BLROTD for Thursday, 3/9/17
Today’s longread (thankfully) veers away from the politics that have come to define this space and into the realm of the purely inspirational. And where better to find inspiration than in sports?
As somebody who grew up loving sports, I can attest to their power and, no matter how much projection is involved, their unique reflection of the human experience.
I remember listening to an interview with Rachel Nichols (I think on BLROTD favorite Richard Deitsch’s podcast) where she said that one of the reasons she loved covering sports was that it was like being part of the fire department but getting to watch buildings catch fire in real time. I probably butchered that, but the sentiment stands: sports is unrivaled in its ability to bring drama in the moment, as opposed to after the moment has happened.
Today’s story may not be a pure example of such a phenomenon (certainly not on the same level as a game), but it remains a wonderful reflection of society and the age in which we live.
Said story, from Zack Rosenblatt of the Arizona Daily Star, tells the tale of My-King Johnson, the first openly gay scholarship football player in major college football, who will attend the University of Arizona this fall.
What I love about this story is how, through its details, you can see certain aspects of society becoming normal. Notice how many qualifiers were in that previous sentence: “the first openly gay scholarship football player in major college football.” These qualifiers were necessary because there have already been openly gay college football players, chief among them University of Missouri defensive end (and NFL draftee) Michael Sam (who came out after he graduated). Barriers are being broken all the time, and each story like this makes its subject more and more ordinary. That’s not to say that any openly gay Division-! football player qualifies as “ordinary” just yet (especially one as good as Johnson), but it’s not like they’re one of a kind. And that’s beautiful.
In fact, that sentiment is expressed in the piece by Johnson’s future coach Vince Amey. “I can’t wait to be like, ‘Yeah, I got to coach the first openly gay kid to be an All-Pac-12 defensive end,’ ” he says. Isn’t that cool, that Johnson’s coach (along with countless observers) is able to look past Johnson’s sexuality so readily? It’s a sign of how far we’ve come as a society in a relatively short time. Instead of thousands of articles about the aforementioned Sam leading up to the NFL Draft, we get one article about Johnson in the Arizona Daily Star. Not even the Arizona Republic- the Arizona Daily Star. I guess it’s Tucson-based, but I had never heard of it before this article. That’s not to say it’s not a wonderful publication, but… you get it.
The point is, Johnson’s story is wonderful, and I wish him all the best. But while we honor him, we should take a second to recognize that his story will likely be that of hundreds of other players in the coming years, and each one will (hopefully) be more accepted than the last. I pray that soon, as Amey said, we will universally define people more by their accomplishments on the field (or in the classroom, or on the stage) than their sexuality or any other inherent trait. In the meantime, though, let’s celebrate the progress being made- this time through the recognition of My-King Johnson.
Enjoy: http://tucson.com/sports/arizonawildcats/football/making-a-name-arizona-wildcats-my-king-johnson-will-make/article_eb32c611-70c0-5b48-9316-d7a8bf54cca0.html
