Reggie White

The induction won't take place until August, but as of a few days ago, it was official that Reggie White will be joining the NFL hall of fame. This reminds me of some thoughts I had 18 months ago when Reggie died of sarcoidosis. Before sarcoidosis was mentioned, the family was oddly secretive, or so it seemed from local news here, mentioning only some vague respiratory illness. This immediately made me think Reggie had developed AIDS. In fact, it turns out that sarcoidosis has been connected with the onset of AIDS therapy. While there's no good evidence that this what actually happened, it would make for a certain irony, given Reggie's homophobic rants. As Wayne Besen noted in the New York Blade:

Known as the “Minister of Defense,” White is most memorable to me as an offensive minister who allowed thousands of young athletes to justify their hatred toward homosexuals in the name of God.
AFTER HIS DEATH, we heard a lot about how he helped inner-city youth, but how many young lives did he potentially destroy with his forceful condemnations of homosexuality?
To listen to the cooing media, you would think that these gay youth were expendable
in White’s war against homosexuals. And make no mistake, White was as homophobic as they come.
“Gay activists are trying to force their agenda on our children and society, and it bothers me,” White said in an interview with Citizen Magazine. “When you look at the gay agenda, their thing is that they deserve the same rights as other minorities, particularly black people. That is very offensive.”
When asked why he picked gay bashing as his personal crusade, White compared homosexuality to unflattering behaviors.“You don’t have men and women who commit adultery who are activists for adultery, or liars who are activists for lying,” White told Citizen.
In 1998, White appeared in a full-page ad in USA Today sponsored by 15 groups including the Christian Coalition and The Family Research Council. The ad claimed to tell the “truth” about homosexual recruitment in public schools and how AIDS activists have misused AIDS funding to promote homosexuality to elementary kids.
Fortunately, by the time White appeared in this ad, much of the public already viewed him as an embarrassing ignoramus.
IN AN INFAMOUS speech to the Wisconsin State Legislature, White proclaimed that Asians can turn a TV into a watch, blacks excel at celebration and dance, Latinos can fit 20 or 30 people into one house, and whites are great with money.
White can also be attributed with helping accelerate the trend of tying sports performance to fundamentalist religious belief. Now we can’t turn on the TV without some egocentric millionaire jock giving God credit for his touchdown.
But the Reggie White school of prayer seemed as much about chest thumping as Bible thumping. He was the high priest in the Temple of Intolerance, where his muscle-bound flock read from the Book of Testosterone. The anti-gay attitude exemplified by White and his holy-steamrollers can still be seen today in abusive high school locker rooms across America.