Drama in /r/nfl over a player's suspension for homophobic tweets (self.SubredditDrama)
SubredditDrama
74 ups - 21 downs = 53 votes
Think Duck Dynasty two: free speech boogaloo.
Some context: The first openly gay college football player got drafted by the St. Lous Rams. Reactions were mixed, but mostly positive. ESPN spent a weird amount of time showing him kissing his boyfriend (nothing wrong with that, but they seriously spent like a solid minute on it) but overall it was a feel-good moment.
A moron on the Dolphins decided to tweet inane shit about it and is now facing fines+suspension. The Dolphins are otherwise known as the NFL team that had a lot of problems with bullying/racism/homophobia last year, so this was an especially fucking stupid thing to tweet.
The player, Michael Sam, was drafted fairly late in the draft by a team with a lot of strength at his position and it is questionable whether he'll make it onto the roster. Opinions in /r/nfl have ranged from "why should it matter" to "literally sodom and gomorrah."
Fuck this Michael Sam guy.... I'm already sick of hearing his name
Espn clearly has a radical left wing agenda that they don't mind ramming down everyone's throats.
Yep. This politically correct society we live in is sickening.
What an overreaction by the Dolphins organization. Is no one entitled to an opinion?
This is some salty popcorn.
103 comments submitted at 14:58:30 on May 12, 2014 by waazd
I'm all for equality, yay.
But i dont get why the club can suspend a player for his own thoughts, why can they do that??
professional sports contracts come full of various "good conduct" clauses these days violate the clauses and you get fined and or suspended as you agreed to when you signed the contract
But it's not like they make their team look bad
I would say bigotry, especially coming from someone whose team had a hazing scandal just a year ago, looks bad.
Considering the Dolphins had a huge bullying scandal last year it kinda does make them look bad.
No idea who they are, i dont watch NFL
They're the team that this guy got drafted by. Last year they got in a shitload of trouble for hazing rookies
Sam was not drafted by the Dolphins, he was drafted by the Rams.
Not talking about Sam, Im talking about the guy who sent the tweet
NFL is a weird place
Yes it is
They can't suspend anyone for their thoughts, unless that player is dumb enough to voice their thoughts on social media, in which case they're fair game.
Dat censorship
Nah, dude's free to say stuff. But freedom to say stuff doesn't mean freedom from ramifications from the dumb shit you say.
I could understand him getting suspended for saying "lol my teammate fucked up, this team sucks"
Considering the opinions were actually voiced, where's the censorship?
Touché
It's more "Hey dont say that or we wont use on the pitch"
What are you surprised? Every company ever has lines you can't cross and shit you can't say. If I went around called people I work with horrible faggots, I would be fired in a heartbeat and I should be fired in a heartbeat.
Hell posting things on twitter is worse. Dude's a celebrity and everyone pays attention to him. If a celebrity went on and on being a racist and homophobic or whatever on Twitter or Facebook, he's going to have trouble. What he says in a very public forum reflects poorly on the organization he is a part of.
You don't seem to understand what censorship is. Let me guess, you're also laboring under the delusion that his First Amendment rights were somehow violated too?
I dont care about the amendments, thats an american thing
They are not censoring him. He can keep saying all the dumb stuff he wants on twitter. He may not have a job, but he can keep talking.
> But i dont get why the club can suspend a player for his own thoughts, why can they do that??
Employers have always been able to discipline an employee for things that they say or do. I'm not sure where you get the idea that this was ever not the case.
My employer doesent check my Twitter (If i used it), he doesent care what i say or do as long as i get the job done.
Thats how it should be everywhere
They don't care about your twitter because no one cares about it. You're not a public personality like a professional athlete. If your job put you on national TV every Sunday, and your twitter related to your job, they would certainly be getting involved if you said things that they think could damage their brand.
However, your employer could, if they wanted to, fire you for the things that you say on twitter right now. If you said these sorts of things to people at work, you would be getting an HR rep telling you to stop or be fired/disciplined. Both are equally "protected speech" by the government, but not with private employment.
Just because your employer hasn't fired you doesn't mean they can't.
> Just because your employer hasn't fired you doesn't mean they can't.
I know, but i do my job and i do it well.
I just dont understand why they can say "Only say things we agree with or you're not getting used" and get away with it
It sounds more like you don't want to understand. There are no laws protecting speech from public disapproval and employer discipline and there never have been. There's nothing to "get away with", because of at-will employment.
This goes doubly so for an athlete, as they are celebrities. Part of "doing the job well" for a celebrity is maintaining a public personality that is beneficial to their brand. The team members are publicly associated with the team's brand.
Well i want to understand it, i just dont want it to be true, i guess
Why shouldn't it be true? If you're a dumbass and you do dumbass things that reflect badly on the organization you belong to, you deserve punishment.
Everyone here has given you very clear and thorough explanations so if you still don't understand it, you're not going to.
>I just dont understand why they can say "Only say things we agree with or you're not getting used" and get away with it
they can get away with it because the player signed a contract saying exactly he would do exactly that
If I publicly say stuff that makes my employer look bad, I'm gonna get fired. Seems pretty simple to me.