Missouri’s Michael Sam chases down Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel during a game this year. Sam came out as an openly gay player after the season. Photo: L. G. Patterson, Associated Press photo.
At Ole Miss, we ask ourselves the same question before every football, basketball, and baseball game: “Are you ready?” As the face of the average athlete has changed, our university’s commitment to respect and diversity must be considered in light of this repetend.
Are we ready to embrace openly gay athletes?
“I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it,” said Michael Sam in a February interview with ESPN. “I just want to own my truth.”
Michael Sam is a 6-foot-2, 260-pound defensive end who played at the University of Missouri as a member of the comeback team that successfully played 12-2 and ultimately played in the SEC Championship.
Named first-team All-American and the Associated Press defensive player of the year, Sam was voted by his teammates as Mizzou’s most valuable player.
Sam is expected to go high in the upcoming NFL draft, with many predicting that he will be claimed in the third or fourth round.
In a Feb. 9 interview with ESPN, Sam announced to the world what he had known for a very long time — that he was gay.
“I’m not afraid to tell the world who I am. I’m Michael Sam: I’m a college graduate. I’m African American, and I’m gay,” he said.
In a little over two months, all eyes in the sporting world will be on Sam and Radio City Music Hall during the 79th annual NFL draft.
If drafted, Sam will be the first openly gay player in the National Football League.
There has been an outpouring of support for Sam as he prepares for the draft from everyday people, University of Missouri students, celebrities and current and former athletes.
As a university right in the middle of the Bible Belt, what would happen if a football player here at Ole Miss were to come out? As a school constantly criticized for a lack of acceptance, would we be accepting of one of our own?
Both University of Mississippi Athletics Director Ross Bjork and head coach Hugh Freeze have issued statements of support for all of their athletes.
In an interview with The Clarion-Ledger, Bjork said, “I feel confident in who we are as coaches and as administrators and as a campus. We would want someone to feel welcome and free, and to be who they are.”
In that same article Freeze spoke of his experience coaching a gay player.
“Certainly don’t want to call any names, because everybody is entitled to their privacy unless they want it to be public,” Freeze said. “I guarantee in both cases they knew the coaching staff loved them and respected them.”
When asked if he believed the Ole Miss community would be accepting of an openly gay football player, sophomore mechanical engineering major Joseph Reed said, “One guy – no. It would have to be more … This is Ole Miss.”
Ole Miss football players Evan Engram and Christian Russell agreed that there would be some adversity, but believed that most people and the team would support a player if he were to come out.
“Everybody would have their opinions,” junior linebacker Russell said. “There would be a lot of adversity with it. Some people would and some people wouldn’t.”
Sophomore tight end Engram said that he believed that there would be a few who would not be accepting of an openly gay player, but as a whole the community and the team would be more than supportive of anyone who was to come out. Russell also added that people shouldn’t be worried about this issue.
“That’s his life,” Russell said. “I’m not here to worry about your life. That’s his business; I wouldn’t care.”
These players believe that at the end of the day, they are brothers and they are always going to be there for each other.
Sophomore journalism major John Wilson Bilbro had a similar opinion.
“He would have the respect and support of teammates,” Bilbro said. “But would the community accept him? No, because we (Ole Miss) are so many steps behind.”
— Waverly McCarthy
wcmccart@go.olemiss.edu
