International soccer star Antoine Griezmann has said that not only would he support a gay teammate if he came out to him, but if he were gay he would probably come out.
"I think I would [come out as gay],” Griezmann said, according to Marca. “But of course, that's easier said when you do not have to go through it.”
Yes it’s always easier for someone not going through it to see the light; Griezmann will (probably) never have to go through a coming-out process himself, so the fear of doing so simply isn’t there for him.
It’s great for Griezmann to publicly offer his support, so that a gay teammate knows he has someone he can talk to who won’t reject him (which is most of his team, but now he knows for sure that he has one).
In supporting a gay teammate and offering understanding, he parroted the same old lines about a gay athlete being afraid of what he might hear in a stadium.
"There are a lot of bad people in football and players can be afraid to go to stadiums and get abused."
The reason I totally discount this nonsense is that players are already harassed endlessly by fans. They already hear homophobic chants and slurs at soccer matches in Europe. The idea that an athlete doesn’t come out because he might still hear chants from opposing fans seems far-fetched at best.
There are many other things those athletes are more afraid of than some idiot fans yelling foolishness onto the field.
Besides, unless he’s talking to some gay athletes who are saying this to him, he’s just parroting what he hears other people say in the media.
Griezmann plays for the French national team that finished eighth at the 2014 World Cup. He currently plays for Atlético Madrid in La Liga.
Hat tip Scott Schmidt
