Outside the Lines and in Over his Head, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #220 | @MDWorld

April 30, 2013 Arthur Tebbel 0 Comments

Dear Art,

It was really touch and go for me this week but it looks like I’m going to make it through. I was a guest on Monday’s episode of Outside the Lines on ESPN to comment on Jason Collins coming out of the closet and becoming the first openly gay player in any of the four major American sports leagues. When I was asked about it I said:

“I’m a Christian. I don’t agree with homosexuality. I think it’s a sin, as I think all sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is…. If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be … that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ.”

A lot of people had a problem with that and there were calls for me to lose my job as NBA analyst for ESPN. I seem to be safe but ESPN has issued a statement saying that they regret that my comments distracted from the story. What should I do?

-Chris Broussard, Analyst, ESPN

Chris,
I didn’t expect to say this but I think you’re doing everything right and you should probably just stay the course. That doesn’t mean I agree with anything you said but after seeing more of the segment than the pull quote I used up there and seeing your clarification on Twitter I believe you’re less of an anti-gay bigot and more of a completely backwards bible thumper and that’s well within your rights. I don’t think any serious cultural commentators think there’s no place for sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman. Your moral views are a touch anachronistic but I don’t go around tearing down the Amish.

The real villains here are the people at ESPN who absolutely set you up. You aren’t a social commentator you’re an NBA analyst. You’re way more of an Xs and Os guy and you’re reasonably talented at that. What were you doing on a show discussing the morality of gay athletes? ESPN knew you had these beliefs and they wanted to get you on camera saying it on a momentous day like yesterday so they could get some more attention and some more eyeballs. They knew you had these beliefs because four years ago you wrote an article on the potential for a gay player to come out where you said almost exactly what you said yesterday. It was in the context of a more positive article about how much support the player would receive but it was all there. Sports Illustrated has the Jason Collins essay as an exclusive and ESPN needed to do something to win focus back and they reached for you. I’m sorry it went down like that.

One more thing before I go, I’ve noticed that everyone in the media that describes Collins’ coming out article as “thoughtful” and I think it’s important to nip that in the bud before it becomes what “articulate” is to black writers. Jason Collins went to Stanford for four years where he befriended Chelsea Clinton. I don’t mention this because being friends with Chelsea Clinton automatically makes you smart or something but it appears that that’s a family that values being a smart person. I love the stereotype of the dumb jock as much as the next guy (loved the reports of Los Angeles Lakers players being surprised at the ending to Lincoln) but that clearly isn’t the case here and we shouldn’t pretend to be impressed that this man can string together a good essay. Come on people.