Watching the Sports World Wake up to History

See, the thing is, I don't really follow sports, but I totally get what is it to not only realize you are acheiving one of your life's ambitions, but having someone who is currently sharing your life's ambitions with you enjoy your successes with you. This isn't a thing about Michael Sam being gay--this is about seeing this athlete break some ground in a sport where hypermasculinism was supposedly the rule--but maybe, it isn't going to be, going forward. And played-out ideas of masculinity aren't what we attribute to the skills people bring to the field. An athlete isn't a great athlete because of his sexuality, but because of what he does in the game.

Sure, it remains to be seen whether Sam is a player who excells in an elite group where he is regularly judged because of his skills--but that he is here to just be judged on the basis of those things alone--is meaningful. And I wish him well. So long as he is just judged because of his skills.