All things offseason discussion part II

[skinsguy]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Not changing my opinion. Here's a guy who preaches giving everyone a chance, who calls teams on behalf of players to get them second, third, fourth chances even when they are known "distractions" but it's too much for him to handle? Maybe it is, maybe that's why he's sitting in a studio on Sunday nights now

What, exactly, are the other known distractions that Tony Dungy has allowed on his team? I can't name any right off the top of my head. You have a player who had signed a deal with the Opera Network to have a reality TV show which will follow him around during his first year as a pro. Just him, not the whole team. All because of his sexuality. I can see how this would be a distraction for not only the team, but Sam himself. This is much different from Hard Knocks. Look, my take on it is, if his sexuality is not a big deal, why is Michael Sam making it a big deal? Better yet, why is the media making it such a big deal? If it truly was one of these, "Oh, your gay, that's cool...go on about my business" sort of deal, then I see the point against what Dungy said. Even I said I thought he sounded a bit hypocritical. But at the same time, everybody associated with Michael Sam, himself, Opera, the media - they're all treating it like it's a big deal. And that is where the distraction comes in. How many times did I have to hear, during the draft, about which team is going to make the "historic" draft pick of a gay player? Honestly, I think it's a bit hypocritical to for people to say that gay players should be treated like any other player entering the NFL draft, yet they celebrate such a "historic" event. Can't have it both ways.

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.