The University of Missouri All-American defensive end player, Michael Sam shocked the world of sports in 2014 when he openly declared that he was gay. In the history of the NFL, there has never been an openly gay player, and his coming out caused a lot of bustles within the American Football sports universe. At the time of this public announcement, the NFL was weeks away from the combine period, a time when the NFL draft eligible players are placed through paces before team scouts and managers. The outcome of his announcement would affect his possibility of being drafted and the probability that he would be lowered on many teams’ draft boards was high, just because he is gay. This issue has brought about the question of whether or not American Football and the NFL is ready to accommodate openly gay players.
Gay NFL Players
There are gay players in the NFL, but they are afraid of coming out because they fear that it might affect their career. In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) follow up to the Sam scandal, Fred Smoot, a former NFL player, revealed in his podcast that he had encountered several gay players and that Sam was not the only one ("Fred Smoot says he encountered 'several' gay players in the NFL and that 'everyone knew."). Michael Sam has since supported this claim, adding that gay players in the league called to thank him for doing what they couldn’t. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Sam revealed that some few players reached out to him and thanked him for the courage he showed in coming out. They showed him their respect and admired his courage in doing something so bold and brave ("Michael Sam to Oprah: Gay NFL players reached out to me in gratitude.").
Discrimination Laws
Currently, the Federal Employee Nondiscrimination Act is nonexistent because it died with the house in 2013. There are no national laws that protect employees and job candidates from discrimination and prejudice based on sexual orientation. However, this is not the case in all states. In 21 of the states in the USA, including the District of Columbia and some estimated 200 municipalities, nondiscrimination laws are existent. There are 27 out of 32 NFL teams in such states that prohibit worker discrimination. These states include Connecticut, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Iowa, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin (Gordon and Connolly).
The NFL Nondiscrimination Policy
The collective bargain agreement (CBA) explicitly prohibits player discrimination. Five years ago, in 2011, the NFL and the Players Association added anti-discrimination regulations to their bargaining agreement stating that there was a precedent need by both players and owners to protect players from prejudice. Revisiting this collective agreement, there has been considerable debate on the use of the word ‘player’ in Article 49 because that implies that undrafted and unsigned players are not protected by this law. The CBA collectively recognizes the NFL as the sole exclusive bargaining representative of the present and future NFL players, including all rookies once they are chosen in the annual college draft and all undrafted rookies once they begin negotiation with an NFL team concerning employment. Again, there is contention in the phrase ‘commencing negotiations’. Thus, as a result of the nature of these vague phrases, teams may refrain from choosing Sam based on his sexual orientation (Sinensky). The Manhattan state law, where the NFL is based, also prohibits discrimination and states that no citizen should face barriers to professional advancement in any career due to their sexual orientation. Currently, there are new and ongoing policies being drafted due to recent developments in cases such as the one on Michael Sam.
Implications
A gay player like Sam is legally bound to pursue his case in court if it should arise that he was dropped from the NFL due to ramifications involving his sexual orientation. If he is confident that the teams were breaking the state and NFL regulations on discrimination, the players and owners union is supposed to file a grievance with the league on his behalf. Following this grievance, the necessary action is to penalize the stakeholders involved, including the individuals and teams involved. If unsatisfactory action is taken, Sam is required to go to court if he is a member of an area covered by the non-discrimination policy. According to Gordon and Connolly, draft position and player potential can be quite tasking to predict, and a lot of funds and resources are utilized in assessing NFL potential recruits’ abilities before the draft. Therefore, being drafted (or not) due to sexual orientation could mean a lot of things including not getting the job because the managers have to consider a lot of options. Additionally, Sam would have become a distraction for the team and the fan base would have been too conservative to allow him to play normally.
Summary and Conclusion
Many factors determine whether or not an openly gay person will be subject to bias in a promotion, hiring, termination or compensation. Majorly, the influence that particular individual has on the people and work around him or her determines the kind of bias and how it will affect them. In Sam’s case, the reaction from the various stakeholders was unanimously positive, and diverse teams stated that they would consider employing the first openly gay athlete. However, he was never eventually picked to play in the NFL after being released by his then team in October 2014 (“Rams release Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted in NFL."). Nevertheless, it is probably safe to assume that if he were the first pick for many teams, he would have been selected. This was not the case though, and he ended up being a middle round pick hence the reason for being passed up (Gunnels). Sam later joined the CFL, and it is said he is doing well given his NFL accolades of All-American and SEC Defensive Player of the Year during his final season.
The NFL league and many other sports have yet to accept the social dynamics that are prevalent in society today. The issue of gay players has yet to be considered a possibility given that since the inception of the game, there has never been an openly gay player. The reason for this, according to a personnel assistant who commented in the issue, is because football is not yet ready for an openly gay player. The game is a man to man sports, and many players would be uncomfortable playing with gay team mates. However, time are changing and new policies are being drafted by the CBA and the league executives to accommodate these new types of players so that they may continue enjoying this great game of football.
Works cited
"Fred Smoot says he encountered 'several' gay players in the NFL and that 'everyone knew'." Washingtonpost.com 30 June 2015. Student Resources in Context. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
Gordon, Ian, and Matt Connolly. "Can The NFL Discriminate Against Michael Sam?” Mother Jones. N.p., 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
Gunnels, Mark. "Michael Sam Starts New Journey After Facing Discrimination | Football Insiders | NFL Rumors And Football News". Footballinsiders.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
"Michael Sam to Oprah: Gay NFL players reached out to me in gratitude." Washington post.com 24 Dec. 2014. Student Resources in Context. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
“Rams release Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted in NFL." CNN Wire 30 Aug. 2014. Student Resources in Context. Web. 20 Mar. 2016
Sinensky, Avi. "Michael Sam: The Practical and Legal Implications of a Gay Professional Athlete”. The Huffington Post Sports. N.p., 2014. Web. 20 Mar. 2016.
