Openly Gay NFL Player Scandal

This past week during the NFL draft something revolutionary happened to America's favorite sport, the game of football. Even though it was previously unheard of, an openly gay man was drafted into the NFL. This was arguably the biggest news story of the week and ESPN replayed it over and over again, just to be certain it was seen from sea to shining sea. The Guardian referred to it in awe as, "the kiss watched 'round the world." This is a miracle and a huge leap in a society that would leave a homosexual professional athlete with little or no endorsements if they revealed their sexuality. Michael Sam is living proof that our society has adapted and become more accepting because already as of midweek, "Sam's Rams jersey was the No2 seller among rookies at NFLShop.com." 

However, despite the fact that this is an amazing event that will change the future of professional sports in America, we can't give too much credit to the NFL for making this change happen. They are indeed a business and play to the wants of their fans in order to make a profit. One of the main reasons it would be beneficial to draft Michael Sam for the NFL is that the LGBT community is becoming a larger fan-base. Bragman, the vice-chairman of reputation.com is quoted in The Guardian, commenting on the NFL in regards to the draft of Sam, "It understands very well that LGBT fans are passionate, they have good incomes, they're concentrated in NFL cities." This means that the fanbase of this LGBT community is going to be centered around the major cities that happen to have NFL teams and the NFL wants to speak to the demand of their customer, just as would any other smart business. 

There is also room for criticism of the fact that we were bombarded with this scene of Michael Sam and his boyfriend kissing repeatedly on national television, and yes, of course I am happy for him and what this means for the future of the sport, but why this kiss in particular? I do not believe they would show a heterosexual couple kissing near as many times if at all as this couple on air, simply because a heterosexual kiss is not as "scandalous." The things we see on the news are not the every day accepted things in society, they are the scandals and out there things that people don't hear everyday. This goes to show that as a society we still have some work to do in accepting the LGBT community as nothing different from heterosexuals, because they are still the scandal and not the norm.