LGBTQ+ in Hollywood

[margojata]

Michael Sam is apparently getting an OWN show. That will do nothing to endear him to teammates. Completely take away sexual orientation, and the other guys aren't going to love a rookie with Oprah cameras. I wish he'd just keep his head down now and prove himself as a player.

[GirlyGhoul]

May 15, 2014 16:53:34 GMT -4 margojata said:

Michael Sam is apparently getting an OWN show. That will do nothing to endear him to teammates. Completely take away sexual orientation, and the other guys aren't going to love a rookie with Oprah cameras. I wish he'd just keep his head down now and prove himself as a player.

Yeah, I kinda agree with that. What if he turns out to be another Tim Tebow (all hype- no substance)?. On the one hand, yeah, I think they should wait and see how well he can play. And then if he's awesome and will stay on, sit him down with the O and let him talk about what it was like being out and proud his rookie year.

But on the other hand... if he IS awesome... then the O would want to have caught all that awesomeness on camera. So I dunno. I get where OWN is going with this. But really, how embarrassing if he turns out to totally Tebow his career by actually sucking on the field?

[NappingAthena]

May 15, 2014 16:53:34 GMT -4 margojata said:

Michael Sam is apparently getting an OWN show. That will do nothing to endear him to teammates. Completely take away sexual orientation, and the other guys aren't going to love a rookie with Oprah cameras. I wish he'd just keep his head down now and prove himself as a player.

According to someone from the St Louis media I saw on twitter (I can't remember who it was as I follow a lot of st louis media people), they aren't allowed to do any filming at the Rams camp at all. Which makes it..sort of boring to me.

[Ninja Bunny]

I agree with the above. Go play, be awesome, leave the cameras at home. After you've established yourself as awesome for a while then do a documentary. (I'd rather do one with Ken Burns than Oprah.)

[Deleted]

I wish he'd just keep his head down now and prove himself as a player.

I would normally feel this way too, but after seeing some examples of the criticism towards him I'm starting to think differently. The media and fans won't allow Michael Sam to be just a football player. He's the first openly gay player in the NFL and, unfortunately, needs to do more than play football. He needs to promote tolerance. Maybe the third, fourth, fifth and so on openly gay players in the NFL will be able to just play football (the second guy will probably have to deal with a lot of crap too).

I don't remember Jason Collins coming out being as big of a deal. America associates football with manliness and all the stupid stereotypes that go along with that, which makes Michael Sam's impact on the culture greater. He might not win over manly football-loving men with a show on OWN, but he might manage to make a few ignorant dummies who otherwise live in their right wing media echo chamber to reconsider their opinion even if they don't altogether change it.

The right's been promoting the "you don't have the right to impede my right to discriminate against you" argument and with Michael Sam they've added the false equivalency between him and Tim Tebow. Hopefully, Michael Sam won't turn into a famewhore who forgets that his primary job is football player. Then he really will have earned the comparison to Tim Tebow.

[marvel]

Michael Sam's show has been postponed. 

I really hope that he makes the team.

I don't think the series is a bad idea, but he's already going to have everyone following him during training camps. I'd rather the series follow his rookie season or his first year outside of football if he doesn't make a team this year.

[scarletprincess]

As he hasn't officially made the team, I think it's a bit premature to call him the first openly gay NFL player. Let him make the team, then you can say that. I hope does make it and based on what I've seen about his college career he probably will. Or he should.

[sueli]

I just think it's not an entirely good idea to have the distraction of being immediately thrust into the spotlight when he only recently came out. It might be too overwhelming. I like that he wants to be that role model, but imo he needs to pace himself.

[margojata]

I think the show is a TERRIBLE idea. Football is like any other business, and you should not distract from the business at hand (and as stated, he hasn't even made the team yet). How would it look for any of us to come into our jobs with a camera crew? Especially in a field where a lot of them are jockeying for fame anyway, you don't want the distraction of the most famous guy right now being followed by Oprah (and she can never resist sticking herself into things). I can't believe anyone thought this was OK.

[Sunnyhorse]

I'm afraid he may have trouble enough assimilating into the team, regardless of how welcoming some members of the organization are; I can't help thinking, as margojata says, that bringing a camera crew along is going to make it harder still. Glad the project's been put on hold -- it'll wait.