#thekush

Shepherd University has reason to celebrate as they wrapped up their fourth ever undefeated season and have won the first ever Mountain East Conference season title. The Rams went through a lot this season as they made a quarterback change half way through the season, dealt with injuries, and had to try overcoming new opponents but through it all the Rams made it and showed people why they are the team perhaps to beat in the playoffs this year. 

This season was big for our school as we've never had a team with such promise like this before. The defense has been stout as they didn't give up a rushing touchdown at all this season and only allowed teams to score on average 13 points per game. This is an incredible accomplishment as the offesnses in football have so much more advantages than ever before with the rules. But this defense can get to the quarterback and not allow teams to get into sync. 

            So many talks have been going on about if a gay athlete would be accepted into a locker room or not in the world of professional sports. We saw Jason Collins come out after the Boston Marathon bombings saying that he wanted people to know who he really was and how he believed that getting that sort of information out was a weight lifted off his shoulders. Now while he’s still a free agent, he believes he has a chance to play in the NBA but I believe that his coming out was a sign of what the sports world believes in and that is that being gay isn’t a topic teams do not want to deal with at all especially with the social media audience we have in society.

            I have been on a sports team before and I will tell you that if we had to deal with the idea of having a gay teammate, I do not believe we could have done it because again it’s not something that I agree with at all and having extra drama in a locker room and in the PR department is wrong. Some guys will say that having a gay teammate is creepy when showering together and I tend to agree with those opinions. I mean for the people who will disagree with my statement, fine take a guy and put him in a ladies shower and tell me if that won’t creep her out. The point I am trying to make is that a sports locker room is supposed to be about continuity, not division due to personal choices.

            Mark Tewksbury who brought home a gold medal for the 100 meters backstroke at the 1992 Olympics, spoke about the topic in 2010. “It’s incredible that sport has remained the last bastion of 18th-century thinking. It’s a very difficult place to be if you’re not straight. Sport is still top down from policy makers. It’s very dogmatic and rule-bound. People don’t want to change rule structures. It’s by nature highly conservative. It’s pretty much the last machinations of the old-boys club.”

            Now while a majority of people have come out supporting the idea of having gay athletes, I like some others who have played sports recognize the headaches that come with the territory and I believe that unless there is a swift movement in the world, I don’t see the need for an athlete to come out especially for monetary gains like Jason Collins. To me, there’s not a big issue of coming out if it’s what you believe in and you’re just doing it on your own terms. But I will say that if I was a GM, I would try to avoid signing one at all cost because it brings unwanted media attention and it creates a media circus around the locker room.