Home 2014 NFL Draft Are The Steelers Ready for a Gay Player?

Are The Steelers Ready for a Gay Player?

by Steeldad

Mike Tomlin must find a way to finish strong if the Steelers want to keep their wildcard spot

On the surface, the Pittsburgh Steelers would seem like one of the more ideal teams among the league’s 32 franchises to welcome a gay player.

They are the founding fathers after all of the NFL’s ‘Rooney Rule’ which states a team must interview a minority candidate as part of its head coaching search.

This topic has emerged as former University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam has announced publicly for the first time that he is gay.

Sam is not going to be ‘just another player’ though because he was the SEC’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2013.

Despite being a bit undersized, it’s expected that he’ll still be drafted somewhere between the fourth and sixth rounds. With his announcement however, there will be questions as to just how far he may fall and will he be drafted at all? Teams will be very cautious in vetting Sam at the NFL Combine and leading up to the draft.

Bringing an openly gay player into an NFL locker room is not an easy thing to do. Just look at the atmosphere that was in Miami between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin and that didn’t have to do with either player being gay.

As far as the Pittsburgh Steelers bringing in a gay player I think there are two ways to look at this. For the team itself I don’t believe it would be a major issue in the locker room. This is not to dismiss this as ‘there won’t be issues’ because everyone has their own personal beliefs, but by and large players want to win.

This means they’ll do anything and everything to reach that goal of being football’s best even if it means accepting a person whose sexual orientation they may not agree.

The other side of the coin is the fan base. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that there are many Steelers’ fans who do not accept homosexuality and they can be quite demonstrative of this.

If you look at comments from fans about Mike Tomlin, you’ll know that there is also a large pocket of Steelers’ fans that aren’t exactly tolerant of African-Americans based on their hate-filled words. This didn’t start with Tomlin though. It goes back to the days of Joe Gilliam and Kordell Stewart as well.

Personally, I wish Michael Sam well. I hope that he is allowed to just be a player and a member of a team rather than anything else.

So if you ask me if a gay player would be welcomed by the Pittsburgh Steelers I would say by and large “yes.” As for the fan base? That becomes a different story.

Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard Mondays on Trib-Live Radio at 730pm ET talking Steelers and is a blogger for ESPN 970 in Pittsburgh.

 

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5 comments

steelbydesign February 10, 2014 - 4:40 pm

You’re right that plenty of fans would have a problem with it, but I don’t think that’s all that different in things other than sports. You’ll see a many homophobic comments about Sam as you do racist comments about Tomlin… It’s there if you go look for it on twitter, but we’d all be pretty depressed if we went looking to see what the internet’s bottom feeders are talking about.

I just tweeted, and I think that this will go down much like the Manti Te’o situation a year ago. While their situations really aren’t the same at all (although some did question Te’o’s sexuality), the attention the player receives is where I see it being similar.

Between now and May we’re going to hear more than we care to about Michael Sam. I think he’ll probably be selected in the 5-7th round somewhere and it will be a big story when it happens. Did anyone hear anything about Manti Te’o following week 1 of the season though? Because I didn’t.

This will eventually become a non-story, I think.

I would love for the Steelers to draft Sam in the 6th round, because I think he has potential as a 3-4 pass rusher, but is a project (much like Chris Carter out of Fresno St.).

robert henderson February 10, 2014 - 6:19 pm

I’d take him as a Steeler if he’s still on the board in the 5th or 6st. Why? Because who cares if he’s gay or not. Their are gay players on every team in the NFL. The Steelers need OLB and they can take him and see what he can do or put him on the practice squad. Draft Sam and Draft Aaron Colvin in the 6st and put him on IR.

steeldad February 10, 2014 - 6:56 pm

I agree gentlemen. I could care less if he is gay, an alien or has gills. If this young man can play football then by all means bring him aboard.

j.hackers February 11, 2014 - 1:04 pm

i would be all for a gay player on one condition. gather all sports writters from pg,trib,and all the blog writters that are all giddy and happy and are pushing for this in their writting and make it mandatory that they shower with this brave and courageous player after all practices and games.

steeldad February 11, 2014 - 1:13 pm

I don’t know that anyone is ‘pushing’ for this J, but it was bound to happen. The NFL has men who are pro-choice and those who are pro-life. There are men who believe in the death penalty and those that don’t. These issues are of no circumstance to their teammates because winning is the top priority so why should a gay man be a concern? All that matters is that he he can play at a high level in my mind.

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