I know I’m a little late to the game (its been an insane month) but we are showing more and more how deviance is relative and how, as times changes, what outrages us changes too. Twenty years ago (maybe even 15 years ago) would the slurs of Joakim Noah and Kobe Bryant had the reactions that they did? Would the bigger reactions be against Sean Avery’s and Steve Nash’s support of the gay marriage bill in New York or Avery’s agent who chastised him for making his opinion known?

I don’t know if, as Charles Barkley claimed, current male athletes would be perfectly fine with openly gay teammates but the players, owners and managers who have come out recently also haven’t gotten the backlash that they may have years ago. The line that separates what is deviant from what is not for much of mainstream America (or at least mainstream sporting America) seems to have shifted…I’m looking forward to seeing where it is in another 2o years.