The result moved us one win toward making the playoffs happen for the Argonauts. If we won the following week, we were locked, and we could look to potential postseason success.
A press conference after every game was typical at this stage.
The four of us were seated with Coach Sinclair and a few others of our team, and we knew the specter of Hank’s forced outing hung over us, even though it shouldn’t have been an issue at all.
The fainter ghost of what the world would make of the four of us and our intention to call a single woman our own between us also hung there.
Heterosexual, sure, but football was drowning in its identity of manliness. One man claiming his woman and defending her honor was a big part of that. The implication being that a man who shared his woman didn’t have what it took to keep her happy.
Men don’t like men, and men are supposed to get into fights if another man looks at their girl. Not be okay with it. That was the unspoken rule.
Granted, I might get into a fight if someone outside of us four looked at Kayla in a certain way.
Fuck, that girl was something if my relationship with her was still at the top of my mind, even after the game we’d just had where all of us left a bit of ourselves out on the field.
We couldn’t play like that every game, not without killing ourselves, so we needed to make sure games didn’t get so dire that we had to try to replicate the insane heroics every time.
Cameras flashed, and the cameras were on us and the coach.
The first questions focused on the game and our strategies going forward, as if we’d reveal those.
Questions about drama were inevitable, and the four of us were ready and waiting for them to come.
“Coach Sinclair, The Open Secret today published an expose on one of your star players, Hank Fields, and his, uh, relationship with another man. We noticed that Mr. Fields wasn’t on the field tonight.”
Coach shook his head. “We didn’t think it was fair to expect him to perform when that had just happened. He’ll be back next week.”
“But what of having a gay player on your team? No other team has that. Will that work.”
“It has worked for us so far. Hank isn’t new to our team. He’s played with us for years.” The coach’s voice was gravely but determined. He’d been with the team since the dinosaurs, and he was mostly flabbergasted by the march of progress. But he judged men by their sports abilities and nothing else, which made him a great ambassador for equality.
“But in light of the photographic evidence? What about the fans and the backers? Are you afraid of losing support?
Coach answered as best he could. “I’m sure there will be an official Argonauts statement, but you will have to wait for that. This all came out minutes before the game. I expect Hank will make a statement too.”
“Perhaps I can ask you, will the other players be happy to share the locker room?”
A voice called out. “What about the showers?”
One of us needed to step in, and Ethan always had the quickest tongue among us. “The players, as well as Coach Sinclair, are behind Hank all the way. We’ve known about his personal life, and it’s not an issue for us.”
“It’s the twenty-first century,” Tyler said, leaning over into Ethan’s mic. A groan from the beating he took broke up his words, his grimace sealing the deal. “It ain’t anyone’s business about what players get up to in their private lives so long as it isn’t illegal or immoral.”
That’s all well and good, Ty, but people make different moral judgments.
It was typical of Tyler to rush in with a less than well thought through comment.
“That we don’t have more out players is kind of strange, honestly,” Ethan added, stroking his chin. “Just sheer probability.”
“Are there going to be further revelations from the team?” another supposed journalist shouted out. “More people coming out? Is that why you’re defending Hank?”
We all stared at the guy like he’d asked the craziest question of all, but it hit us in a tender place. What if we were caught in some sex scandal? Eventually, I spoke up. “We don’t have to be gay to speak up about what’s right. There’s no place for racism on the team and no place for homophobia, either.”
The journalist came right back at me with his carefully worded question, trying to make it sound as if he wasn’t a dick. “You must acknowledge this has been kept a secret. The internet is alive with comments, and people are questioning what this means for the integrity of the sport and how this news might change things.”
Lewis responded to this one. “A man is entitled to a private life. We all are. We become public figures and spectacles when we sign up at this level, but the American people have to judge us by our characters. Are we doing good or harm? How do we live our lives? Hank is a good man, but this issue is about more than one man. I say judge a player by how well he plays and judge a man by his strength of character. Who he chooses to love and spend his life with doesn’t make any difference.”