11 NFL teams so far decline to bow to pride month messaging
The calendar flipped to June over the weekend and, in case you missed it, that makes it pride month on television and radio, in your stores, everywhere on the internet, on your streets, up your flagpoles, in your classrooms (like it or not), and at least one other place: Throughout most of the NFL.
The practice of men sleeping with men, women sleeping with women, some men becoming women and some women becoming men – with the folks who say they are now neither men nor women also included – was celebrated by about two-thirds of the NFL’s teams on Saturday via social media.
The message, delivered on X via team timelines, was sent by 21 of the NFL’s 32 teams to their approximate 42 million total followers. Some teams tweeted out their support that pride month has arrived. Some delivered expanded messages as part of that support.
The Washington Commanders, for example, said pride month is actually about love. And some teams sent tweets and went the extra step by altering their logos or X banners. The Commanders, Buffalo Bills, and Philadelphia Eagles changed the color of their logos to match a pride flag.
The Vikings not only tweeted out their support and changed their logo but also changed the banner of the X account. They are apparently very excited about pride month. The Eagles took an interesting tack in that they didn’t deliver their message of support in a full-blown tweet. But they did change their logo on X, which makes their support obvious.
The NFL? It advances the LGBTQ+ agenda. It hosts an annual gala with GLAAD and promotes other gay community events. But the NFL didn’t tweet its support for pride month on June 1, instead retweeting the Chicago Bears and Jaguars tweets.
All of that, by the way, is dog bites man. If this were 1970-to-perhaps 2010 there would be no outward support of a pride month by the NFL on a national scale. But it has been growing seemingly inexorably for perhaps a dozen years or more.
Over the weekend, 11 NFL teams chose not to tweet or acknowledge pride month. The 11 teams are: The Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, and Atlanta Falcons.
All the teams in two NFL divisions – the AFC East and NFC West – tweeted support for pride month. One division – the AFC North – had three of four teams stay silent on the topic, with Baltimore embracing pride month. Three divisions – the AFC West, NFC North, and NFC South – spilt among the four teams, with two supporting and two teams remaining silent.
And why does this matter? Two reasons: Firstly, when teams take different approaches to the same issue, the accounting is newsworthy. So what direction teams took is newsworthy. Finally, the United States is divided. There are lines drawn in politics. Liberalism and conservatism are at odds. There is a culture war being waged. And, yes, sometimes participants cross lines. Years ago, President Obama and President Biden stated they defined marriage as between a man and a woman. President Trump told 60 Minutes he’s “fine” with gay marriage in 2016.
Despite this, Obama and Biden are classified as being pro-gay marriage and Trump is often assailed as being against it. There can be no question 21 NFL teams are apparently in favor of it. And the other 11 are silent on the subject.