SCOLD ON, KID: Chris Culliver faced the media yesterday and apologized for anti-gay remarks he made during Super Bowl media day earlier this week, but not before Donte Whitner (inset) publicly scolded the young cornerback. (AP(2))
NEW ORLEANS — Surely, Chris Culliver would rather have waited until Sunday for his 15 minutes of Super Bowl fame to arrive.
Instead, the 49ers second-year backup cornerback learned a lesson the hard way yesterday — by way of an unfortunate combo platter of ignorance and carelessness that left him in the eye of a storm of controversy.
Culliver, in a Tuesday radio interview at the annual Super Bowl “media day,” said an openly gay athlete would not be welcome in an NFL locker room.
Thursday, 49ers veteran safety Donte Whitner set his young teammate straight, publicly scolding him for his insensitive comments.
“It’s just common sense,” Whitner said. “Chris is a young guy. He’ll learn from this and be better from it.”
The bottom line, whether Culliver or anyone else likes it or not, is this: There are gays playing in the NFL who have opted not to come out. Societal statistics will tell you it’s a virtual impossibility that among the more than 1,600 NFL players not one is gay.
Whitner called it “a fact” there are current NFL players who are gay, though he said no player has told him he’s gay.
“Who knows? There could be somebody gay in our locker room right now who’s scared to come out, which he has a right to be if he is scared to come out because of all of this and how other teammates might feel,’’ Whitner said.
Culliver, whose penance for poor judgment was being besieged by reporters yesterday, was contrite, profusely apologizing for his comments and insisting he did not mean what he said. He described the last day for him as “emotional, sensitive and apologetic.’’
“[I was] really just not thinking,’’ he said. “I’m sorry that I offended anyone. They were very ugly comments, and that’s not what I feel in my heart.’’
Culliver’s teammates and his head coach, Jim Harbaugh, came to his defense, but denounced his words and judgment.
Whitner said comments like the ones made by Culliver are the very reason why no active NFL player has come out.
“I think there’s a lot of people that are afraid to come out because they’re going to be scrutinized and people are going to look at them differently,’’ he said. “And, there are a lot of people who aren’t comfortable being in the locker room naked and guys walking around with somebody that’s gay.”
Whitner said his comfort with straight-gay equality comes from having family members who are gay.
“If you can accept family members who are gay,’’ he said, “you can accept anybody being gay.”
The NFL would be a much better place if it had more forward-thinkers like Whitner.
Whitner, who last year participated in a public service announcement speaking out against bullying gay teens, said he doesn’t think “that bridge has been built yet” where gays will come out in NFL locker rooms.
Ravens defensive back Brendon Ayanbadejo, who has been a public advocate for same-sex marriage, said Thursday he believes “50 percent of the people think like Culliver.’’
“I’d say 25 percent of the people think like me and then 25 percent of the people are religious [and] they don’t necessarily agree with all the things I agree with, but they’re accepting,’’ he said.
“So it’s a fight, an uphill battle. Culliver is going to turn this into a positive thing.”
Whitner’s defense of Culliver was for the mistake he made by speaking before thinking, saying, “I think it was a situation of him being caught off guard and he answered a question incorrectly. Chris is a very young guy. I guarantee you he learned his lesson.’’
Hopefully for Culliver the lesson he learned was to become the kind of open-minded thinker that players like Whitner and Ayanbadejo are.
Only then will the NFL become a safe place for a gay athlete to come out without fearing repercussions.