The calendar flipped to June over the weekend, and if you missed it, it’s now Pride Month on TV, on the radio, in stores, everywhere on the internet, in the streets, on flagpoles, in classrooms (whether you like it or not) and in 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 (which now includes people who say they are neither male nor female) was celebrated on social media by about two-thirds of NFL teams on Saturday.
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Most NFL teams join Pride Month
Footage captures the atmosphere at Smirnoff’s Pride Night, presented by GLAAD and the NFL, held at Caesars Palace on February 7, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Daniel Boxarski/GLAAD via Getty Images)
The message was distributed via X’s team timelines and was sent to a combined total of approximately 42 million followers from 21 of the NFL’s 32 teams.
Several teams tweeted their support for the advent of Pride Month, with some even delivering extended messages as part of their support.
For example, the Washington Commanders said Pride Month is actually about love.
Additionally, some teams have gone a step further by sending out tweets and changing their logos and X-banners.
The Commanders, Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles have all changed their logo colors to match the Pride flag.
Some teams are really embracing Pride Month
Not only did the Vikings post a supportive tweet and change their logo, they also changed the banner on their X account – they seem super excited about Pride Month.
The Eagles took an interesting strategy by not tweeting a message of support across the board, but changed their X logo to make their support obvious.
Is it the NFL?
We promote LGBTQ+ issues, hosting an annual gala event in collaboration with GLAAD and promoting other gay community events.
However, the NFL did not tweet its support for Pride Month on June 1, instead retweeting tweets from the Chicago Bears and Jaguars.
Incidentally, the comment sections following each team’s tweets were predictable, viscerally expressing disagreement over the messaging surrounding the month-long celebration.
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Support for gay policies is widespread
All of this is like a dog biting a man, by the way: If this had been from 1970 to maybe 2010, there would have been no outward support for national Pride Month from the NFL, but Pride Month has likely been growing inexorably for over 12 years now.
So, not surprisingly, each team is sending out messages for Pride Month 2024.
Meanwhile, the man biting dog element is seen when teams either disagree with Pride Month or say nothing about it.
To be clear, no team has said they are against Pride Month.
Cheerleaders for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL) participate in the Miami Beach Pride Parade at Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, Florida on April 14, 2024. (Zach Bennett/AFP via Getty Images)
It is clear that many people in the NFL and in society do not like Pride Month for a variety of reasons. Some do not follow or agree with gay lifestyles or policies.
Then there are those who have absolutely no problem with gay people, but simply don’t like the ubiquity of Pride Month as if it’s being forced upon people. These same people would be put off by, say, a month-long puppy festival or other event celebrating straight people being forced upon them every year.
Either way, in today’s world, mere silence is often perceived as support or opposition by extremist oppositionists.
The important thing to remember here is that your team reports what they did. do not have Tweeting an announcement that you support and join in celebrating Pride Month is a cool gesture, not a message of opposition.
It just tells you what it is: silence.
11 NFL teams not participating
Over the weekend, 11 NFL teams chose not to tweet or acknowledge Pride Month. The 11 teams are:
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.
Every team in the NFL’s two divisions (AFC East and NFC West) tweeted their support for Pride Month.
In one division (AFC North), three of the four teams have remained silent on the matter, with Baltimore embracing Pride Month.
The three divisions – AFC West, NFC North and NFC South – are split into four teams, with two teams supporting and two remaining silent.
The NFL logo is displayed on the field before the game between the Tennessee Titans and the Indianapolis Colts at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee on December 3, 2023. The Colts defeated the Titans, 31-28. (Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
Why is this important? There are two reasons:
First, a calculation is newsworthy if the teams take different approaches to the same problem: it’s newsworthy what direction the teams take.
At last, America is divided, with political lines being drawn, liberals and conservatism at odds, and a culture war raging.
And yes, sometimes participants cross the line. Years ago, both Presidents Obama and Biden said they defined marriage as between a man and a woman. President Trump said on 60 Minutes in 2016 that he was “okay” with same-sex marriage.
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Despite this, Obama and Biden are classified as supporters of same-sex marriage, while Trump is often criticized as opposed to it.
There’s no doubt that 21 NFL teams are apparently in favor of this, and the other 11 have remained silent on the matter.
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