, oh my God, that kid was opening himself up to a whole world of hurt. Thank God things are different now, still not perfect, but better no doubt.
 

Not sure where the stereotype came from that teammates haven't been accepted for coming out. Yes, football players are big, tough, and macho, but I have yet to hear a story of a player that has been blackballed by his teammates for coming out. More often than not, the teammates have been accepting and supportive. Not every is 100% on board, but I have yet to hear of a player being treated unfairly due to their sexual orientation.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Not sure where the stereotype came from that teammates haven't been accepted for coming out. Yes, football players are big, tough, and macho, but I have yet to hear a story of a player that has been blackballed by his teammates for coming out. More often than not, the teammates have been accepting and supportive. Not every is 100% on board, but I have yet to hear of a player being treated unfairly due to their sexual orientation.
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While you are correct, the sample size is still really small at this point in football and the players in question have not been active stars (Sam was closest as a fringe NFL talent). As more players come out and are accepted by their teammates it will become easier and easier for future players to make the leap as well.
 

MNVCGUY said:
While you are correct, the sample size is still really small at this point in football and the players in question have not been active stars (Sam was closest as a fringe NFL talent). As more players come out and are accepted by their teammates it will become easier and easier for future players to make the leap as well.
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I agree the sample size is small, but posters make it seem like just because football players are big, tough, and macho they immediately have narrow minds. They tend to forget in a football huddle you have 11 guys from 11 vastly different backgrounds. Picture our defensive huddle a couple of years ago with the stories about Cedric Thompson dodging gangs, lined up next to Mike Rallis from Edina, lined up next to Rasheed Hageman who was an African-American adopted by white parents. There is a reason why teams become a brotherhood. You spend a lot of time together working quite hard. Football players are probably some of the best at working with people who are much different than themselves. You may not be best friends or even be friends, but there is a bond and mutual respect for one another. There may be players who say they prefer not to play with a homosexual player but don't see a situation where the player would be excluded from the team.
 

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