(Salon) — After nearly seven full rounds of the often-interminable NFL draft, Michael Sam was finally selected by the St. Louis Rams, putting him on the path to becoming the first openly gay player in National Football League history.
But while Sam’s embrace of his partner in celebration may seem, in this increasingly LGBT-friendly era, to be no big deal, the immediate response from many on Twitter has shown that, at least among NFL diehards, the most rank and lizard-brained homophobia is still a powerful cultural influence. (Incidentally, these folks seem to not understand that deleting or locking your account after a website posts your horrible tweet doesn’t make you any less of a jackass.)
