OKAY HI, THOUGHTS @adambirkholtz had an excellent post about symbolism and the number that Bitty wears in his flashback and it got me thinking about Bitty’s football position and i went off in the tags (soz about that em) but here’s a post ab it, idk if anyone else has ever said anything about this but here’s what i remembered about that update
so i don’t know a wholelot about football, it is neither my primary nor my secondary nor my tertiary sport, but i know enough that this is something i just realized.
So Bitty wears no. 15 in the flashback in Checkand yeah it’s a concussion induced flashback so maybe he’s just wearing no. 15 because that’s his number, but I also think it means something
(also sidenote he’s adorable)
and in football you only kind of get to choose your numbers, basically your number correlates to your position and there’s a range you can pick from/be assigned. All that’s important to know here is that quarterbacks wear numbers from 0-19.
So, Bitty was a quarterback. and here’s the thing about a quarterback. Traditionally it is the safest and most secure position in football. If your teammates are playing the game right, no one should ever lay a hand on you unless it’s part of the play. You should still be able to hold your own, but you’re protected. As a quarterback, your job is to call signals and communicate with your team and guide the play. Quarterback canbe small, especially in youth sports because what’s really important is your ability to throw the ball and understand plays.
So all that being said
This
should almost neverhappen.
There are specific members of a football team whose entire job it is to protect the quarterback and for this to have happened, they were either really bad, orthey intentionally let Bitty get hurt.
I don’t think Bitty’s fear of physicality came from simply playing football, it came from being on a team where no one had his back even though positionally, they were absolutely supposed to. It’s not that he’s just afraid of getting hurt or getting hit, he’s afraid of being abandoned and alone and left to fend for himself while he’s playing a team sport.
It makes SMH’s unofficial motto of “got your back” mean just a little bit more
Real Madrid officially signed Luka in 2012. After one year of playing uncomfortably and was voted worst signing of the seaon, Luka bounced back and excelled in his position with the help of a new manager. He soon became an important player for the club. During his time in Real Madrid, Luka received numerous awards for being the best midfielder or playmaker of the season. With Real Madrid, he won four UEFA Champions League, four FIFA Club World Cup, one La Liga (Spanish Champion) and one Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup).
“We know that Luka is fundamental for us. He handles game situations very well and off the pitch, he is a spectacle because of his professionalism.”
“It’s his tranquillity, I have the best players and we could talk about any of them, but if you ask me about Luka, I have to talk about his calmness with the ball at his feet. La tranquilidad. That’s what he gives to the team when he’s playing well. He makes the rest play”.
Father of gay NFL prospect Michael Sam claims New York Times ‘terribly misquoted’ him
he father of the first openly gay NFL top prospect told a Texas newspaper he was “terribly misquoted” by The New York Times in a story about his reaction to his son’s bombshell disclosure.
Michael Sam Sr. claims he never told the Galveston Daily News on Wednesday that he’s from the “old school,” a “man-and-a-woman type of guy” or that he didn’t want his grandchildren to be raised in “that kind” of environment following his son’s announcement late Sunday.
“I did not say anything about my grandkids,” Sam Sr. told the newspaper.
Sam, according to the Times, learned his son was gay on Feb. 4 via a text message he received while at a Denny’s near his home outside Dallas.
“I couldn’t eat no more, so I went to Applebee’s to have drinks,” Sam Sr. told the paper. “I don’t want my grandkids raised in that kind of environment.”
As evidence of his masculinity, Sam Sr. said he even took one of his eight children to Mexico to lose his virginity, according to the Times. But the elder Sam said pushed back on the newspaper’s characterization of his take on Deacon Jones, a Hall of Fame defensive end known for his toughness who’d be “turning over in his grave” on the very idea of a gay NFL player.
“I told them that Deacon Jones is going to roll over in his grave because here comes my son and that he’s going to be a star in the NFL,” he told the Galveston newspaper.
Sam Sr. told the Times he loves his son and that he hoped he made it to the NFL, but noted the “many hurdles” black men face in America.
