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Showing Original Post only (View all)Texas Sports Anchor Delivers Jaw-Dropping Speech On Gay NFL Players [View all]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/dale-hansen-michael-sam-gay-nfl-video_n_4775165.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp#sb=1358652b=facebook
Texas Sports Anchor Delivers Jaw-Dropping Speech On Gay NFL Players
The Huffington Post | by Ryan Grenoble
Posted: 02/12/2014 3:40 pm EST Updated: 02/12/2014 3:59 pm EST
Sports broadcasts are typically known for their punchy lists of best plays, epic goal countdowns and testosterone-fueled commentary.
Which makes Dale Hansen's address Monday night all the more remarkable. The Dallas sports anchor for ABC local affiliate WFAA took a break from the standard script to address the issue of Michael Sam, a defensive lineman poised to become the first openly gay player in the NFL.
The approximately two-minute segment, titled "Hansen Unplugged: Celebrating Our Differences," opens with a joke about Sam's "shocking" circumstance -- that he's the "best defensive player in football's best conference," yet only a third to fifth-round NFL pick ("Really?!?" -- before adopting a more serious tone and addressing Sam's critics and haters alike.
In particular, Hansen focuses on athletes who are deeply destructive to the world and people around them, yet are still revered for their on-field performance:
You beat a woman and drag her down a flight of stairs, pulling her hair out by the roots? You're the fourth guy taken in the NFL draft. You kill people while driving drunk? That guy's welcome. Players caught in hotel rooms with illegal drugs and prostitutes? We know they're welcome. Players accused of rape and pay the woman to go away? You lie to police, trying to cover up a murder? We're comfortable with that.
Hansen then drives home the hypocrisy: "You love another man? Well, now you've gone too far!"
"I'm not always comfortable when a man tells me he's gay; I don't understand his world," Hansen adds later. "But I do understand that he's part of mine."
The segment made waves on social media -- from the jocular ("BREAKING: Texas has sane people too" to the more sentimental ("Proof there is still hope for humanity" .
WATCH Hansen's poignant segment, above (at link).
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Texas Sports Anchor Delivers Jaw-Dropping Speech On Gay NFL Players [View all]
babylonsister
Feb 2014
OP
That is a take I've heard no where else, and I listen to sports radio. Well done.
kairos12
Feb 2014
#3
Charlie Pierce said the essentially the same thing on Stephanie Miller's show ...
SomeGuyInEagan
Feb 2014
#48
On to the scrap heap with Costas for you for making it about you and not about the game.
Ed Suspicious
Feb 2014
#9
I don't understand his world," Hansen adds later. "But I do understand that he's part of mine."
lumberjack_jeff
Feb 2014
#16
There was a time when the Right could get a crowd of thugs to picket the TV station....
Spitfire of ATJ
Feb 2014
#19
This guy is the kind of quality news person the major networks should be going after. nt
Quixote1818
Feb 2014
#29
The posts are limited for new members initially since this Website draws a lot of trolls.
TexasTowelie
Feb 2014
#67
Hansen is an idiot if he doesn't know why Sam is just a third to fifth round pick.
former9thward
Feb 2014
#47
Agree. He played against players in the SEC, and beat them, that will go in the first round.
Dawgs
Feb 2014
#75
I think I'm misunderstanding your comment. Are you suggesting that if he could beat the SEC players,
hughee99
Feb 2014
#81
No. I'm saying if he beat SEC players that are projected in the first/second rounds,
Dawgs
Feb 2014
#82
A quote for the ages: "But I do understand that he's part of mine." . . nt
Bernardo de La Paz
Feb 2014
#59
This guy rocks!! He only left out, "You have dogs ripping each other apart for your amusement."
DesertDiamond
Feb 2014
#61
Yeah. It has been flying around Facebook. Even people I wouldn't have suspected as friendly
Pretzel_Warrior
Feb 2014
#79
Always enjoyed his commentary when I lived down there. This one may be his best! n/t
freshwest
Feb 2014
#91