On February 11, 2014, I wrote
about Michael Sam, the football player who spoke out about being a
homosexual. I said then I thought it was
odd that those who report on the NFL made such a big deal about it (by that I
mostly mean ESPN). I wondered aloud about
it because I had always heard that what mattered most was “what happens on the
field.” Ask Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson
if that’s true . . .
But I digress. Here’s my question: now that Michael Sam has
decided to take a break from football for “mental” reasons, can we draw any
conclusions about his rapid ascension and equally rapid decline in the
horrifically short-lived thing called the American mind? Obviously, I intend to offer some thoughts.
First, Michael Sam was under no
obligation to discuss his sexual proclivities.
My suspicion (just speculating here) is that he talked to someone: an
agent, a marketing executive, an advertiser, who told him just getting drafted
would make him tons of money because he’s gay.
Maybe he did it to put pressure on the NFL? I don’t know.
So he “came out.” His sexual
orientation has no bearing, so far as I can understand it, on how he performed
as a football player, any more than it would if he were an accountant, a
doctor, a cashier, a plumber or any other occupation. I don’t need to know if my plumber is gay;
what I need to know is whether my plumber can install a dishwasher, unclog a
pipe, or fix a leak. Michael Sam’s
sexual orientation was never important to most people, except ESPN and others
who are militant in their desire to push a so-called Progressive social
agenda. Of course, the NFL is a
media-savvy, advertising-savvy organization which knew full well that failure
to draft Sam, once he announced his sexual orientation, would have resulted in the
media erupting, Mt. St. Helen’s like, with a wall of hot ash scorching the NFL
for homophobia. Someone had to take Sam. Whether Sam himself, or some adviser, thought
up the idea, he put himself in a position to get drafted. And it worked.
Second, it is obvious after
stints with the Rams and the Cowboys that Michael Sam was never going to be an
NFL player. He had one really great
season with Missouri which landed him an award as the conference’s best
defensive player. Skill at college
football doesn’t always mean skill in the pros.
Skill at the second best level in any arena of life doesn’t necessarily
translate into skill at the next level. The
kid who wins the high school talent contest may or may not become the next
great actor, singer, or whatever. The
accountant who works for the best firm in a small town may not find his or her
skills really quite meet the standards when moving to the fast paced and
cutthroat environment in one of America’s major metropolitan areas. That’s just an assessment of how life works. That doesn’t slight Sam – many high school
football players never get to the “big” leagues of college football and labor
in obscurity in much smaller venues, often (very often) without scholarships. After all, Sam was drafted only 7 places
before the very last player drafted, the man who gets named “Mr. Irrelevant.” There was no shame in him not making it –
many 7th rounders don’t. For
that matter, there are plenty of first round draft choices who bombed out!
Third, one wonders what it means
that he’s leaving his current team, the Montreal Alouettes for “mental”
reasons. He needs a break. From what?
He hasn’t truly played a
significant amount of football since he was drafted back in 2014. My guess (again, speculation) is that Sam
thought he was cashing in and is at a loss to understand why everyone isn’t
rushing in to get a piece of the action.
Sam is feeling the pressure of not truly making the cut. From what I understand, he didn’t play in his
first game for the Canadian team, either.
I predict he will never play professional football, ever. For whatever reason, it’s not where his
skills lie. Seems maybe he invested too
much in the fame of being the “first openly gay” professional football player.
I am a great lover of irony. There is an irony here. Now that gay marriage is the law of the land,
and being gay is okay, nobody actually cares anymore! It’s no longer a big deal for anyone to come
out as gay. Michel Sam can’t cash in
because there’s nothing about his situation that demands cashing in. Yes, ESPN dutifully ran a story about his
leaving his current team (it’s on the website, if you really look hard for
it). I don’t watch much ESPN, so I don’t
know how much TV coverage it got, but I’ll bet it got one quick mention then a
move on, at best; more likely, it was relegated to the crawler at the bottom of
the screen.
This is where the all the gay
rights activists have made a mistake.
You’re always a darling when you’re an outsider trying to get in, but
once you’re there (wherever “there” is), you are part of the inside gang. Nobody cares anymore. Now you can’t complain about how you’re
treated because you’re part of the group that is doing the “treating.” I suspect Michael Sam is wondering what
happened to all the fame and notoriety that was supposed to come his way? He may well have built his well-being on this
idea. Now that it’s not happening (hey
Sam, you missed a tackle, hey Sam, you look slow, hey Sam what the *%$#^ were
you thinking) it doesn’t surprise me he may be struggling.
This is why Christianity actually
has a worthwhile answer to life’s problems.
The Christian world view says when I place my spiritual well-being in
the hands of other human beings or myself I am in for problems. No matter how well-intended, no matter how
thoughtful, other human beings will always (yes, always) let me down in some
way. I’m not a perfect husband and have
let my wife down over the years in different ways. Fortunately, she knows I can’t supply her
spiritual well-being. Any well-adjusted
person knows their own shortcomings. The
Bible paints a picture of maladjusted humans finding solace in one place: the
Messiah of all humanity, Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament describes him as the coming Messiah, the New Testament
describes him as the now-here Messiah, and both describe him as the “as to
come” Messiah.
Michael Sam apparently put his
spiritual well-being in the hands of ESPN, maybe some advertisers (he had one
credit card commercial), the NFL, and the CFL.
Unfortunately, none of that is working out, so he now has to “take a
break.” He’s cracking under the pressure
that he doesn’t measure up and being a homosexual won’t solve this existential
crisis. Either the Bible is true and
accurate in its reporting of the human condition (read it and you’ll find it’s
blunt about the human condition) or it’s not.
If it is, and the living God of the universe is speaking to us through
the pages of the Bible, then there is only one place for Michael Sam to solve
his problems: in the waiting arms of Jesus Christ.
ESPN doesn’t care that Sam didn’t
make it. Neither do the Rams, the
Cowboys or the Alouettes. They’ve tossed
him aside like yesterday’s fish. God,
through the atoning power of the blood of Christ will never do that. I hope someone is able to talk with Sam and
get him to hear this message before it is too late for him.
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