“As a black man, we have so many hurdles to cross,” he said. “This is just one he has to cross.”
On Wednesday, Sam Sr. told the Galveston Daily News that he’s in “full support” of his son, a former Missouri defensive end projected to be a mid-round selection.
“My son did the right thing, and I am not against him at all,” he told the newspaper. “He has made a great statement in coming out, and that he should be able to play in the NFL. I love him unconditionally. Once he gets on the field and hits (someone) once, they won’t think he’s gay.”
The Times, meanwhile, is standing by its story.
“We generally are not inclined to discuss the details of our reporting, but I can assure you that we quoted Mr. Sam accurately and fairly,” Times sports editor Jason Stallman wrote the newspaper in an email. “I’ve gone over it with our reporters, and everything was rock solid, beyond any doubt.”
Calls seeking comment from Stallman and Sam Sr. by FoxNews.com were not returned Friday.
Reaction to Sam’s announcement was swift and varied. Vice President Joe Biden, first lady Michelle Obama and President Obama’s spokesman quickly praised the defensive standout as a courageous and inspiring athlete.
“Your courage is an inspiration to all of us,” Biden posted on Twitter.
Sam is scheduled to participate in the league’s weeklong scouting camp, where potential draftees are evaluated, later this month in Indianapolis.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Sam’s announcement should not affect his standing on the NFL draft, adding that his abilities should be measured by his performance.
“And in this case, his performance has been exceptional,” Carney said.
In contrast, some players, including collegiate, former and current, have said the league may not be ready for a gay player.
Kent State University suspended a wrestler indefinitely for making a derogatory comment on his Twitter account about Sam. The Ohio school said Sam Wheeler, 20, first tweeted Monday using a homophobic slur, saying he couldn’t watch a television program because they were talking about Sam. Wheeler exchanged tweets with others who defended Sam before his Twitter account was deactivated.
The Canadian Football League also fined two players for comments about Sam. Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Arland Bruce and Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive tackle Bryant Turner Jr. were penalized undisclosed amounts on Tuesday for postings on social media. Bruce misspelled the word “gay” in his message, which urged Sam to “man up” and get on his knees and “submit to God fully.”
One cornerback for the New York Giants, however, has made it clear he would not be comfortable with Sam as a teammate.
“I don’t believe in it, I don’t respect it, but if that’s what you want to do, so be it,’’ Terrell Thomas told The New York Post. “I can’t speak for the NFL or our team or the locker room, I just know what goes on and what type of situation it’s going to put a lot of guys in.’’
People back home and at college would probably describe me as a friendly, outgoing - and, OK, sassy - person. I always appeared full of fun and smiles on the outside, but on the inside I felt uncomfortable, confused and depressed. I always knew that I was gay from when I was 13, but I kept it buried deep inside, wrapped in fear that it would be seen as a punishment from God.
I’m not a religious person at all, but I’ve always let “rules” govern my life. The church told me I’d go to hell if I “decided” to become gay, so I “decided” not to. It was misery. Sometimes I would pray to God that I would become straight. I’d cry myself to sleep.
I thought sometimes, “Why me? I am a good person; Why is this the path that I have to face?”
I remember one time even punching myself in the stomach on a rainy April night because I was so ashamed of myself. It really hurt, and I can remember it clearly. The rain poetically reflected how I felt, because I remember tears rushing down my face after I was done punishing my body. It was sad and painful that I had done this to myself, but I did not know what I could do to make myself feel happier on the inside.
When I did come out to some close friends, they all accepted me. Despite that, I started to do poorly in school and track. My times slipped and I did badly on some of my finals. That June I took the SATs and my score was not even close to what I wanted to be. I thought this was all because God was punishing me; I had made a decision that was against His will, and he was making me suffer for it.
I decided I couldn’t live this “lifestyle” anymore. I had to focus more on running, school, and other activities. “I don’t want my life ruined by this decision,” I thought. I told my high school friends that it was only a phase that I was going through, and that I really liked girls after all.
