Bruce Smith- 90's Bills had gay player, we didn't care....

[Clyde Smith]

1 hour ago, Solomon Grundy said:

I was thinking of another mild mannered DE 👀

Who?🤔

[Royale with Cheese]

36 minutes ago, aristocrat said:

I guess Nassib wasn't the first.

 

He was the first to come out to the public.

[buffaloaggie]

16 hours ago, Rico said:

Just a hunch...

 

If true, we should be seeing Darby the Dinosaur coming out in a new book soon

[Doc]

46 minutes ago, Albany,n.y. said:

Bruce was in the Bills locker room, not another team's.  He was saying that when you are trying to win as a team, nobody cares what you do off the field (unless, like Bruce it leads to a suspension).  

 

This is not true in all locker rooms.  I read a story when Glen Parker was with the Giants he had some problems with some of his more religious teammates because he is an atheist.  

Bruce was in the league for 20 years and also played for Washington for 4 seasons. Beyond that he shared locker rooms with guys at the Pro Bowl and probably interacted with hundred to thousands of players in other situations over his career.  I think saying “I’ve played alongside gay teammates in my career and it was no big deal to me” would have been sufficient enough to say a) they have been there a lot longer than most people probably realize and b) he didn’t have a problem with it personally.

[section122]

15 hours ago, Mango said:

Just for perspective. This is more for the group and the collective than it is to you directly. 
 

You or I might introduce our wives to our coworkers or post about getting married, and people go, oh that’s nice. Post, “I’m gay” or “this is my BF”. The internet/people get their collective pitch forks and go “keep it to yourself”, or, “they are just looking for attention”.

 

Is it lynching? No. Is it a harmless response? No. 

 

A day later and I just can't get over how well put this post is.  Seriously this is the best answer to the who cares posts I have seen.

 

I was going to add to it but I'm just going to say thank you. 

[chongli]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

Revealing what?  He named no names.  And who cares anyway?

 

Well, he does have to be careful, even though he did not name names, since the Bills from the mid- to late-90s are a small community, so people could make conclusions.

 

In the early 90's when I was still a young adult, I mentioned to somebody in the Rochester community that this lawyer there was LGBT. When I told that lawyer what I had done, they were angry, even though I never named the person. They said it was a small community and they could be outed. I learned my lesson.

Edited June 29, 2021 by chongli

[Chandler#81]

18 hours ago, Weatherman said:

Not sure why we need another thread about this.  The other thread IMO is the appropriate swimming lane for this discussion.  

Noobs shouldn’t even be seen, let alone heard from. #Chandler Rule #1.

17 hours ago, T master said:

I long for the good old days when you could watch a sport and just watch the sport you were interested in for the game rather than all the other BS of every day life just to get a couple of hrs to leave all that aside .

 

 

 

 

 

Them dayz is long gone, T.

[Chandler#81]

39 minutes ago, buffaloaggie said:

If true, we should be seeing Darby the Dinosaur coming out in a new book soon

That’s Mitch Ferrotte (R.I.P.). LB Ray Bentley authored Darby the Dinosaur. They were teammates, though. Bentley left after ‘91. Mitch after ‘92.

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Doc said:

 

Some probably do and that's why I was asking if the person or people to whom he was referring cared.

 

Did you think your "So...Bruce?" comment was funny?

 

 

Yeah it was a riot.  

 

Anyway, no one today is worried about being outed from Bruce's comments.  And if you're insinuating that some straight players from then might be worried about having shared regular team mate comradery with a gay player on their roster, that's ridiculous.  

36 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

Well, he does have to be careful, even though he did not name names, since the Bills from the mid- to late-90s are a small community, so people could make conclusions.

 

In the early 90's when I was still a young adult, I mentioned to somebody in the Rochester community that this lawyer there was LGBT. When I told that lawyer what I had done, they were angry, even though I never named the person. They said it was a small community and they could be outed. I learned my lesson.

 

Rochester probably had 250,000 people in it in the 90's (and probably more than 1 gay person). That's not a "small community.

 

No one has any idea who Bruce is talking about, unless that person has since outed himself.  Nothing to see here but fake pearl clutching.

