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Commitment to This Space
One of our staff writers is feeling a bit salty today.
Maybe it’s because he (or she-not sure about their pronouns) went saltwater fishing yesterday. Or, more likely, it’s not.
The sports world giveth, and then sometimes the sports world taketh.
On Monday, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out as gay. To this, we say, no worries.
His sexual orientation is his own business and that he chose to make it our business was “no biggie.” It’s very well known that a percentage of NFL players past and present are gay.
But, this is just another important step you say? After all, he’s the first to announce this while an active player.
What would be an important step is if this wasn’t an important step, rather if it was just another day. “I’m a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I’m not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that one day, videos like this and the whole coming out process are not necessary.”
Boom, we think he nailed it.
But, well, the timing has us a bit puzzled. It’s smack in the middle of Pride Month. Coincidence? Not likely. Still, it takes confidence, so we guess there’s that.
He also announced a $100K donation to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth. That sounds like a very worthy cause. The “I’m a pretty private person” comment and this public donation seem to collide a bit. But, we’ll still give the benefit of the doubt.
Then, there’s the NFL.
The league announced Tuesday it too is donating $100,000 to The Trevor Project, which is the leading national organization centered on crisis and suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth.
“The NFL is committed to year-long efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion,” the league said in a statement. “We proudly support the LGBQT+ community and will continue to work alongside the Trevor Project and our other community partners to further enhance our collective work and commitment to this space.”
How many times do you think that the NFL PR Department and Commish Goodell read over that release before its release? Plenty. But, not nearly enough.
“Commitment to this space?” Good lord! It sounds more like an investment a venture capitalist makes to the burgeoning space known as artificial intelligence or cloud computing, etc.
We submit that the NFL just can’t help itself these days. Sure, its business model is somewhere between great and otherworldly. But, it’s been behind and further behind the entirety of its own woke movement. Transparency in the workplace is a desired process. That’s a good thing for the NFL because you can see right through it.
They will “continue to work alongside the Trevor Project.” Continue means doing what you’ve been doing before, doesn’t it? A search of the NFL’s affiliation with the project prior to Monday came up empty.
It came up as empty as the PR release came up empty.
The 28-year-old defensive end was a third-round pick in the 2016 draft, previously played for the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before signing a three-year, $25 million deal with Las Vegas in 2020.
His on-field performance last year fell WAY short of expectations for an $8 million a year player. Oakland had better get their PR department working now on a release that they may need to drop if/when he becomes a training camp salary cap casualty.
But, if they’re smart they won’t ask the NFL to help with the wording.
Comment section
Engage. Enrage. Enjoy.
I’m sure he’s a decent player and good guy, but who?
Never heard of him.
Raider Nation approves of the above message.
Can’t we just keep working along with each other?
WWCSS………….What would Coach Salt say?
I’m a private person too, but I feel the need to reveal to this BBR.com audience that I’m cisgender male and strait with pronouns he/his. I’m donating $100 to playboy.com to help support cisgender female models to appear nude on my screen.
Transparency need not stop in the NFL offices. Thanks for your peek-a-boo.
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