Poll: 80% of NFL players ‘OK’ with having a gay teammate
According to a recent poll, 44 out of 51 NFL players said they would be okay with having a gay teammate.
ESPN.com’s NFL Nation and ESPN The Magazine released the findings of the anonymous survey on the heels of Former Missouri football player and NFL prospect Michael Sam’s announcement that he was gay.
Fifty-one players, almost an entire team roster, responded to four true-false questions. Although the survey showed that most players aren’t concerned with another’s sexual orientation, it also made clear the concerns that players would have with learning how to relate to an openly gay teammate.
Forty-four players said a teammate’s sexual orientation didn’t matter to them, and 39 said they would be comfortable showering around a gay teammate. But 32 players said they had teammates or coaches who used homophobic slurs last season, and when asked whether an openly gay player would be comfortable in a NFL locker room, just 25 players said yes; 21 said no, while five declined to answer.
According to the survey, a main concern for players was learning how to relate to a teammate they knew was gay and whether they would need to behave differently around him.
Are the findings of the survey surprising?
What do you make of the players’ concerns about being able to “relate” to a gay player?
Sound off below!
