NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress says that rumors about his then-Pittsburgh Steelers teammate Kordell Stewart’s being gay affected the quarterback’s play. From Pro Football Talk:
“It had to be tough on him personally,” Burress told Tim Benz of Pittsburgh radio station 105.9. “I didn’t call him gay or anything like that. . . . I think that’s one of the reasons why he really couldn’t become the player that he wanted to be. . . . It has to play on you mentally a little bit.”
Burress, now with the New York Giants, discusses Stewart (who retired in 2005) and the gay rumors is his new book, “Giant: The Road to the Super Bowl.”
“People were talking about [Kordell] being gay,” Burress writes in Chapter 5. “The players heard that, but we never talked about it. I don’t know if Kordell is gay or not. It was none of our business. If ever we would have talked about it, it would have made everybody uncomfortable. If some player was gay, I don’t think he could come out while he was still playing. It would be real hard. It would mess a team up mentally and it wouldn’t be good for that person.”
Burress also said that the rumors caused Stewart to withdraw from teammates. “He had to watch the people that he hung around with. Just hanging out with your friends, or your boys and your cousins, all those things come to the surface. I think he just insulated himself after a while.”
Burress’ comments reflect the widely accepted view that it would be very hard for a player to come out. What is interesting is how reports of Stewart’s sexuality made it into the mainstream media in the late 1990s, at a time when the subject of gays in sports was still little discussed. Stewart never was able to take a team to the Super Bowl and we’ll never be sure whether he simply wasn’t good enough of whether the rumors proved to be too much of a distraction. -Jim Buzinski
Hat tip to Michael David Smith at AOL Fanhouse.
on Jul 12th, 2008 at 1:58 AM
>
That’s what I’ve always wondered as well. You wouldn’t believe–or actually, a lot of you probably would believe–the inane opinions that otherwise intelligent people here in western PA had regarding Stewart’s performance. Stewart unfortunately had TWO strikes against him when it came to this mentality. When his (white and presumably heterosexual) predecessor, Mark Malone, and successor, Mike Tomczak, were Pittsburgh’s Most Hated….well, it was because they just sucked. But when it was Kordell Stewart, it was because a black man and/or gay man couldn’t handle being a quarterback.
on Jul 13th, 2008 at 7:56 PM
Why is male sexuality in America polarized between “gay” and “straight”? Whatever happened to bisexuality in men? Most men are bisexual in orienation, yet American society and the media in general think that men can only be gay or straight. It’s unfair to men.
on Jul 13th, 2008 at 7:59 PM
This notion that men can only be gay or straight is a form of pornographic correctness. It has arisen because of liberals. Liberals like this polarization because it enables them to treat gay men as a politically useful pity class.
The simple fact is that most men are biologically bisexual in orientation.
on Jul 13th, 2008 at 8:58 PM
Pornographic correctness? Liberals are to blame for those who don’t believe in bisexuality??? So many emoticons…
on Jul 14th, 2008 at 3:54 AM
One might suggest that “conservatives” like the polarization as well because it gives them someone to fight against.
I think that people want to live as simple a life as possible. Bisexual is more complicated than gay which is more complicated than straight. It’s biological for us to survive and be ordinary, not thrive and be extraordinary.
on Jul 14th, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Are we ever going to get past this? All human beings sexual have desires, and gravitate toward their strongest desires. We are living in hell because many hetero-sexual people believe their set of desires is superior, or is evidence of some inherent superiority. Many men find other men sexually interesting, but they don’t describe themselves as gay. It’s all part of the
“approach/avoidance” and denial in professional sports. It’s rooted in massive insecurity and contempt for women……and contempt for any man that shares the sexual desires of women.
on Jul 17th, 2008 at 2:21 PM
“MOST” men bisexual?? anyone want to cite some authority for that strange proposition?
on Aug 7th, 2008 at 3:55 PM
Whoa, whoa, whoa… I agree with JimJ. Since when are MOST men bisexual? Because I know I’m not and based on how well I know my friends(which is very well), neither are they. I highly disagree with that statement. And for the record, I have gay friends as well. I’m not homophobic. I just don’t think it’s right to make such a bold proclamation.
And in reference to the article, I just have to say it’s too bad Kordell’s career went the way it did. He is the reason I first became interested in football. I’ve never seen a player as exciting as him on the field.