Robbie Rogers, a professional MLS soccer player, retired in February at age 25, announcing then that he is gay. However, such a young athlete with such a great passion for the game, Rogers decided to return to Major League Soccer, signing a multi-year contract with the L.A. Galaxy this past Saturday. This makes him the first openly gay male athlete in U.S. professional soccer.Rogers is not just an average player - he was a former winger on the U.S. National Team, has won the MLS Cup with the Columbus Crew, and has even played in the English premier league for a time. The L.A. Galaxy coach, Bruce Arena, was very clear in describing the assets that Rogers provides to his team, emphasizing that Rogers was acquired for his soccer skill, as he should be.
On a side note, between David Beckham and now Robbie Rogers, the L.A. Galaxy seem to have a knack for acquiring some of the most publicized players in the MLS.
What do you guys think of Roger's milestone? Is this the beginning of a larger domino effect that started with Jason Collins in the NBA and now Rogers in the MLS? How significant a step in the right direction is Roger's announcement/signing with the Galaxy?
3 comments:
This appears to be a signal that the world of professional soccer is becoming more open to the idea of gay players as long as they play well. I cannot be certain if this will cause a "domino effect" and that suddenly a plethora of gay players will start entering the sports world. We'll have to wait and see. This could be a step or it could be an isolated event. Until there is an official announcement regarding the position of how gay players are chosen for sports teams, I'm not sure we can infer much from this.
Of course this is great and hopefully both Rogers and Collins will show both athletes and the rest of the world that being gay is ok in the athletics world. However, let's not forget that there have been openly lesbian athletes out there for quite a while. As this (http://www.policymic.com/articles/38577/these-5-women-came-out-long-before-jason-collins) article points out, " Women athletes, on the other hand, don't get as much publicity in anything they do, much less coming out as LGBT."
I'd like to point out that although he may be the only openly gay player, he is certainly not the only gay player. If any sort of domino effect occurs, I hope that it entails more current players coming out in addition to new players joining.
To respond in part to what Sam said--I think that society takes being a gay man more seriously than being a gay woman. I can't say that this is a fact, but from what I have seen, people often view lesbians as people who have just "not found the right man," or people who are just expressing interest in women to get more attention from men.
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