By Ken Reed
Washington Post columnist, Jerry Brewer, delivered a blistering — and well-deserved — attack to the NFL this week.
Apparently, at the recent NFL scouting combine, LSU running back Derrius Guice was asked by some enlightened NFL team if he liked men. This would be shocking if the NFL hadn’t shown multiple times in recent years that it still operates with a 1950’s socio-cultural mentality.
“This is another moment in which it would behoove the league to tell the people running these teams to emerge from the film room, look around, spend time with real people and realize how much the world is changing,” wrote Brewer. “Some NFL types would learn that they’re practically prehistoric creatures. This isn’t 2008, 1998 or even 1988. It’s 2018.”
NFL owners, executives, general managers and coaches clearly have trouble with the concept of equal rights, and don’t appreciate the necessity for anti-dicrimination policies in the workplace, so consequences for their backward behavior must be developed.
NFL Players Association executive director, DeMaurice Smith, suggested banning offending teams from the combine. Lost draft picks and/or multimillion-dollar fines might also have some impact.
League commissioner Roger Goodell would be better served worrying less about whether or not the league’s players kneel during the national anthem and more about the bigots and homophobes in his midst.
“Your move, NFL,” declared Brewer in his column.
“Stop the reckless behavior. Stand on the side of the Human Rights Campaign. End the fascination with who’s in or out of the closet, and while you’re at it, make all of your Archie Bunkers exit the film room.”
Exactly.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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