Unintentionally making Tony Dungy's point

[BigTex]

Silly Tony Dungy – he forgot his rainbow pom-poms!

These days, if a former NFL coach makes a vague statement about an openly gay sports player who was fawned over by the media, he can expect to be called a “homophobe” and “bigot” for not getting aboard the pro-gay train.

Dungy, former coach of the Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and current NBC sports analyst, told The Tampa Tribune, “I wouldn’t have taken him [Michael Sam]. Not because I don’t believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn’t want to deal with all of it.”

Dungy elaborated, It’s not going to be totally smooth...things will happen.” For this cautious statement, Dungy was attacked by the media as homophobic, discriminatory.

The gay site Outsports declared that Dungy had in effect said: “Yep, I'm still a homophobe.”

Dungy is a Christian with a Bible verse in his Twitter bio and in his background. In 2007, he verbally supported efforts to amend the Indiana constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. At the time he explained, "We're not trying to downgrade anyone else. But we're trying to promote the family -- family values the Lord's way.”

In the same way that he stated “Michael Sam should have a chance to play,” Dungy has tried to make clear that he is not anti-gay. Too late.

USA Today’s main blog accused Dungy of being fake, calling his comments “a calculated act.” “Of course Dungy’s comments come as no surprise,” the blog said, “and are not rooted in logic but ideology instead. He’s raised money for anti-gay causes before, and said he doesn’t agree with openly gay NBA player Jason Collins’ “lifestyle.”

Gaia forbid!

USA Today’s Chris Chase also insinuated that Dungy was using his beliefs to discriminate, saying, “Given Dungy’s 2007 support of an Indiana group hoping to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, some took the quotes as a repudiation of Sam’s sexuality.’ Chase used the analogy of “sharpening a pitchfork” to describe Dungy’s “attack” on Sam.

USA Today’s sports blog was disappointed because Dungy is black and, well, civil rights and stuff. It wasn’t in the “pioneering spirit you might want from the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl.”

That was echoed by Yahoo! Sports Writer Dan Wetzel, who seems to think Dungy should be running some sort of affirmative action program. Dungy, Wetzel argued, should be “empowering African-Americans with the opportunities they deserve.” He condemned Dungy’s “stunning lack of courage” as “pathetic,” and wrote, “For an NFL executive to not draft an openly gay player because someone in his locker room or fan base or anywhere might – might – not handle it so well is some kind of Jim Crow-era awful.”

Wetzel condescended to say that if Dungy “were to say that he wouldn't have drafted Michael Sam because the Bible that Dungy believes in condemns Sam's lifestyle that would be … well, that would be ridiculous, hypocritical and wrong also, but at least it would seemingly jibe with Dungy's sometimes expressed beliefs. Sometimes being the operative word.”

The condescension and naked disdain for traditional Christianity was on display at CBS Sports as well, as NFL writer Will Brinson sneered, “Dungy is allowed to have whatever stance he wants on sexuality. Religion, freedoms, belief systems, yada yada.” Big of Brinson, no?

“But this is a disappointing stance from the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl who dealt with racially-based backlash for he and his family at times. Dungy literally wrote (the foreward of) the book pushing for "Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL.” That has nothing at all to do with what Dungy said, but it doesn’t matter.

At least Brinson refrained from calling Dungy an “insufferable shit” who put his “religion-endorsed homophobia on display.” That well-reasoned argument came from Sports blog Deadspin.

http://www.mrc.org/articles/dungy-pathe ... gay-player

[Red Oak]

The Gaystapo in action !

[BigTex]

The Rams will have hell to pay if Sam doesn't make the team.

[kent]

or start

and the players will have hell to pay if he doesn't make the Pro Bowl. The league will have hell to pay if he's not All Pro.

[GFB]

He should come out swinging..he made a very reasonable and understandable statement..for anyone.

[Grassman]

if this was a white guy, he would also be labeled a racist.

[crocmommy]

But it was OK to sign Michael Vick after he was convicted for dog fighting?

I'm not saying I don't agree, but you need to be careful when you draw lines.

[PlanoSooner]

got to wonder why he got drafted..... i heard he was mediocre.

[Red Oak]

Make he was a "Suck Up" ?

[BigTex]

Next up - - - David Tyree

It’s open season. Since the media attacked former NFL coach and NBC sports analyst Tony Dungy for saying he wouldn’t have picked openly gay player Michael Sam during the draft, the sports media now has its pitchforks and torches out for anyone in the NFL guilty of thought crimes. ESPN and CBS are going after David Tyree, a former New York Giants wide receiver (who’s miraculous “helmet catch” gave the team victory in Super Bowl XLII), who was just hired as Giants Director of Player Development.

Tyree’s sin: he’s an open Christian and supporter of traditional marriage.

In a blog posted late July 22, ESPN’s Dan Graziano warned, “David Tyree hire a bad move for Giants.”

Graziano began: “I wrote about the Tony Dungy-Michael Sam controversy on Tuesday, so you know where I come down on the gay rights issue.” Yes, and now we know where he comes down on his own moral vanity: “I think these are issues of human decency, not of religion or culture or the sanctity of the NFL locker room.” (Wonder if The Most Important Sports Columnist in the World, Ever is hearing footsteps.)

He complained that Tyree’s Christianity is a “crummy reason” for being against gay marriage, or as Graziano puts it, “treating fellow human beings poorly.”

There’s no indication here that Graziano knows Tyree personally. There is no public knowledge of Tyree treating gay people poorly. It’s just an attack on someone Graziano disagrees with.

The ESPN writer went on to complain that Tyree’s “wrongheaded” and “medieval” views in a time of progress for gay rights, were not welcome and the Giants should’ve picked someone else who was less “tone-deaf.” Graziano bemoaned that now, any closeted gay players for the Giants would be afraid to come out. Oh the hypothetical horror!

CBS dug up past tweets from the player and comments he made to the National Organization for Marriage (“NOM”) as a reason the Giants should be concerned. CBS’s article wasn’t biased at all, calling NOM an “anti-gay group” and highlighting concerns from the pro-gay Human Rights Campaign.

So the Giants run the risk of alienating under 3 percent – and probably much less – by hiring a beloved former player player who believes what civilization has believed for five millennia? Dicy!

So far ESPN and CBS are the only ones going after Tyree but that could change quickly, as it did for Dungy.

While the Left loves to remind and deride Sen. McCarthy for his interrogations to weed out communist threats in the U.S., they seem to be doing the same thing themselves in trying to weed out any public figure who is not a gay rights advocate. Except this time there is no threat to national security; just a threat to leftists who want to slander and punish any person who has a viewpoint not aligned with their own.

http://www.mrc.org/articles/medias-new- ... avid-tyree