The stars at night are big and bright...

The FEELZ.

I'm guessing Mr. Hansen has a relative who happens to be gay that he cares about very much. Of course, that's not much of a stretch: most of us do.
Side note: many props for his excellent delivery. If only all local TV talking heads were this polished.

Haters are going to burst a blood vessel.

He left out football players who participate in illegal dog fighting. When they're released from prison, they're welcome in the NFL, too.

Very well put. In his honor I take away 10% of the bad things I've ever said about Texas

That was pretty much spot on. I wonder how it went over, in Dallas.

I wouldn't be all that surprised to see something like this from a Seattle station, but hearing this from a station in Texas is fucking awesome. Maybe there's hope for the south yet.

@1 clap clap clap clap!

@7 someone shot a gun.

The cities of Dallas, Houston and Austin are actually quite liberal. Houston has a lesbian mayor. We nestled up here in the the northwest look askance at other regions of the countey and paint them with a fairly broad brush. Remember Washington State is pretty democrat, but you'd never know that if you never travelled west of the Cascades.

Regarding the football player, like all pioneers, be it color, gender, or sexual orientation, he's going to have to be exemplary on and off the field. I hope there'll be a time when a gay NFL player can just be good enough, not extra special. cAnd the fact that his draft prospects have dropped, I'm hoping a team like the Seahawks would consider him. Afterall, they said that they play with a chip on their shoulder, lets give them some more ammo to annihilate their opponents.

My brother in Texas emailed me that link, describing Hansen as his favorite sportscaster. As far as the city of Dallas goes, yes, it's become much more liberal over the years. The mayor is an African-American Democrat and the openly lesbian sheriff just won reelection handily. It's the suburbs where you find most of the conservatism.

But this piece by Hansen really helps move the ball even further.

Dallas Cowboys
Washington Redskins
Pittsburgh Steelers

They need one for the policeman.

@7 Not exactly the same thing, but thumbs ups on YouTube are beating out thumbs downs by a factor of about 22. TWENTY-FUCKING-TWO. That is a big can of whoop-ass.

@9 - Deep in the heart of Texas!

"uncomfortable"

what a bunch of cowards

and of course, liars

Liberals celebrate the strangest circumstances to flaunt their imagined moral supremacy... and often use non sequiturs to create these circumstances.

Let's keep politics out of sports and enjoy Michael Sam for his exceptional abilities and not his sexual preferences.

@18, you go first.

Dale Hansen rules, any other sports nerds out there have to stream "The Ticket" Sports Radio in Dallas via IHEART Radio. Dale is a regular contributor. Best station in the US, 2nd most streamed radio station in the world to the BBC. Every one of there host is honest and candid about real topics in America (not just sports). Makes 950/710 look like the JV sportscenter reruns they are.

@19
come on in, the water's fine.

@18: It isn't the "liberals" who are having difficulty separating Michael Sam's sporting abilities from his sexual preferences:

“I don’t think football is ready... at this point in time it’s still a man’s-man game. To call somebody a [gay slur] is still so commonplace.”

"If you knowingly bring someone in there with that sexual orientation... it’s going to be a big distraction. That’s the reality."

"How will drafting him affect your locker room? And I am sorry to say where we are at this point in time, I think it’s going to affect most locker rooms. A lot of guys will be uncomfortable.”

"That will break a tie against that player... Every time. Unless he’s Superman."

"This is a lot more okay in society than it is in lots of locker rooms. Some locker rooms are still stuck in the ’50s.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon…

If anyone wants a transcript, it's right here:

http://www.wfaa.com/sports/dale-hansen/D…

@22
Who said that and why do you think that person is other than a liberal?

@24: Follow the link. Anonymous NFL personnel said those things. Why do I think they are other than a liberal? Well, I can read.

Your complaint @18 was that liberals were "flaunt[ing] their imagined moral supremacy," and not just focusing on sporting ability. My point is that it is those opposed to Sam's coming out that seem to be incapable of focusing on his ability.

And I have no problem declaring myself morally superior to an anonymous bigot who says that an openly gay player would "chemically imbalance" a locker room. "Chemically imbalance." Like Sam is some kind of toxin.

@25
Getting upset at anonymous quotes is tantamount to tilting at windmills.

@27
Michael Sam has been publicly gay for years, and on a SEC team that had a chance to play for the national championship.

Why all the publicity now?

My fear is that he is being used by the Left to distract from their more fundamental philosophical problems.

@29
"no less a public figure in a historically homophobic industry" you say?

NFL players vote 90% Democratic and 60% of NFL owners' $$$ go to Democrats.

Beware, the Left manipulates the people they pretend to care about.

@30: You are so, so right. The real problem facing Michael Sam is all those lefties who are praising his courage and supporting his decision to come out. If only they were more like those anonymous NFL cowards calling him a "distraction."

Wow. Very well said.

@28: Michael Sam has been publicly gay for years? I guess Michael Sam's dad didn't get that memo. http://espn.go.com/nfl/draft2014/story/_…

Was Mr. Hansen referring to specific players, especially about one who killed someone driving drunk, the one who dragged a woman down the stairs and got picked #4, and the one who tried to cover up a murder?

Some of these sound familiar, and I know there's that Patriot who got arrested for murder, but are his examples of actual cases in which the players went back to playing?

Part Two: Dale Hansen appears on Ellen DeGeneres (In which our hero points out that there's more than one kind of stereotypical thinking going on here...that so many of us were so amazed that a "“an old fat white guy from Dallas, Texas" would speak up for gay rights)

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/tx-sports-anc…

@5 mike vick paid his debt to society and has every right to work in his profession. saying otherwise is unfair and immoral and unamerican.

when you you consider the racial bias in the judicial system and consider that his crime is no different than hunting for sport (a billion dollar legal business) and on a minor scale of animal cruelty when compared with the billions of cows, lambs, chickens, pigs, ducks, and goats slaughtered annually in this country alone....it is obvious to me he received such harsh sentencing mostly because he was a hi-profile black man who had to be made an example of. to paraphrase chris rock on the animal cruelty of the hunting and the meat industry..."they're all right, cause they're all white"

note - i believe vick was guilty of a crime and should have been punished, but what the fine paid and the amount of time he served was grossly unfair.