Former Missouri Tigers Michael Sam, shown in this September 15, 2012 file photo at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri has announced that he is gay, on February 9, 2014. Sam, a defensive end and 2014 NFL draft entrant told his story to ESPN and The New York Times. UPI/Bill Greenblatt |
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DALLAS, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen gives a fiery defense and tears into the people saying Michael Sam can't play in the NFL because he is gay.
When University of Missouri defensive lineman Michael Sam came out as gay, he said he knew there would be problems. People in the NFL have already created them by saying Sam would be a "distraction" in the NFL and would not be welcome because no one would want him in the locker room. Hansen took serious issue with this logic and the fact that he would be an outcast.
"You beat a woman and drag her down a flight of stairs, pulling her hair out by the roots, you're the 4th guy taken in the NFL draft," begins Hansen, referring to the scandals that come out of the NFL and college football. "You kill people while driving drunk, that guy is welcome. Players caught in hotel rooms with drugs and prostitutes, we know they're welcome. Players accused of rape and pay the woman to go away. You lie to police to cover up a murder, we're comfortable with that. You love another man, you've gone too far."
Hansen touches on the prejudicial past of the NFL, and says that everyone is part of the same world. "It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences," says Hansen, quoting civil rights activist Audre Lorde. Hansen says that we have always recognized our differences, we're still waiting for the day when we celebrate them. For Michael Sam he says, "I do think it's time to celebrate him now."
[YouTube]
