Dundes, who died in 2005, was a legend in the field of folklore and explored the hidden meaning in all kinds of jokes. I heard him speak while I was an undergrad at Penn State about his football as a homoerotic rite theory (having read the paper in my sociology class). In the audience were many members of the Penn State football team, many of whom had blood in their eyes as Dundes went on equating football slang with gay sex. The article in Time resulted in Dundes getting death threats. Dundes’ paper is a rollicking look at how closely football and its language and goals mirrors sex. Dundes quotes Dave Kopay (the first openly gay NFL player), who wrote this in his book, “The David Kopay Story.”

The whole language of football is involved in sexual allusions. We were told to go out and “fuck those guys”; to take that ball and stick it up their asses”or “down their throats.”The coaches would yell,”knock their dicks off,” or more often than that,”knock their jocks off.” They’d say,”Go out there and give it all you’ve got,a hundred and ten percent, shoot your wad. You controlled their line and “knocked” ‘em into submission. Over the years I’ve seen many a coach get emotionally aroused while he was diagramming a particular play into an imaginary hole on the blackboard. His face red, his voice rising, he would show the ball carrier how he wanted him to” stick it in the hole.”

Some of my favorites from Dundes’ paper (you can read the whole thing here):

• The object of the game, simply stated, is to  get into the opponent’s end zone while preventing the opponent from getting into one’s own end zone. … We can now better understand the appropriateness of the “bottom patting” so often observed among football players. A good offensive or defensive play deserves a pat on the rear end. The recipient has held up his end and has thereby helped protect the collective “end” of the entire team. One pats one’s teammates’ ends, but one seeks to violate the end zone of one’s opponents! …

• Certainly the terminology used in football is suggestive. One gains yardage,but it is not territory which is kept in the sense of being permanently acquired by the invading team.The territory invaded remains nominally under the proprietorship of the opponent. A sports announcer or fan might say, for example, “This is the deepest penetration into (opponent’s team name) territory so far.”

• The trust one has for one’s own teammates is perhaps signalled by the common postural stance of football players. The so-called three-point stance involves bending over in a distinct stooped position with one’s rear end exposed. It is an unusual position and it does make one especially vulnerable to attack from behind, that is,vulnerable to a homosexual attack. … Since one can trust one’s teammates, one knows that one will be patted, not raped.

• “The end zone is a kind of erogenous zone.”

• “Both tight end and split end could easily be understood as possessing an erotic nuance.”

• The object of the game is to “score,”a term which in standard slang means to engage in sexual intercourse with a member of the opposite sex. One “scores” by going” all the way.” The offensive team may try to mount a drive to penetrate the other team’s territory.

• The sexual connotations of football folk speech apply equally to players on defense. One goal of the defensive line is to penetrate the offensive line to get to the quarterback. Getting to the quarterback and bringing him down to the ground is termed “sacking” the quarterback. The verb “sack” connotes plunder, ravage, and perhaps even rape.

• Thus in the beginning of the football game, we have two sets or teams of males. By the end of the game, one of the teams is “on top,” namely the one which has “scored” most by getting into the other team’s “end zone.” The losing team, if the scoring differential is great, maybe said to have been “creamed.”

• I think it is highly likely that the ritual aspect of football, providing as it does a socially sanctioned framework for male body contact … is a form of homosexual behavior. The unequivocal sexual symbolism of the game, as plainly evidenced in folk speech coupled with the fact that all of the participants are male, make it difficult to draw any other conclusion. Sexual acts carried out in thinly disguised symbolic form by,and directed towards, males and males only,would seem to constitute ritual homosexuality.

After reading Dundes, you might never watch football the same way. Enjoy the game!

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Now calling himself ‘gay,’ Goddard ventured to the NOH8 campaign’s third anniversary party last week at the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd., where he was inspired to “activism of my own.” The result was this slam poem, titled ‘Yes we can but no we haven’t,‘ written by Goddard for a class project on marriage equality. He performed the poem at a Long Beach coffee house.

The kid’s got a fantastic message and some mega skeelz…

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Interestingly, Paris Jackson is also the name of a slotback for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.

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Alex Botina-Roehm, 18, was arrested Monday and is charged with hazing two students. His bail was set at just more than $100,000.

Court records say the hazing involved coming up from behind an intended target and placing one arm between the legs, wrapping the other arm around the body and lifting the victim off the ground.

The alleged incident happened in September Sept. 14 and was reported to school authorities, but a grandmother of one of the victims went to police last week after she learned nothing had been done to Roehm and similar hazing continued.

