Teammates gave me a weird look when they saw me using lotion and hair products, but within weeks I ran out because everyone needed to borrow them.
I had a teammates ask me about gay sex, about dating, gay weddings and about skin care. I had some crazy conversations with my teammates, but that only made the situation more comfortable. I truly believe that facing your problems is the best way to handle them. Talk to them about fears, discomforts, questions, and whatever else comes to mind. Have you ever talked to an openly gay athlete? Played a game with one? Please, for your own sake, find a gay athlete and have a conversation with them. Trust me, if you’re a jerk to us, and we take your spot, there is no better feeling. Maybe you're afraid of being replaced by a gay athlete, and feeling degraded. The hardest thing to change is our own way of thinking. Just because we look, it doesn’t mean that you are prey and we are predators. The complex about comparing ourselves to others is ingrained and it’s just a fact that men look to compare. There was an episode of "Seinfeld" that touches on the topic of men checking each other out in the locker room. When we talk about the brotherhood (or sisterhood) of a team, it means that those players are family, and are treated as such. This not only goes for the NFL, but all levels of sports. As a friend once told me, "You don’t meet your honey where you make your money." I assure you, gay athletes don’t play sports to be able to get naked with their teammates. Athletes are professionals that take their job very seriously, and the locker room is no different. What’s not OK is coming at the gay athletes from a negative place. I understand that this may be scary for the straight guys, and that’s OK. Having openly gay teammates will be a first for many players in the upcoming years.
Look back to when the first woman tried to run the Boston Marathon, when Jackie Robinson entered Major League Baseball, or when female reporters finally gained access to professional male athlete locker rooms. People are resistant to change I get that. I think they come from a place of fear, lack of experience and insecurity. What are you afraid of? I don’t think your remarks about gays not being accepted in the NFL, and being nervous about being the shower with a gay teammate come from a place of hate. Does it sound like a porno scene? No? That’s because it’s not. Just getting clean, getting dry, and putting on deodorant are your only top priorities. When you get in the shower, ever muscle hurts, the water stings like hell on those turf burns, and your only focus is getting off that damn pre-tape wrap that is stuck to your skin. And when you get in the shower, all you think about is avoiding icy cold water, pee in the drains (don’t lie, you do it too), and the backside of some offensive lineman that desperately needs bathing. Definitely isn’t the most romantic spot on earth.
Imagine a big room that has sweaty, nasty workout clothes hanging everywhere, tape and other garbage lurking in corners, and a toilet area that doesn’t exactly smell like roses. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online.Michael Sam comes out: Complete coverage Gay linebacker brought partner to senior day Use family filters of your operating systems and/or browsers Other steps you can take to protect your children are:
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