Football is America’s alpha male. All things masculine, testosterone-infused, and worthy of a “guy’s night out” tend to congregate around a pitcher of beer and the nightly game. Monday Night Football even gives the ladies a chance to eat hot wings, sport their favorite NFL jersey, and act like one of the boys. It is a sport that has something for everyone. For the guys, it is a chance to witness modern day gladiators fight to the death in cement coliseums. For the gals, they can shamelessly watch men in spandex and follow their favorite ‘tight end’ to the endzone.

But this is 2006…red and blue states, right and left, #### and straight. While it may be easier to distinguish the sports bars from the #### bars in the Midwest, here in New York it is getting harder and harder to tell the Wall Streeters from the Chelsea Boys. The lines that used to separate heterosexual from homosexual behavior are blurring more and more each day. I used to consider myself a champion of “####dar” but what I’ve come to recognize in New York is that men no longer fall to such extremes and many that I used to suspect as straight are #### and visa versa.

Sports are universal, regardless of sexual preference, and anyone can enjoy them on either side of the ball. While #### ice skaters and swimmers are hardly shocking, what if we had a #### football star? Many #### men are already football fans, but is America ready for #### sports stars in traditional alpha male roles?

Before you stop reading, disturbed by such a proposition, imagine the hypothetical. In Richard Greenberg’s Tony Award winning play, Take Me Out, a fictional baseball star shocks the world when he announces he’s ####. The playwright explores the modern day paradox of a hugely popular ‘alpha male sports figure’ who breaks the mold by shattering sexual conventions. Can the beer and nacho sports fan still love a dynamic player who falls left of center?

In Take Me Out, Greenberg illustrates the hypothetical by creating a fictional team, the New York Empires (dressed in pinstripe uniforms), and focuses his story around the star player, Darren Lemming. (When the play debuted in New York, that star player had a striking resemblance to Derek Jeter.) The play further explores the way Darren’s homosexuality affects the locker room, his teammates, #### supporters, and the traditional American sports fan.

Granted, the play dealt with baseball, but can you imagine what might happen if a major NFL quarterback broke boundaries and headlines if he were to make a similar announcement? If The Sopranos can write a storyline about a #### capo, the idea o####a href="http://community.foxsports.com/CensorSetting.aspx?url=http%3a%2f%2fcommunity.foxsports.com%2fblogs%2ftjw118%2f2006%2f08%2f23%2fWhat_if">#### football star isn’t inconceivable. To be honest, I believe that player already exists. I’m not talking about ex-NFL star Esera Tuaolo who recently published a book about living as a closet-#### man in the NFL, I’m talking about a bona fide star player in the prime of his career announcing he is ####.

If there is one thing we all learned in the last presidential election, it’s that America is divided by red and blue states. While the dominance and acceptance of homosexual behavior may favor the blue, the middle grounds of red states have a stronghold over majority opinion. As a straight girl with a #### roommate and numerous #### friends, (and a preference for #### bars because they are wickedly fun and non-threatening to women), I have no problem with a #### football star. In fact, I think it would welcome an entirely new type of football supporter, one that has rarely experienced the sport because many #### men and women feel ostracized by the average football fan.

Football players are seen as strong and dominant. Therefore, how appropriate that a male football star takes the initiative and has the courage to stand up before society and admit his sexuality. Having witnessed too many friends struggle with their homosexuality and resist telling their friends and family, such a star would be an inspiration to people who are ready to come clean about who they are. If a high profile man admitted he was #### perhaps more people would understand that sexuality is a trait that cannot be chosen, changed, or reversed.

On the flip side, I can already see those red states and their inhabitants throwing up their hands in horror that such a lifestyle would ruin the sport, the team, morale, and all things sacred to the American dream. Football players are seen as the ‘ultimate male,’ so how could that man be ####?

Perhaps more perplexing is how this behavior might alter the team morale and locker room conduct. Would straight players feel uncomfortable to shower or walk around nude as they traditionally have in the past? Would they still protect and follow the audibles of their #### quarterback? Would trust between players be abandoned and the team suffer in the long run? While I’d like to think that most players would be supportive of their quarterback and his announcement, I cannot begin to answer these questions because I don’t know how the offensive line might react.

In Esera Tuaolo’s book, Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a #### Man in the NFL, the former Green Bay Packer discusses the stress, torment, and fear that he constantly lived with being #### and playing football. While he may be the third player ever in the NFL to come out, his story only illustrates how difficult it can be living with such a secret. While no one doubt’s Tuaolo’s “manliness” as a defensive powerhouse, many believe that his teammates would have turned on him and eaten him alive if he had come out while still playing.

#### football stars exists, but just like the Army, a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy applies in the NFL. For a player to make such an assertion would be a gargantuan gamble. Not only is he willing to put his career on the line (and millions of dollars), he is subjecting his character to vast criticism and a national debate. In the end he could come out as a hero, a martyr, and a pariah.

Besides the risk the individual player would face, the NFL would have a publicity nightmare to settle. Right-winged fans many may chose to show their displeasure by boycotting NFL games and merchandise, thus creating financial woe to the organization. While many liberal supporters of the player may creep from the woodwork to cheer him on, would they support the NFL by making up for the loss of conservative fans? The NFL isn’t ready or willing to find out.

Today it is just a hypothetical, tomorrow it could be the next Hollywood movie, but someday it will be a reality. I applaud the man who has the guts to come forward, but I do not envy the hard and controversial decisions he will have to make.

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