Detective Bruce McDermott said Wednesday police believe other football players likely participated in the same activity, called “power gobbling,” but in those cases it was done among friends and considered consensual.

This case was different because the alleged victim didn’t know the offender, McDermott told the Great Falls Tribune. “I guess that’s where it departed from fun among friends,” he said.

It sounds like the school basically did nothing to stop any of this despite serious charges being leveled against an athlete two months ago. The grandmother who called police has an email exchange where the coach promised a “come to Jesus talk” with the team. But the police report states that, “this has reportedly been going on for some time in the locker room, and Roehm and others seem to act freely without consequences.”

Hazing is dangerous and demeaning and needs to be stopped. There is never a justification for it since it involves the powerful preying on the weak; it’s not a harmless ritual or rite of passage and differs in degree and intent from practical jokes or teasing among teammates. A “boys will be boys” defense doesn’t cut it.

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It provided boxes for players to check next to wording such as “I am a cry baby,” “I am a queer,” “I have woman like hormones.”

At the bottom it had lines reading “Name little sissy filing report” and “Girly-man signature.”

Lynch apologized and the school board accepted his resignation as head coach, a job he held for 13 years. He will stay on as the school’s guidance counselor. Said Superintendent Rod Kessler:

“[Lynch] screwed up, he screwed up big time,” Kessler said. “The coaching, we didn’t want that to be the issue anymore. We wanted him to have his priority back where it was as a counselor. None of us are happy that it happened. It’s a black eye to the district. And it’s a black eye to Pat.”

The parent of one player was upset that Lynch apologized to the school board but not the players.  And some are upset that he stays on as guidance counselor, though the last thing I would want from someone with his views is guidance. His actions typify the stereotypes that are still perpetrated about what is means to be an athlete and masculine. They should have fired his ass.

Thanks to K2Radio.com (via a comment by reader Jason), here is the survey:

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My life has been told in a nutshell numerous times through various articles. But I never actually sat down and told my life in its entirety. Growing up in small town America is not an easy task. We’re always the last to get the new inventions like the internet, HDTV, and all of the other things.

Growing up in small town America we had backyard football, wiffle ball and baseball. I can’t recall a day we spent inside. When those sports got old, we re-invented new ones like backyard basketball where tackling was allowed, and BB gun wars. Granted, as I think back, BB gun wars was not a bright idea.

I remember it plain as day back in firth grade when he moved into my class. A new boy from Norristown PA, which is right outside of Philly. Mike and I hit it off right off the bat. Come to find out his future step mom and my mom worked together, so our families ended up becoming best of friends as well. Mike and I grew up as close as brothers can be. Where one was, the other was. We hunted, fished, played football and wrestled together.

I will never ever forget when we were both 13, up in his room playing bases loaded on SNEs when our cocky talk turned sexual. We both lost our virginity that day. Mike and I continued our love/brother relationship for over two years until he decided he was going to started doing the straight lifestyle and end all sexual relations between us. Naturally, once that was gone the brother relationship we once had started falling apart. The only time I ever slept with a girl was when Mike’s cousin came over, and I thought/felt like I had something to prove to Mike. That night I slept with a girl for the first and only time.  I knew then I was in deep trouble with my life.

When I got the Internet at the age of 17, I thought, OK this is going to give me access to what I have been seeking for a long time. Instead it backfired for me. What I was seeing was gay couples being happy and being able to be who they are. It had a total reverse effect on me, on what I hoped would open my mind. I knew in my mind I could not be what I saw in the images. Not where I was in life. Depression kept building and building until I could no longer take it. It’s kind of odd, that even after 14 years I can remember the night before, and the night of my suicide attempt, like it happened yesterday.

The night before, the wrestling team, which I quit the beginning of the year, named me honorary captain when we faced our rivals, the Canton Warriors. The following night I was swallowing pill after pill no longer wanting to live the lie that I had built. As I took the pills, one thing that entered my mind was not being able to see the Giants win another Super Bowl. Kind of odd how us jocks think. All I knew is the white picket fence fairytale dream wasn’t for me, and I had to end it.

Unfortunately that night I told some one in California what I was doing and he called 911. Those who know my story already know what happened that night.

Being shipped to a teen psych ward is some thing no one wants to have happen to them. I had one thing working for me though: The other teens woke up that morning to know that a new kid arrived during the night.