[chongli]

5 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

Rochester probably had 250,000 people in it in the 90's (and probably more than 1 gay person). That's not a "small community.

 

No one has any idea who Bruce is talking about, unless that person has since outed himself.  Nothing to see here but fake pearl clutching.

 

Well the person was trans, which was a lot smaller than the general GLB community; and we're talking about just lawyers, which is a pretty small group. And they were pissed at me when I mentioned it to them. I'll let the person decide for themselves what is preferable, and respect their wishes.

[Mr. WEO]

4 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

Well the person was trans, which was a lot smaller than the general GLB community; and we're talking about just lawyers, which is a pretty small group. And they were pissed at me when I mentioned it to them. I'll let the person decide for themselves what is preferable, and respect their wishes.

 

Bruce didn't make this revelation in the 90's, thus, no one's wishes were disrespected......so, what's the issue?

[chongli]

2 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Bruce didn't make this revelation in the 90's, thus, no one's wishes were disrespected......so, what's the issue?

 

The time is not relevant here since it is still a small community (Bills from the mid- to late-90's), and the person may not have wanted it out there. It is their choice. I am not trying to take Bruce or you to task, but I am just saying there is a bigger picture. And I am not too interested in this, but I just thought I would add my perspective to the discussion. I respect it you disagree, but I am just saying what I would do.

[Mr. WEO]

6 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

The time is not relevant here since it is still a small community (Bills from the mid- to late-90's), and the person may not have wanted it out there. It is their choice. I am not trying to take Bruce or you to task, but I am just saying there is a bigger picture. And I am not too interested in this, but I just thought I would add my perspective to the discussion. I respect it you disagree, but I am just saying what I would do.

 

You outed a person contemporaneously.  Bruce has mentioned  that there was a gay team mate 30 years ago.  And he didn't mention the player's name (every Bills player already knew who he was back then).   Who in the general public could possibly figure out now who that  player was back then because of Bruce's comment this week??

 

You're not making much sense.

[NoSaint]

2 hours ago, aristocrat said:

I guess Nassib wasn't the first.

Quite obviously true.

[chongli]

9 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

You outed a person contemporaneously.  Bruce has mentioned  that there was a gay team mate 30 years ago.  And he didn't mention the player's name (every Bills player already knew who he was back then).   Who in the general public could possibly figure out now who that  player was back then because of Bruce's comment this week??

 

You're not making much sense.

 

I outed no one. The person is long dead.

 

As far as who could figure it out is concerned, we don't know. Regardless, it is the person's choice.

[Patrick Duffy]

21 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

The time is not relevant here since it is still a small community (Bills from the mid- to late-90's), and the person may not have wanted it out there. It is their choice. I am not trying to take Bruce or you to task, but I am just saying there is a bigger picture. And I am not too interested in this, but I just thought I would add my perspective to the discussion. I respect it you disagree, but I am just saying what I would do.

In regards to which player it is, it's still not "out there", due to the fact no name is mentioned. So that's not an issue.

[Mr. WEO]

5 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

I outed no one. The person is long dead.

 

As far as who could figure it out is concerned, we don't know. Regardless, it is the person's choice.

 

The Bills player hasn't been outed.  So no one's choice has been suppressed or denied.

 

You said you outed a guy in the 90's to another person.

[Patrick Duffy]

3 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

The Bills player hasn't been outed.  So no one's choice has been suppressed or denied.

 

You said you outed a guy in the 90's to another person.

Lol, same thing I said, don't get why he stated said player may not want it out and was their choice and whatnot.......when nobody has been outed at all. People can speculate to who it may be, but that means nothing. 

[Rochesterfan]

39 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

The time is not relevant here since it is still a small community (Bills from the mid- to late-90's), and the person may not have wanted it out there. It is their choice. I am not trying to take Bruce or you to task, but I am just saying there is a bigger picture. And I am not too interested in this, but I just thought I would add my perspective to the discussion. I respect it you disagree, but I am just saying what I would do.

 

This is not the first time this has been spoken off.

 

I have heard several former Bills talk about this in the past as they had 1 player that came out to the team and there were at least 2 more guys that hinted, but never officially came out to the teams during this time. 
 