Running track and cross-country was a wonderful distraction. Whenever I ran, it was like I was in my own little world. I felt the “runners high.” It gave me a boost of adrenalin. Running was like a medicine that distracted me from thinking about being gay. I ran hard and was recruited athletically - and academically - by Moravian College, a small school in Eastern Pennsylvania of about 1,600 students.
Before I got to Moravian, I was excited. I’d heard that college was the best four years of your life. When I got there, it was more pain than parties. As a first-semester freshman, I was not as busy with school because I only had four classes and cross-country practice in the afternoon. My mind drifted, and I started to question again if I was gay. I pretended to fall in love with a girl on the cross-country team as cover. I felt so awkward.
I was in a lose-lose situation. I was so tense and afraid. My schoolwork suffered and I was running poorly my freshman year. For the first time, running was not distracting me. I’d think about being gay while I ran and worked out with my teammates. I felt like I was using running to get rid of my problems, rather than celebrating it as something that was a part of my identity and that I loved.
Coming out was like ripping off a Band-Aid. When I finally came out to my teammates, they were all accepting. They even said they already had a hunch I was gay. They all told me that they didn’t care whom I liked and just wanted me to be happy. My coach was happy I told the team. It quickly became easier and easier to come out to friends. One of my teammates told me that I should embrace my gayness, and not be ashamed for who I am. As the months went on, I became more confident in my identity.
My teammates did continue to say impulsive things like, “That’s so gay”, or “he’s a faggot.” The difference now: They were catching themselves and apologizing. They didn’t mean to hurt me.
My friends quickly came to like the “gay Max” better than the “straight Max.” That made me laugh.
When my dad and step-mom, who were both super supportive, asked me why I didn’t come out sooner, I told them I was scared that God would disapprove of me. My step-mom, who is a devout Catholic, told me that God loves all his children, he made me this way, and I should embrace myself for who I am. She said not to judge something from a book that was written so long ago, since society has changed so much. As long as I’m a good person and follow the Golden Rule, God would approve.
Shortly after coming out freshman year, I pledged my fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. At first I was scared, because fraternity guys sometimes can be classified as, well, slobs and pig heads. When I told them that I was gay, they were all so accepting of it, and I eventually found out that there were a few gay guys in the chapter. It made me realize that I was not alone, and they related to some of the issues I had gone through. It made me feel better that I was able to find other people who had gone through my situation, considering that the gay population is very small at Moravian.
Today, some of my fraternity brothers are my closest friends, and I could have not asked for a better group of brothers to be on my side. I’m glad that my teammates and fraternity brothers are so supportive. Coming out of the closet made me realize that I was about to start the best four years of my life at Moravian.
Life is like one huge race. I have gone through injuries, bad shoes, shin splints, you name it, but I have persevered through them. Like a hard-fought race, discovering that I was gay was a struggle. If I did not have the resilience and perseverance that I had obtained from running, along with the support of my teammates and brothers, I do not think I would have came out as easily.
It’s not where you start in the race, but where you finish.
When I said at the LGBT Sports Summit a year ago that we would end homophobia in sports by 2016, most said I was crazy. The guys at Outside The Lines were intrigued, but doubtful. One activist in the movement said they thought I was joking. I wasn’t.
I believe that three years from now the sports world will be viewed as a model of acceptance, that homophobia will be pushed to the corners of sports and that the idea that athletes can’t come out at any level in any sport will be a distant memory.
Football is the key.
Outsports’ two most-read coming out stories in the last year weren’t about a professional basketball or soccer player, they were both about college football players. Part of that record response is certainly that some coming out stories – like those of Jason Collins and Robbie Rogers – were broken elsewhere. If Collins had come out first on Outsports, that would be our most-read story ever.
Still, the fact that our biggest stories revolve around football in particular is no coincidence.
The reception to our story last week about Willamette University kicker Conner Mertens was shocking. Mertens is an awesome kid, but at the end of the day he’s a red-shirt freshman kicker at a Div. III school who hasn’t played a down for his team. Some sadly even pooh-poohed the fact that he’s bisexual. There was some snickering about it, to be sure. But most people were somewhere between curious and inspired: For the first time, an active college football player was coming out to the world.