I was in survival mode. I had played the part as the perfect jock for way to many years. I could fool these guys as well, I thought. And I did. Donning my letterman jacket, I started flirting with every girl in there. I was not ready to face my biggest fear. But I failed at my attempt to hide whom I was, so it was time to make the best out of it. Most of the staff that worked nights were Penn State college girls. They often flirted with me, and I flirted back. In my mind I was going to make it through this and everything would be fine. Little did I know…

I remember speaking to Mike that first night I got home from the psych ward. He was hesitant to tell me: Kyle had told the whole school about me being gay. Mike also told me that no one cared. He was worried about me: Mike wanted the best for his brother, but he knew my fate was sealed.

You can find Greg Congdon on Facebook.

Part 2 of his story will be published on Outsports next week.

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In one comment he gave his thoughts on coming out:

I think about this a lot actually. One part of me feels like I should take advantage of the opportunity I have and come out publicly. The other part of me feels like an ass because I don’t want to just yet.If I were to come out publicly, there would be so much good that can come out of it. I think one of the biggest things that it can do (which is the reason I feel like a dick for not coming out publicly) is help others out that are in a similar situation. I could use the platform of college football to make the voice of the LGBT community heard as well as help take down gay stereotypes.But then again, I do not feel mentally ready for all this. I’ve just learned in the past few months how to accept and love myself. Which is why I feel like a dick. If I heard a story about a gay college football player coming out to his team and community, etc. It would make my struggles so much easier seeing that there is someone I can identify with.

One tidbit left me scratching my head. He mentions that all his buddies have been contacted by agents, but he has not. When someone points out that contact with an agent is against NCAA rules, he covers it by slightly changing his story. Still possible, just left me a little more dubious.

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Johnson with his family in 2000, and with his mom and safe schools advocate in 2009.

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history.

Football, 2000. OK, it’s is a bit of a cheat: This moment is really two moments that each elevated an important story in our history. In April 2000, New England-based Bay Windows printed the story of Masconomet (Mass.) High School football player Corey Johnson. Written by Peter Cassels, the story was a shocker: A high school football player who came out to his team…and lived to tell about it. Not only did he survive, he thrived on the team as his teammates embraced Johnson as they had for years before. Outsports quickly picked up on the story as did others; Weeks later, on April 30, 2000, the New York Times published a front-page story by Robert Lipsyte entitled, “Icon Recast: Support for a Gay Athlete.”

It was Lipsyte’s article on the eve of the Millenium March on Washington that catapulted Johnson to national prominence. Lipsyte had been tipped on the story by Cassels. Lipsyte said he got the story on the New York Times page A1 because Johnson was speaking at the Millenium March that weekend – it was the news peg he needed to land the story on the paper’s front page. The next day, Johnson joined hundreds of thousands of people in Washington DC to demand equality for gay people.

While the fact that a football player is gay was surprising to many, it was the support Johnson received from his team that shocked most. From the Bay Windows piece:

Johnson tells two stories. The second game of the 1999 season was against rival Winfield High School. During the week leading up to the game, its captain was using anti-gay rhetoric and epithets. “The coach told his players he could not play. I found that out the day of the game.”

When Johnson walked on the field, the Winfield player across from him said, “Faggot, we’re going to kill you, you fucking homo.” “I just started laughing because I had come out to my football team and my parents and this one kid thinks he’s going to intimidate me. I went back to the huddle and I told the team what just happened. The other co-captain, said, ‘Don’t worry Corey, we have your back.’ We won 25-to-0.”

Later in the season they defeated Weston High School. On the bus ride home the team sang. “Somebody said let’s sing a song for Corey. They started singing the Village People’s ‘YMCA’ and, later, ‘It’s raining men.’ Then they started chanting ‘GSA!’ I got up and bowed and everyone started laughing.”

Johnson said between all the media attention he got in the spring of 2000, he received about 10,000 emails and letters in just the first year; He has gotten many more since. While he has read every single one, he has not been able to respond to them all in part because he was so young at the time and he just “couldn’t be these people’s therapist.”
Among those 10,000 emails were a couple from men who claimed to be closeted professional athletes. They told Johnson they were deeply inspired by his story of acceptance. Looking back, Johnson wonder just how inspired they were: “It couldn’t have been that moving, because they didn’t come out.”

Johnson told Lipsyte at the time: ”Someday I want to get beyond being that gay football captain, but for now I need to get out there and show these machismo athletes who run high schools that you don’t have to do drama or be a drum major to be gay. It could be someone who looks just like them.”

