Openly gay Missouri defensive standout Michael Sam got drafted by the St. Louis Rams. He's a helluva football player and I was 99% sure someone would draft him. ESPN had cameras present when he was notified and if you didn't think that was gonna happen please never apply to Specs Howard School of Media Arts. Don't even apply for Shemp Howard School of Anything.
Sam celebrated by kissing his partner. I saw lots of kissing and hugging when people were drafted, but of course Sam kissing his white male partner became its own little news item. I'm sure many people applauded or maybe even got choked up.
2nd year Miami Dolphins linebacker Don Jones was not applauding. He tweeted "Horrible".
Now Jones's bosses wanna have a little talk with him. And I wanna have a talk with them:
Dolphins GM Dennis Hickey, your team has lately been a purple blemish on the neck of the NFL and you and your league have much greater things to worry about than reprimanding people for one word tweets.If you allow your players to have twitter accounts-which is a huge source of free of charge marketing for the league-you must allow them some freedom to express themselves when they aren't helping your sorry ass team sell tickets.
I don't agree with Don Jones's assessment of Michael Sam being drafted and the subsequent celebratory kiss. If Michael Sam wanted to kiss a frog and make the ESPN crew sit there and wait for it to turn into a fucking Prince, he has the right to do so.
And Don Jones has the right to not like it. All he said was "Horrible". He didn't use a slur, threaten anyone, mention the NFL or any "corporate partners". He just said "Horrible". Some people think caramel is horrible, that doesn't mean they are gonna take it out of Twix bars.
Let me refresh your memory, Dennis. This weekend as all the players were drafted, your headmaster Roger Goodell,who I happen to think is horrible, stated the name of the college that they played football for. Do you really think that all the players coming out of all those different schools are going to have the same opinion on everything ? You have players in the league from Southern Methodist and BYU. The various military academies don't even see eye-to-eye on every issue. You cannot promote the ethnic and religious diversity of your league and turn around and slap someone's wrist for speaking their mind when it doesn't fall lockstep into your brand spanking new National Enlightenment League. I wouldn't blame you for banning Twitter accounts for all new contracts, Dennis. That crap last year with your O-Line made General Hospital look like Shakespeare. But until you ban Twitter and all its positives for your league, expect some opinions and respect some opinions, Dennis. It's a discussion, not a concussion.
Your league has to aggressively campaign to get kids to go out and play your sport, because many kids would rather sit on the sofa playing Madden, where they get to control every single action of every single player. Maybe you oughta give that a try, Dennis, and leave the real live football players to someone else.
Sam celebrated by kissing his partner. I saw lots of kissing and hugging when people were drafted, but of course Sam kissing his white male partner became its own little news item. I'm sure many people applauded or maybe even got choked up.
2nd year Miami Dolphins linebacker Don Jones was not applauding. He tweeted "Horrible".
Now Jones's bosses wanna have a little talk with him. And I wanna have a talk with them:
Dolphins GM Dennis Hickey, your team has lately been a purple blemish on the neck of the NFL and you and your league have much greater things to worry about than reprimanding people for one word tweets.If you allow your players to have twitter accounts-which is a huge source of free of charge marketing for the league-you must allow them some freedom to express themselves when they aren't helping your sorry ass team sell tickets.I don't agree with Don Jones's assessment of Michael Sam being drafted and the subsequent celebratory kiss. If Michael Sam wanted to kiss a frog and make the ESPN crew sit there and wait for it to turn into a fucking Prince, he has the right to do so.
And Don Jones has the right to not like it. All he said was "Horrible". He didn't use a slur, threaten anyone, mention the NFL or any "corporate partners". He just said "Horrible". Some people think caramel is horrible, that doesn't mean they are gonna take it out of Twix bars.
Let me refresh your memory, Dennis. This weekend as all the players were drafted, your headmaster Roger Goodell,who I happen to think is horrible, stated the name of the college that they played football for. Do you really think that all the players coming out of all those different schools are going to have the same opinion on everything ? You have players in the league from Southern Methodist and BYU. The various military academies don't even see eye-to-eye on every issue. You cannot promote the ethnic and religious diversity of your league and turn around and slap someone's wrist for speaking their mind when it doesn't fall lockstep into your brand spanking new National Enlightenment League. I wouldn't blame you for banning Twitter accounts for all new contracts, Dennis. That crap last year with your O-Line made General Hospital look like Shakespeare. But until you ban Twitter and all its positives for your league, expect some opinions and respect some opinions, Dennis. It's a discussion, not a concussion.
Your league has to aggressively campaign to get kids to go out and play your sport, because many kids would rather sit on the sofa playing Madden, where they get to control every single action of every single player. Maybe you oughta give that a try, Dennis, and leave the real live football players to someone else.
Poor Dennis has been thru alot, he was just trying to play prevent defense before the ticket buying public took offense.
ReplyDeleteI think there was more "control" than there was damage. If you were a 14 year old Dolphins fanatic, would you even follow Don Jones on Twitter ? He had 3 tackles last year.
DeleteHow do they know the "horrible" was about that? Maybe he'd just taken a bite of a really bad sandwich...... Remember the beauty pageant contestant that said she was against gay marriage? She got attacked, mostly by Perez Hilton, but by mainstream media too. Hey, she doesn't agree with gay marriage, she didn't say she hated gay people, she just stated an opinion. I don't agree with marriage.....ALL marriage. Why do we need a religion or government to sanction who we are with? I'll be with who I choose to be with and I don't give a fuck what any person or entity thinks.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the Dolphins are more sensitive to Tweets than Sylvester, but you're right. It comes off as a PC witch hunt and an overreaction. If an epithet was attached,I'd be mad.But there wasn't, so I'm not.
DeleteBill Burr referenced it in his standup show Why Do I Do This? He was once eating outdoors and he looked up and immediately saw two men kissing and he recoiled a bit. He said nothing, he didn't make fun of them, he just recoiled and a woman accused him of being a homophobe. He made clear that he doesn't hate gay people (when they move in the neighborhood the property value goes up - he loves them), but seeing it without readying himself took him aback........It is still a squirmy thing to me too, I hope to get over that, but I don't hate anyone and wish everyone happiness with whomever they choose.
ReplyDeleteAnd here's the thing. The media wants to talk about Michael Sam being equal - and I agree with that. So then why do we need to have a story about who his boyfriend is. We didn't have stories about the other players' girlfriends. Treat him equally......he kissed his partner, just like any other player with a partner that got drafted........it should not even be a story.
ReplyDeleteTom Brady,Aj McCarron and Christian Ponder and to a lesser degree Matt Stafford…just an extra angle. But I get ya. jackie robinson was never "equal", it's just the way it works. (Though Jackie Robinson was better than almost everyone he played with-I doubt Michael Sam will be able to say that)
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