"Manti Te'o Gay? NFL Teams Want To Know About Linebacker's Sexuality, Says Mike Florio"

From the Huffington Post

Review by Sylvia Lee in SRM 334 (section 1)

The article, Manti Te'o Gay? NFL Teams Want To Know About Linebacker's Sexuality, Says Mike Florio, discusses how after the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax, NFL teams are questioning his sexuality. Teams are wondering if this hoax was Te’o’s way of trying to hide the fact that he is gay. Their reason for questioning his sexuality is the concern of whether or not having an openly gay teammate would affect the locker room. During Te’os interview with Katie Couric, he said that he was not gay, but this did not solve the problem. Teams want to directly ask him, but are worried about any backlash this would bring. Due to this, other players are being asked more personal questions than ever before.

My personal view of this is that it should not matter whether a player is gay or not. But as a coach or a general manager, it would be something that would need to be discussed. Although it is not right, having an openly gay teammate could potentially affect the team negatively. In the locker room, other teammates might not be accepting of this and the chemistry of the team would be lost. Outside of the locker room, there are going to be a lot of negativity from fans and other people who are against gay rights, and may protest. Personally, I do not have anything against gays and/or lesbians, but as someone who is directly working with a team, it is something to be considered.

The way some NFL teams are going about the situation I believe is done incorrectly. I think that they should not be allowed to ask these questions. If the questions are not asked, then no one could really know and it will not be as much of an issue; ignorance is bliss. Therefore, other players should not be asked such personal questions, because then it is one less situation that has to be dealt with.

This article is relevant to our course because it is on the media; twitter, television, etc. It also affects the questions being asked to other players, and is a personal subject matter to some NFL fans.
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Review by Ryan Murakami in SRM 334 (section 1)

With the NFL draft coming up in about a month, Manti Te’o’s personal life has been a main topic in the sports world. In this article, the author discusses how Te’o’s draft stock might be on the decline due to his girlfriend hoax. During an interview a couple months ago with Katie Couri, Couric asked if Te’o is gay. Teo’s claimed he was “…far from it, far from it…” This has lead many teams to speculate about Te’o and his sexuality. According to some sources many teams have asked him in private interviews about his sexuality and have tried to dig through his past. Teams are afraid of the possible backlash if the media finds out they have been asking these questions but are really interested in knowing the answer. 

Social media has plays an important role in the entire Manti Te’o situation including the most recent debates about him. Teams are using social media to discover more about draft candidates to learn about their past. With any job, looking through Twitter and Facebook is a possibility for employers. Teams are afraid of how they will be perceived if they are looking for information about a player’s sexuality. Some members of the media think it is inappropriate to question someone’s sexuality, as it has nothing to do with the player’s ability on the field. Other players are also tweeting about how it is inappropriate for teams to ask about player’s sexuality, for example Shawne Merriman tweeted “Can't believe they're asking Manti Te'o abt. his sexuality…” . Other players might be afraid to voice their opinion because of possibly backlash from the media.

In class, social media has been discussed a lot and how quickly news spreads, how anyone can comment on any story and how anyone can voice their opinion via Twitter or Facebook. Once one player or reporters writes a story everyone hears about it and voices their own opinion.

Teams should have the right to look through the past about potential players to get a judge of their character but searching for their sexuality is another story. Searching for that information says nothing about their character or who they are as a person.