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December 15, 2003
There was another unfortunate incident
There was another unfortunate incident this weekend in the NFL that reminded me of just how far we have to go in ridding the world of the last "acceptable" predjudice. Lions team president Matt Millen was on the field after the Lions lost to the Chiefs, 45-17. He sought out a player for the Chiefs, Johnnie Morton, with whom Millen has had bad blood; Morton once played for the Lions but was cut by Millen, and they've traded barbs in the press over the last couple of years. Morton, by all accounts, was uncooperative at best. One version of the story says he walked past Millen without saying a word, ignoring Millen's outstretched hand and words of congratulations; in another version, Morton told Millen to "kiss my ass." Millen chose to respond to Morton's slight by calling Morton a homosexual epithet. In front of many witnesses, no less, and just in case anyone missed it, he asked if everyone had heard him, and then repeated it.
Within a few hours, Millen had issued a public apology, saying his comments were borne of frustration at the Lions' 4-10 season, that he hadn't meant to offend anyone, and that if he had offended, he was sorry. You know what? I can pretty much believe him. He's a warrior, a competitor, and this season hasn't turned out very well for the Lions; and he was having a testy exchange with a player he's had bad blood with for years. I can honestly believe that his emotions got the better of him, and he just said something he regrets.
It doesn't matter. Millen should be fired anyway.
There are two issues at work here. The first is pure and simple. In any other workplace, Millen would be fired for such a comment. If an employee of virtually any other public company were to issue the same epithet at work - even if out of frustration after a bad day - he'd be fired. Nearly 60% of the Fortune 500 extends benefits to domestic partners, and virtually ALL of them have strict policies prohibiting harassment and the creation of hostile workplaces. The NFL is no different from any other company, and its employees should not be allowed to get away with behavior that is inappropriate anywhere else. (Then again, that also includes taking out a cell phone in the middle of a meeting to call my mom and tell her that I just did my job... like the Saints' Joe Horn did after scoring a touchdown this weekend. What a freaking punk. It's because the NFL is full of street punks like Horn that I can barely watch football anymore. But I digress.)
There is another issue at play here, and it speaks poorly not only of the NFL, but of all major sports, at either the professional or college level. Let's assume that Millen WAS simply frustrated, didn't mean to offend anyone, and was simply lashing out at Morton. Why did he feel that the easiest way to get at Johnnie Morton, the best way to respond to "kiss my ass," was to in effect call him a homosexual? Never mind the word he used - that's window dressing, kind of like the use of the N word is only at outer symptom of deeper racism. The real issue is that in the world of the NFL, and organized sports in general, being a homosexual is still something "bad." And that's what we have to question; that's where we have to demand change.
FIrst of all, what if you were a gay player for the Lions right now? How would you feel about playing for an organization that considers you an insult? How safe would you feel in being yourself, in admitting to your employer who you were? (It's a real possibility, kids. Even using the most conservative estimates of the percentage of homosexuality in the population, around 1-2%, there are 1,440 players on active NFL rosters each year... that would mean that anywhere between 14 and 28 NFL players are gay. And that's assuming the numbers that social conservatives like to use... most reliable estimates say that the percentage is higher, anywhere between 6-10%. That means that there are probably anywhere between 85 and 144 gay players in the NFL. That's about 2 or 3 per team. I can virtually assure you that someone on Millen's team took that comment a little more personally than everyone else.)
That, my friends, is the definiton of a hostile workplace. A gay player for the Lions has reason to feel that admitting his sexuality to his employer could have detrimental impact on his career. For that reason, Millen needs to go.
It still baffles me that there's still squeamishness about homosexuality in sports. I know, I know, there's the whole locker room thing. But nonetheless... my points would be: 1) if you're not gay, then it doesn't matter who's eyeballing you in a shower... you're not going to reciprocate, so why do you care? 2) that's still an insulting supposition about gay people - that they somehow are less in control of their sexuality than the rest of us... that somehow, they're going to feel that staring at co-workers' bodies is appropriate where the rest of us would not. 3) What about the idea that your teammates are your brothers, the guys you go to battle with every Sunday and the guys who you want to win a Super Bowl with? If the player performs on the field, what do you care? Would you turn down a Super Bowl championship if the player who made the key play that sealed the win just happened to be gay?
We've come a long way in regular society; we have a long way to go, but at least we're making progress. Sadly, in the troglodyte world of Matt Millen and the NFL, they haven't come nearly as far.
