(Michael) Sam to the Rams and May madness

May 12, 2014

Kudos to Michael Sam and the St. Louis Rams, who’ve decided to take a chance on one another. Sam, the University of Missouri defensive end who came out before deciding to test the NFL Draft, was the 249th pick overall, with just seven left before the final round. But hey, he got in, celebrating with tears and a kiss for his partner that went viral. (I, of course, have been following this story with great interest as my upcoming novel “In This Place You Hold Me,” the second in my series “The Games Men Play,” is about a quarterback’s search for identity – sexual, racial, familial and national – in the beautiful, brutal world of the NFL.)

Sam asked to be judged on his merits, and, to their credit, the NFL and the Rams have done just that. Let’s hope his teammates and opponents, the press and we fans can do the same.

And forget March Madness. They should call this merry month May Madness.

Art imitates life for NFL-bound Caraun Reid

May 8, 2014

In the Too Funny Department, Caraun Reid – a defensive tackle who graduated from Princeton, sings and plays guitar – may be picked as early as the third round of the NFL Draft. Why is that funny? Because as a novelist struggling to create believable athletic protagonists, I have worried about making them too intellectual and cultural (like me). Then along comes Reid to demonstrate I had nothing to worry about, that God is the best writer and that we shouldn’t be so quick to assume that a jock can’t be a brainiac as well.

But then, I already knew that. In my upcoming novel, “In This Place You Hold Me,” deeply troubled star quarterback Quinton Day Novak attended Stanford where he studied classics. Who’s going to believe this? I thought. Until the Jonathan Martin hazing incident broke, and it turned out, yep, he went to Stanford and majored in classics. You can’t make this stuff up.

Sanchez is out: Is it finally Geno Smith time?

March 23, 2014

Just when I thought I’d get a day off from sports, there’s more bombshell news:

Mark Sanchez is out as the New York Jets’ quarterback, and Michael Vick, late of the Philadelphia Eagles, is in.

Boy, you could’ve knocked me over with a, well, Jets’ wristband. Did not see that coming. I mean, after the revelation of Coach “Sexy Rexy” Ryan’s tattoo of his wife dressed in a Sanchez jersey – how it makes one yearn for Colin Kaepernick’s battle of angels all over his sculpted back – as I was saying, after the revelation of Ryan’s Sanchez tattoo, I thought those two were joined at the hip. But nothing is forever, least of all in football.

Was Jonathan Martin the strongest Dolphin?

February 27, 2014

So Jonathan Martin – the Miami Dolphin who was so tormented by teammates that he’s checked himself into a psychiatric facility – doesn’t want to return to the Dolphins. Gee, what a surprise.

This as we’re learning more about the teammates who abetted Richie Incognito in harassing him – John Jerry and Mike Pouncey. Apparently, Incognito, who’s been suspended, has tried to make nice with Martin while telling Pouncey that Martin is a snitch. It would all be so very high school if the abuse weren’t so striking and the reactions so distressing. Many posters on ESPN have called Martin a pussy, suggesting that his emotional fragility may make him a liability for any team. (The misogyny is palpable.) Apparently, an unwillingness to take any more racist and homophobic slurs, sexual remarks about your mother and sister or unwanted simulated sex acts makes you a wuss.

What’s wrong with these people? To hear some fans tell it, nothing.

Jason Collins, the gay Jackie Robinson

February 25, 2014

Jason Collins has rejoined the Nets with a difference: He becomes the first openly gay athlete in any of America’s four major sports.

There’s lots of symbolism here: The team now plays in Brooklyn, where Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. The Nets are owned by Mikhail D. Prokhorov, from Russia, which has taken a tough anti-gay stance. And Collins will wear his regular No. 98, in honor of Matthew Shepard, the college student who was murdered for being gay in 1998.

Collins may soon be joined in pro sports by Michael Sam, who’s just come out and is on-target to be drafted by the NFL.

All of which makes me look prescient for publishing “Water Music,” a novel about four gay athletes and how their shifting rivalries color their personal relationships with one another.

More than semi-tough – the brutal ballet of the NFL

February 17, 2014

We take a break from the Olympics to reflect on a disturbing story that led many newspapers and programs Saturday – the report on the hazing of former Miami Dolphin Jonathan Martin, which paints an ugly portrait of homophobia, misogyny, racism and inappropriate touching.

The report concludes that teammate Richie Incognito and his acolytes John Jerry and Mike Pouncey harassed not only Martin but another young offensive lineman and an assistant trainer. Particularly revolting were the sexual comments about Martin’s sister, who has nothing to do with any of this. (Incognito’s lawyer, Mark Schamel, has said the report is replete with errors.) Whatever took place was so unnerving to Martin that he left the team and sought psychiatric help.

What is going on here? In an Op-Ed piece for the Feb. 15 edition of The New York Times, Nicholas Dawidoff, author of “Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent world of NFL Football,” suggests that homophobia is the sport’s shield against its inherent homoeroticism. Think about it – all those men bending over, passing the ball between their legs, piling on top of one another, often in the most violent ways. Then there’s the intensity of the locker room with its attendant nudity. Read more

Shaun, Bode, Peyton and the winter of their discontent

February 13, 2014

Not a great season for the favorites, huh? First Nole loses in the quarterfinal of the Australian Open and Rafa is injured in the final of the same event, then Peyton has a disastrous Super Bowl, Bode Miller flames out in the Olympic downhill and Shaun White goes down in his signature half-pike.

Time: Time is another country. We tend to think when someone wins that he’ll win forever. But over time, new people come along to challenge the status quo, the way iPod challenged Shaun, the way Matthias Mayer took on Bode and the rest of the field to win the downhill.

Afterward, Matthias thanked destiny: “My mother is very religious. She believes in this and of course I was brought up like that. It’s a little bit easier for me if I think that way: That everything turns out as it should.”

I would agree but boy, there’s a part of me that really doesn’t want to think that way. Is it destiny for some to suffer? Why? Read more