ASU Football: O Lineman Sarafin Comes Out

In a surprising development off the field Wednesday, offensive lineman Edward “Chip” Sarafin has come out and admitted publicly that he is gay.

While this story doesn’t necessarily impact the progress or status of the Sun Devil team, it is a significant development for ASU and the sports world in general.  Chip Sarafin is the first active major college football player that is openly gay.

Last spring, Michael Sam, a defensive end from Missouri came out saying he was gay.  But that was after the season and before the NFL draft.  It was a big statement on his part and there was a lot of attention brought to his situation.  But Sarafin is the first to come out and still have to play football at his university.

While Devils in Detail does not normally comment on social issues, it’s impossible not to acknowledge the significance of this story.

Football is a “macho” game.  At the major college level, it is played by young men with type A personalities.  Alpha males.  Within those personalities are a certain set of unwritten and unspoken codes.  Over the decades football has been played, one of those unwritten and unspoken codes is that homosexuality is taboo.  In short, the understanding in almost every football locker room was that gay guys don’t play football.

It is widely believed that during those many decades of football, there were many players at the high school, college and pro level who were in fact gay, but they could never admit it publicly.  Rather, they had to keep their lifestyle a secret for fear of being shunned by their teammates.

Those days appear to be gone.  Players nowadays seem to have no problem with the personal lives of their teammates.  However, it’s still a big step to be the first one to say it out loud like Sarafin did.  I’m sure there is a part of him that fears that some of his teammates will look at him differently, perhaps treat him differently.

Right now, one day in, that doesn’t seem to matter.  Hopefully, the support or the respectful indifference of his teammates is sincere and everybody can just focus on football.

Kudos to everyone involved; to the players, coaches and staff for being tolerant and to Sarafin himself for being honest and true to himself.

Sarafin will probably be the first to say “This isn’t a story anymore, let’s get back to football”.  After a few days, that’s probably exactly what will happen.  Even though Sarafin doesn’t start on the O line, he is a fifth year senior and he is a leader of that unit.  His leadership and integrity will be sorely needed as this season unfolds for ASU.