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Truth is%2C gays have played football for years%2C just not openly. Vince Lombardi defended one.

Nothing breaks down bigotry quicker than knowing one of its victims.

A barrier has been crossed%2C so there will be another player%2C and then another%2C until it is all routine.

In this day and age, the sexual orientation of a college football star shouldn't be a big deal. But it is when the player, Michael Sam of the University of Missouri, appears headed for the NFL.

Sam's announcement Sunday that he is "an openly, proud gay man" could turn out to be another key marker on the nation's path toward equal rights for gays. What better way to decimate the tired stereotype of gay men as uniformly effeminate than to have a 6-foot-2, 255-pound all-American become the first openly gay player in America's most popular and macho sport?

So let's give a cheer for Sam and for his Missouri teammates, who knew he was gay during the 2013 season, when they became Cotton Bowl champs with a 12-2 record. It sure didn't serve as a distraction or cramp Mizzou's style. Nor should it in the NFL.

But hold any cheering for the league just yet. Supportive tweets and comments Monday vied for attention with recent anti-gay statements and controversies in the league. Even as Giants co-owner Steve Tisch called Sam "a gifted athlete and a courageous man," several NFL executives and coaches predicted his coming out would drop him down in the draft. "I don't think football is ready" for an openly gay player "just yet," one of the unidentified executives told Sports Illustrated.

That "just yet" is strikingly out of sync with a broader national shift in attitudes on gays and gay rights. Polls find acceptance of gays growing, particularly among young people. Even on the divisive issue of same-sex marriage, the number of states permitting it has jumped from one to 17 in the past decade. Repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy appears to have gone smoothly despite the dire warnings that ending the policy would destroy unit cohesion.

Truth is, gays have played football for years, just not openly. Strong leaders have judged them strictly on their ability. In 1969, legendary coach Vince Lombardi, then with the Washington Redskins, warned assistants working with a gay player that they better not "make reference to his manhood," or they'd be out of a job.

Sam would benefit from that sort of support if he reached the NFL, just as Jackie Robinson needed it after Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey handpicked him to break baseball's color barrier in the 1940s. Some front offices and locker rooms can provide such support, and some can't.

Would the presence of a gay player, with all the attention he'd draw, have an impact beyond the NFL? Sure. Nothing breaks down bigotry quicker than knowing one of its victims, whether in your family (just ask Dick Cheney) or playing for your favorite team. Sam, who is black, could have a particular impact in the African-American community, which polls have found to be slower to embrace gay rights despite its own struggles for equality.

Or maybe the moment will fade quickly. Sam, after all, is a mid-level draft prospect, not a sure-fire star. Either way, a barrier has been crossed, so there will be another player, and then another — until it is all routine. And Sam will have played a role in what increasingly seems the inevitable march of history.

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