November 4, 2009

Gay athletes don't fit in what is perceived as a homophobic NFL

Athletes have heard the ugly words on practice fields for most of their lives. They hear them in the streets and at neighborhood hangouts.

But when Chiefs running back Larry Johnson used an antigay slur on his Twitter account and in the locker room this week, he struck a nerve that makes professional sports leagues wince.

The NFL, like other pro sports leagues, is perceived as homophobic. Of the more than 20,000 athletes who have played in the NFL, less than a handful have identified themselves as gay -- David Kopay was the first in 1975, followed by Roy Simmons and Esera Tuaolo -- and only after their careers had ended.

Now the image-conscious NFL -- which fines players for wearing droopy socks or the wrong-colored chin straps, is frightened by the prospect of Rush Limbaugh as an owner and enforces a rigid personal conduct policy -- is confronted with how to deal with gay-bashing.

"There isn't a road map for this," said Bob Leffler, president of the Baltimore-based The Leffler Agency, the largest sports-advertising company in the country and former sales and marketing director of the Baltimore Colts. "It's different from other fines like leading with your helmet.

"It's a freedom of speech issue. For whatever reason people are more truthful with their tweets and Facebook. ... When you have extreme masculinity situations like football, people who have a hangup about (homosexuality) are more intimidated by it. But there's no place for a homophobe."

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