re: SI: SEC teams to use Sam as a recruiting negative

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but seriously, can you imagine Saban or Miles or any coach going into a living room and saying, "Don't go to Missouri because Michael Sam was gay. They protect their players and you don't want that. You want to go to a school who will not protect you."

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No, I cannot imagine it and cannot imagine them or any other SEC head coach tolerating that in their assistants.

Honestly, having lived in the Northeast most of my life, I have to say that this article probably reflects the usual Northeastern attitude towards the South as being a backwards, bigoted, hopelessly homophobic place.

It certainly takes longer for social change to occur in the South and there certainly is plenty of homophobia still, but not nearly to the extent that most people in New York or California imagine there is.

It's so stupid that people are digging to find gay players.

It's not like gays are child molesters. They don't have to have an announcement and tell everyone. I'm not a fan of gays as personally I don't think it's the morally right. But why does everyone feel it's their right to know everything about everyone.

Missing the forest for the trees. No one needs to negatively recruit vs Mizzou

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It certainly takes longer for social change to occur in the South and there certainly is plenty of homophobia still, but not nearly to the extent that most people in New York or California imagine there is.

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Depends on where you live. Parts of Northern California and Upstate New York would give the most backwoods place in Mississippi or Alabama a run for the money. Other places like the smaller SEC college towns as well as cities like Knoxville and Nashville etc. are as tolerant as elsewhere and some cities/spots within the cities and towns are downright more tolerant than elsewhere.

Progress happens at different rates. SI wrote a story about the gay bar in Columbia that Sam had frequented and serves as a sort of outpost for Columbia's gay community and it surprised me to learn that it hasn't been around too long - opened in 1999 away from campus and has only been near campus for a little over a year and apparently they still had one person complaining about it.

On the flipside you have the Carousel which every UT student knows about and many have stories about. It's been there so long it's become a fixture. I remember my first year at UT a family friend who played LB for UT and in the NFL asked me if I'd been to any of drag shows at the Carousel yet. It kinda shocked me because I didn't realize it had been there when he was a player in 70s but the Carousel is just a fixture of campus life like grabbing something to eat at Sam and Andy's, having drinks at the Library, and a few other spots that have now closed down due to Knoxville ruining the Strip and campus areas in their 'improvement' drive. But the Carousel like Sam and Andy's (was) is so close to campus and actual campus buildings that a lot of straight students check out a drag show at least once as a sort of rite of passage. Even those that are too afraid, religious, uptight, or whatever to go to one have at least heard about the adventures of those who've gone (these stories are often greatly embellished for various purposes like scaring the most homophobic kid you know or turning the sheltered and/or most easily embarrassed non-adventurer's face as bright red as possible).

FWIW, it's a total dive but the drag show was a blast/hilarious and no one hits on you -- well except the straight guys are always hitting on the girls who are there to avoid getting hit on by straight guys.

So here you have going on a drag show adventure as a fairly common occurrence among straight students that's been happening for several decades while there you have a brand new gay bar that some people are still getting used to the fact that it's around. It really does depend on the area and for college towns how chill the student body is.

And even in cities known for being cool, you have spots that are backwards as well as progressive or laid back outposts in otherwise backwards areas.

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How does that guy have a job?

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Fair question. No honorable institution would touch him. One would *think* that after his totally discredited OSU debacle SI would have reined him in - that they chose not to is telling IMHO.