Passion
New Fish
Ironically enough, whoever it is is going to become the next Tim Tebow, albeit to a different group of people. Whichever active player is the first to come out is going to cause a media circus and be painted as a national hero no matter how crappy of a football player he may or may not be. He will become bigger than the team, and his story will become bigger than wins and losses.Tim Tebow?
Like Tebow he'll obviously have his share of haters, but in this case they'll be mostly relegated to anonymous message boards, private conversations and a few randoms yelling slurs from the stands. No one in the mainstream media will dare say anything but the most glowing things possible, and the home stadium will fill up with signs of support. His jersey sales will increase tenfold at a bare minimum.
I'm sure it's not him, but the player who would stand the most to gain from coming out is Michael Vick. More likely it's someone fairly anonymous who will never be anonymous again.
For the first NFL player that "comes out," his performance on the field is irrelevant, IMO. Rather, it's the courage to step out of the closet in perhaps the most machismo professional sport. There are already ways to recognize great players - MVP, Pro Bowl, increased salary, bonus, etc. I don't quite see anything wrong with positive public recognition of a guy that becomes the first to say he's gay.
You said the "mainstream media" will not criticize him. Well, why would the media criticize him? If he fumbles the ball, misses tackles, or drops passes, then criticize him like any other player. But criticize just because he's gay?
Heck, when grinolds, fetters, and eklund eventually reveal their own torrid love triangle, I will still limit my criticism to the way they've destroyed dawgman.com.