Like most sports addicts, I’m watching the Olympic Games while I’m supposed to be working. Infamously, these Sochi games are being held in a country where it is illegal for people to be openly gay. Public acknowledgement of a homosexual identity is grounds for imprisonment in Russia, a law which many claim violates the Olympic Charter and led many to call for the first Olympic boycott since the 1980s.
Yet despite this controversy, people are watching. The Olympics are drawing incredibly high overnight ratings, because in the end, these are amazing athletes who are the best in the world at what they do, and that’s what matters to the audience.
Meanwhile, at home, the nation is facing the high probability of welcoming the first openly gay player in a major sport – not just a major sport, but the major sport. The NFL is the biggest sports league in the world, and by the end of the summer, Michael Sam will play for an NFL team. He will play defensive end or linebacker for an NFL team, he will probably sack a few quarterbacks, and he will be openly gay. His sexual orientation won’t matter, because he can play.
It won’t matter next year, just like it didn’t matter to Sam’s classmates when they found out about it nearly five years ago. It didn’t matter to his teammates at the University of Missouri, either, when they found out in August, just before an historic run to the SEC Championship Game.
But, in many ways, it will matter. It will matter to the bigots in the locker room, who undoubtedly exist. Sam will be hazed, because all NFL rookies are hazed, but hopefully not any more than his peers. It will matter to people like the Westboro Baptist Church, who are reportedly planning to protest on Missouri’s campus, much like they did on The University of Alabama last year – though for slightly different reasons. It will matter to NFL scouts and front offices, who are notoriously wary of “locker room distractions,” in a league that is, in many ways, miles behind the other major leagues in terms of acceptance in the locker room. NFL executives have already anonymously told Sports Illustrated that they expect Sam’s draft stock to fall from the mid-draft position he previously held.
Most of all, it will matter because it shouldn’t matter. Just like Jackie Robinson, in the end, it comes down to whether or not the player can play. It’s important that Sam work hard, fight for his teammates and contribute. In the end, what matters is winning.
