What The NFL Could get from DADT
Notre Dame Fighting Irish linebacker Manti Te'o: this week, it was reported that NFL general managers were questioning his sexuality; Te'o, in fact, denies that he is gay. Photograph: Chris Szagola/Chris Szagola/ZUMA Press/Corbis
Last weekend on the Melissa Harris-Perry show, guest Roman Oben, a former NFL player, during a discussion of homophobia in the NFL, said this about why teams pressure gay players to remain in the closet:
"You don't want a locker room distraction … Imagine if a player comes out of the closet, a team that's 11-1, what does that do to the locker room? There is always this fear about the locker room chemistry."
This idea – that if an NFL player comes out of the closet, it will lead to locker room distraction and, in turn, cause teams to play poorly – mirrors the long-held belief that if the US military ended its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allowed gay service members to be open about their sexuality, it would destroy unit cohesion and lead to a weaker military. On 18 December 2010, the US Congress voted to end DADT after nearly 19 years. A year after it officially ended on 20 September 2011, studies showed that lifting the ban on gay service members had had almost no effect on the efficacy of the military.
Will the NFL soon follow suit and give up its own discriminatory practices and let go of this idea that openly gay players would cause harm to teams' performances?
When Don't Ask, Don't Tell was passed in 1993, the assumption was that everyone would remain quiet and that silence would protect all service members. In reality, the policy led to a modern-day witch-hunt. Suspected gay service members were reported to authorities, their emails were searched for incriminating details about their personal lives, and their behavior was closely monitored. If a service member was outed, he or she was immediately discharged.
This last week, during the NFL's annual scouting combine, Nick Kasa, a tight end who played for the University of Colorado, told reporters that he was asked by a team, "Do you like girls?" NBC's Mike Florio also reported that NFL general managers wanted to know if Manti Te'o, the Notre Dame linebacker famous for falling for a woman on the internet who turned out to be a masquerading man, was gay. (Te'o denies this.)
The implication is that if teams' general managers suspect a player is gay, it could harm that player's chances in the draft.
These general managers, though, represent an older generation. Many are older white men in their 50s and 60s. This is not unlike the list of 1,167 retired military officials opposed to the repeal of DADT who signed a letter that said a repeal would lead to a breakdown of the military.
Those officials were mostly in their 70s and 80s, much older than average age of people who were currently serving in and running the US military. By the time of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, most service members knew that someone with whom they served was gay, and many backed the repeal, as did many of the top commanders.
In NFL locker rooms, despite recent homophobic comments by some NFL players, there are many who are ready to support their gay teammates. Brendnon Ayanbadejo, Baltimore Ravens linebacker, and Chris Kluwe, kicker for the Minnesota Vikings, have been the most vocal players on this position, even submitting an amicus brief this week to the US supreme court in support of gay marriage.
Domonique Foxworth, president of the NFLPA, said this week that the Player's Association is ready to support gay athletes in the league. As with DADT, the older generation in the NFL seems much more resistant to openly gay players than the men actually taking the field.
This returns us to this issue of unit or team cohesion being compromised if there is a media storm around an openly gay NFL player. Jerome Solomon wrote this week:
"The locker room will be less of a problem than many think. In 2013 they might be close to self-policing."
Three years ago, Brian Sims, the first openly gay football captain in the NCAA, said that he believes a team will rally around their gay teammates and try to shield them from hostile scrutiny. Wade Davis, a former NFL cornerback who is now publicly out of closet, echoed this sentiment recently when asked if the locker room dynamic would be negatively affected:
"There'll be some who say that, but the fraternity dynamic out rules that."
Davis also said that his closeted sexuality at times negatively affected his own play, especially when hiding the fact that he was gay was forefront on his mind. Many studies, including one released this week, have shown that service members in the military who remain closeted are much more susceptible to mental health challenges, which affect their ability to do their job well and lower the overall quality of their lives.
In fact,the research shows that in environments where gay people are forced to keep their sexuality a secret, their work suffers. Those who are able to be open "flourish". Additionally, the co-workers of openly gay employees perform better at their jobs.
If the history of Don't Ask, Don't Tell can teach the NFL anything about how to handle the presence of gay players on their teams, it is that encouraging those who want to be open about their sexuality is better for everyone. And if history is bound to repeat itself, the NFL will soon have its first openly gay player(s). When that happens, the supposed locker room and media distractions will be revealed as having been a myth.
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