The exposure for the story was enormous. In just four days it became the second-most read story on Outsports in over a year. It was carried across sports media — including ESPN, CNN, Yahoo! Sports, Bleacher Report and our very own SB Nation – and mainstream media like USA Today and the Washington Post. Fox Sports sent a TV crew to interview Mertens. The school had a press conference due to the overwhelming media interest.
Why all the attention? Football is king in America. In a Harris Poll conducted just last month, 46% of Americans called either the NFL or college football their favorite sport. That beats the combined number (44%) of Major League Baseball, the NBA, auto racing, the NHL, college basketball, men’s tennis, men’s golf, men’s soccer and boxing. Combined. Football stories are simply of more interest to the average American than the stories of any other sport. That includes coming-out stories.
“Gay football player” also plays against stereotype like no other “gay” athlete. When we post the coming-out stories of athletes in some sports, we get the inevitable “of course he’s in X sport,” almost as though some fans dismiss the possibility of homophobia in certain sports. Of course, many others take great inspiration from these stories; But many of the folks whose perspectives we most have to change have a particular impression of what it is to be a football player and what it is to play just about every other sport. It’s not right, and we’re changing it.
Until we get more football players to come out publicly, people will continue to think sports are a desperately homophobic corner of our society. It doesn’t mean I like it or agree with it – It’s just where we are right now.
Sunday’s Super Bowl was the most-watched American broadcast in television history. That says a lot.
Every coming-out story in sports removes another brick from the wall. But when we post the coming-out story of a football player people take extra notice because, in the far distant reaches of the minds of fans and many in the media, it’s still impossible to be gay in football. It’s difficult in basketball, it’s tough in baseball. It’s gotten easier in soccer and hockey. Football? No. Impossible. We hear it over and over, even from many players who say they would be 100% supportive. “The culture is too macho,” goes the mantra. “It would be too hard to come out.”
Yet, all of the facts point to a very different dynamic. When gay players are out in the football locker room, they are accepted. The guys who once said homophobic things now apologize for what they said. We know college football players like Gendreau and Mertens and former college football captain Brian Sims who were out to their teams. We’ll have the story of another college football player this week.
Things are changing, but it’s been this way on many teams for years. Three Houston Oilers – including Warren Moon – have said they had at least two gay teammates, and the other players didn’t care. At the beginning of the season, at least 62 active players had made positive public statements about gays and gay teammates; Most of the rest simply hadn’t been asked.
Football’s offseason began Sunday with the final tick of the Super Bowl clock. We used to have to wait until the lame Pro Bowl, but the NFL finally pushed that up so the Super Bowl is the end of the season. Whether in high school, college or the pros, there are no more tackles, more touchdowns, no more games.
The end of the season signals the real beginning of our culture-changing work in the sport.
Much of the issue at hand for the NFL is simply public awareness. The League has already shifted dramatically on our issues. They’ve been working closely with Wade Davis on programmatic work, like getting in front of rookies and developing creative ways to educate more players and NFL staff on LGBT issues. This is all super important and needs to happen five times as often. But at the professional level, the most important work to be done is visibility. Once guys hear their team leaders talk publicly on these issues, and the more they hear other teams accepting gay athletes, the faster attitudes shift.
At the high school and college level, much of the work involves sitting down with coaches and athletic directors. There is far more education that needs to happen with youth coaches who are less-trained and less dependent on wins and losses to keep their jobs. At those lower levels, coaches and athletic directors are the people who set the tone for the team. They are the key.
To be sure, lesbians have other issues to contend with. Given how few women participate in football at the high school or collegiate level (there are none in the NFL). It’s hard to argue that football is the key to improving the sports environment for lesbians. Though, breaking down barriers for gay men in football can help undermine the “masc-bro-only” stigma of football that keep so many women from playing the sport.
But for gay men, football is the key. That’s why Outsports has spent so much time covering football from our first day of publication, and why telling stories about gay football players and straight NFL players who are cool with the gays will be more of a focus for us in 2014 than it has in any previous year.