Over 10 years later, Johnson has gone way beyond. He is currently a director of programs at GLAAD where he has worked with the WWE. He is chairman of Community Board 4 in Manhattan, where he is the city’s youngest community board chair. He is also political director for Towleroad.com and is heavily active in the Democratic Party having worked on various political campaigns. Most recently Johnson was named one of 40 under 40 to watch in New York City government.

The thing that I’m most passionate about is fighting for LGBT people’s equal rights. Hopefully we gain full equality long before 20 years form now. But between now and then, it’s what I love to do and what I feel most connected to. For a good part of my professional life I’ve been able to be a professional LGBT activist. To get paid to do this type of work is really gratifying. I get paid to do what I love. Most people don’t get paid to do activism, so I’m really grateful for that. I’ll be involved in public policy and public life in some way.

He’s also been that gay football captain as an adult. He was one of the founding members of the New York Gay Football League in 2005 (and was the league commissioner after me), he won the Gay Games gold medal in football in 2006, and he was the co-captain of two New York Warriors teams that won the Gay Superbowl in 2006 and 2007. While he hasn’t played football in over a year, he is still a devout Boston sports fan and ran the New York City Marathon last autumn.
In his recent memoirs, An Accidental Sportswriter, Lipsyte remembers Johnson’s story:

I thought that because of Corey’s age and the iconograophy of high school football, this story was advancing the stories of [Ed] Gallagher and Billy Bean. …

For gay activists trying to shatter stereotypes, Corey Johnson was a rare find, a bright, vivacious quick study who also wrestled and played lacrosse and baseball as he won three varsity letters on a winning football team. He was also conscious of his role.

And then about his hopes and expectations for the story:

After the story ran, Ed Gallagher called me, ecstatic. “This Corey is a pioneer, a leader, but he’s up against the hypocritical right-wing hate mongers who want to punish people for being human. I say there are no straights or gays, just ‘strays.’”

We both thought the dialogue would begin now. This one was the Big Story, a high school football captain rallying the jocks, smashing the stereotypes. …

It never happened. They didn’t want to hear about gay players. It was off message, it complicated the mainstream fantasy.

Whether it opened closet doors for professional athletes or not, Johnson’s story as told by Cassels and Lipsyte lifted stereotypes, changed dialogue and affected 10,000 people enough to write to the 18-year-old. Plus, it launched Johnson’s important career fighting for gay equality.

Sounds pretty successful to me.

For more information:

• Bay Windows article – the first about Johnson
• New York Times article: ‘Icon Recast’
• Lipsyte’s follow-up column on Johnson’s story
• New York Gay Football League
• Corey Johnson: Rising star, 40 under 40
• Corey’s Facebook page

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While it would certainly be a stretch to say that Spike TV’s Blue Mountain State is free from stereotypical gay jokes and gay panic humor, it probably is fair to say that it’s far, far better than many of us expected when it debuted two years ago. Indeed, the show about a group of not very bright college football players, has actually managed to often be wildly homoerotic, while also managing to avoid coming off as blatantly homophobic. Sometimes it’s even gay-friendly.

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I was pleased to see that MLB teams began to create their own “It Gets Better” videos to help combat bullying. The San Francisco Giants were the first to complete theirs, followed by the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox. In addition, the Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins have announced plans to make videos as well. (A report that the Washington Nationals have also committed to a video still has not been confirmed by the team.)

Since the Giants released their video on June 1st, I’ve been wondering if and when my team, the Philadelphia Phillies, would join the “It Gets Better” movement. Seeing as how Gay Community Night is such a success year after year, a “Phillies: It Gets Better” video seemed like a logical occurrence. But there was no word. I’ve tweeted about it a few times, with a couple of those directly replying to the Phillies’ official Twitter feeds. (For some reason they use two, @phillies and @philaphillies.) Still, no announcement was forthcoming.In early June, as teams began filming videos, a lifelong Phillies fan, Jerome Hunt, created a petition on Change.org asking the Phils to make a video of their own. He contacted local news outlets to publicize it and got no response…until Jackson, the Eagles’ wide receiver, opened his mouth on the radio.

Then Change.org used the Jackson story in a mass email to spread the word about Hunt’s petition, and Philadelphia Weekly featured Hunt on their blog. And, I assume, the PW writer contacted the Phillies for a response, and my guess is that’s what finally led to the announcement that the Phils will also make a video. The video is expected to be released around the time schools re-open.

So, while we wait for the NFL lockout to finally, officially end so that the league and the Eagles will be allowed to discipline DeSean Jackson if they so choose, I think we should give him some thanks for inadvertently helping spur the Phillies into their “It Gets Better” action.

You can find Joe In Philly at his blog.

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