![]() If I were Te’o I would not want to be that The first to come out during his playing career. Gay man myself, I have long hoped that an All-Star caliber player with a big fan base will be There has never been an active player in major college sports (All-American level football,īasketball) or professional athlete (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) who has been openly gay. The awful news is that he might be right. The bad news is that Te’o seems to think that if you’re an aspiring professional football player, you’re better off being labeled naive and stupid than gay. ![]() Although there have been encouraging stories recently about more accepting attitudes in NFL locker rooms, we may still be a long way off from a day when a football player could answer the question, “Are you gay?” with a simple, “Yes” and not fear being shunned by teammates, downgraded by coaches and heckled by fans. But don’t dare call me gay.”Īnd that may say a lot about how a gay player would be treated in the National Football League. Te’o seemed to be saying, “Katie, you can call me naive, call me stupid, call me a liar. But when Couric asked Te’o if he’s gay, Te’o took umbrage. At other times in the interview, Couric grilled Te’o about being “the most naive person on the planet” involved in a “web of lies,” and Te’o didn’t flinch. The emphasis Te’o placed on being “far from” gay was striking. Te’o, who up to that point had calmly answered questions suggesting that he’s naive, stupid and a liar, grew emphatic as he insisted that he is heterosexual. The long-awaited Katie Couric-Manti Te’o interview aired this afternoon, and for people who have followed the story of the bizarre hoax that led to Te’o claiming to have a girlfriend who didn’t exist, not a lot of new ground was broken: Te’o is sticking to his story that he was a victim, not a perpetrator, of the hoax, while acknowledging that he did lie to his family about having met his nonexistent girlfriend in person, and that he lied to the media even after learning that she didn’t exist.īut one brief exchange within the interview has people talking: Couric asked Te’o, “Are you gay?”
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