All things offseason discussion part II

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by skinsguy

As a coach, you can temper other types of distractions, such as the situation with Vick, or if a player was involved in some off field legal manners. A coach can easily say, "Don't talk to the media about this stuff, say no comment, say you're focus is only on football, etc...." But obviously someone's sexuality is such a hyper sensitive subject that if a coach tells his gay player the same thing about his homosexuality, that coach is labeled homophobic and bigot because the player can't be "free" to express his sexuality. It's a whole different distraction. So I can see it from Dungy's point of view. Maybe he is homophobic. Who knows? Just find it quite hypocritical for people to give Tim Tebow such a hard time because he was so up front about his Christian faith, and then think it's great for Michael Sam to be out about his sexuality. Guarantee that if you have gotten tired of hearing about Tebow, it's going to be the same deal with Sam.

Using your Vick example, even if Dungy said to Vick "don't talk to the media", there's still going to be distractions brought on by that player. Vick may not say anything, but that's not going to stop PETA from protesting or the media from keep asking Vick and other players about Vick's situation. Sam can just as easily not make a comment about his personal life and sexual preference.

Tony Dungy is a religious guy so his comments (sadly) don't surprise me. But he's a public figure and has been a coach in the past, and he should know better about making these comments.