NFL Under Watchful Eye on Gay Rights
The N.F.L.’s investigation into why a team employee asked a college player if he liked girls during last month’s scouting combine has found that the comment was part of casual banter — “chatter that was inappropriate” — but not part of a formal interview process, said Robert Gulliver, the league’s top human resources executive.
The league is still trying to determine how many players and teams might have had similar exchanges, with the possibility remaining of fines for teams involved, Gulliver said last week. But whatever the outcome of the inquiry, it will almost certainly not put an end to what has become a hot-button issue for the country’s most macho sports league.
From highly publicized support of same-sex marriageinitiatives by some players last fall to the San Francisco 49er Chris Culliver’s antigay remarks during Super Bowl media day, from Katie Couric asking Manti Te’o if he is gay to Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo filing an amicus brief asking the United States Supreme Court to reject California’s ban on same-sex marriage, a series of controversial episodes has made the N.F.L. the awkward vessel for grappling with one of sports’ most stubborn taboos — that of the gay athlete — and for the country’s larger debate about gay rights.
“What Chris Culliver said at the Super Bowl was overall very positive, because it made everybody address this and confront the fact that there are gay players in the locker room and they are closeted now,” said Jim Buzinski, one of the founders of Outsports.com, a Web site about gays and sports. “It shows a reflection that times have changed. The groundwork is being laid for players to come out. Five years ago, you could not even get N.F.L. players to talk about the issue because they’d think, ‘Oh my God, do you think I’m gay?’ ”
Still, Buzinski called the combine question to Colorado tight end Nick Kasa “disappointing and embarrassing” and said it indicated that at least some segments of the N.F.L. were still operating in fear of gays.
During the league’s annual meeting, which begins here Monday, a diversity session will be held for owners, and hiring practices will be addressed with coaches, general managers and others. When the N.F.L.’s collective bargaining agreement was completed almost two years ago, it added “sexual orientation” to a section that forbids discrimination.
Next month, Troy Vincent, the N.F.L.’s senior vice president for player engagement, will meet with six groups that represent the gay community to go over the league’s policies and seek input on improvements. The league will also do what Gulliver called “culture change work” by adding training on gay issues at its annual rookie symposium.
“I think there have certainly been instances where there have been individuals that have made poor decisions, that were ill informed, ill advised and showed a lack of education about L.G.B.T.,” Gulliver said, referring to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. “If anything, there are opportunities to educate more players about our expectations from a diversity standpoint, but I would not say we’re painted with this brush where there is broad-based homophobia.”
When the president of the players union, Domonique Foxworth, wrote in The Huffington Post recently that he would support the first openly gay player, he did so, he said, in part because “players were painted as Neanderthals” after Culliver’s Super Bowl comments.
“Stereotypes are easy,” Foxworth said recently. “I’m not trying to say we’re the most enlightened group. The point I’m making is we’re no different than the general public. I think our country has a homophobia problem. I don’t think we’re where we need to be. It’s not about whether you agree with it; it’s about accepting it and not ridiculing it. All of us have something that makes us a minority in some way. Try to put yourselves in the shoes of someone else.”
Last week, the New York attorney general’s office sent a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell, asking the league to issue a formal written policy to ensure there be no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It asked for a meeting to be updated on the league’s investigation into the combine incident.
The office has not closed the door on taking its own action, under its powers to investigate potential employment discrimination in companies based in New York.
After Kasa said he was asked about liking girls, and at least two other players indicated they were asked similar questions, the league issued a statement noting that its policy did not allow sexual orientation to be considered in hiring, and that all teams were expected to abide by employment laws.
But Outsports’s Buzinski and several team officials and players said last week that they want Goodell to make a sweeping statement about embracing diversity. Late last week, Scott Fujita, a member of the union’s leadership who will soon add his name to the amicus brief, wrote to the N.F.L. spokesman Greg Aiello and to the union spokesman George Atallah asking them to consider issuing a statement on the league’s position of acceptance, while clearly defining what is acceptable workplace behavior.
“Roger Goodell needs to stand up and say something about this,” Buzinski said. “He has never uttered a word about having gay players in the N.F.L. There are gay players who are known by some people. It’s going to happen. We’re not going to be waiting seven years for it, like we’ve been waiting 70 years for it.”
He added: “Why should sports be the last closet? They’ve got to get over it. If you can be openly gay serving in the military, you can be a football player.
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