The players on the Bills from the late 80’s through the late 90’s did not seem to be bothered and they kept it fairly tightly sealed, but there were rumors that leaked.

 

There were also players way back in GB under Lombardi that were known by teammates to be LGBT, but basically Lombardi told the team if anyone can help us win - no one should care - basically treat everyone as an equal and do your job.

 

The Redskins also had several gay players in the late 70’s and were a very inclusive team.  A few of the players have since come out and several were outed by the beginning of the AIDS epidemic before treatment and drugs.

 

The NFL like many other groups (such as the military) has had their share of LGBT players and they have typically not seen the backlash associated with it that some people seem to want to think would happen in a locker room setting.  The players seem to respect the wishes of the other and expect them to do their job and be a good teammate.

 

The fact is - it doesn’t matter who the player/players were and people trying to figure it out is just stupid.  It doesn’t matter who - what matters is it is another voice saying look others have been through this and with support they achieved the highest levels.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Rochesterfan

[Weatherman]

1 hour ago, Chandler#81 said:

Noobs shouldn’t even be seen, let alone heard from. #Chandler Rule #1.

 

Them dayz is long gone, T.

If you noticed I apologized later in the thread to the OP for my oversight.  Something I have never seen you do before…Mr. Judgmental moderator sir.  

[chongli]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

The Bills player hasn't been outed.  So no one's choice has been suppressed or denied.

 

You said you outed a guy in the 90's to another person.

 

This is what I said in my original post:

 

"In the early 90's when I was still a young adult, I mentioned to somebody in the Rochester community that this lawyer there was LGBT. When I told that lawyer what I had done, they were angry, even though I never named the person." 

 

And then I learned from my mistake and never did it again. Again, I am not calling Bruce out. I am not calling you out. I respect your opinion. It was my intent only to simply offer my opinion.

[Doc]

2 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

Yeah it was a riot.  

 

Anyway, no one today is worried about being outed from Bruce's comments.  And if you're insinuating that some straight players from then might be worried about having shared regular team mate comradery with a gay player on their roster, that's ridiculous. 

 

Yeah, it was a gut-buster.

 

And you know this for a fact?  Yeah, no you don't.  The rest is just silly.

 

18 minutes ago, chongli said:

This is what I said in my original post:

 

"In the early 90's when I was still a young adult, I mentioned to somebody in the Rochester community that this lawyer there was LGBT. When I told that lawyer what I had done, they were angry, even though I never named the person." 

 

And then I learned from my mistake and never did it again. Again, I am not calling Bruce out. I am not calling you out. I respect your opinion. It was my intent only to simply offer my opinion.

 

Like I said, I hope the person or people to whom Bruce was referring is/are OK with him making that declaration because, as this thread has shown, some people will try and figure it out. 

[Patrick Duffy]

1 hour ago, Doc said:

 

Yeah, it was a gut-buster.

 

And you know this for a fact?  Yeah, no you don't.  The rest is just silly.

 

 

Like I said, I hope the person or people to whom Bruce was referring is/are OK with him making that declaration because, as this thread has shown, some people will try and figure it out. 

 

Billy Joe Hobert? Or maybe Kurt Schulz.....I feel like it is a white guy though for some reason lol

[Mr. K]

Who cares?

[Patrick Duffy]

12 minutes ago, Mr. K said:

Who cares?

Some do and some don't.....if you're one that doesn't, then it's fairly easy to pass over the thread.

[Rico]

14 minutes ago, Mr. K said:

Who cares?

If it’s Bills-related scoop, I wanna know, whether if it’s from Bruce Smith, TMZ, or Yolo. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

22 hours ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

I don't know if it's just to draw attention so to speak, I think it's made a big deal to maybe help others that are scared to be themselves maybe? I don't know honestly, just a guess.

 

Well, for example... in the book "NFL Confidential" by "Johnny Anonymous" (now believed to be 2012 SDG 7th round draft pick and 2014 Eagles backup C David Molk), he goes off on a rant about why the NFL could never have a gay man in the locker room, it would spoil the whole locker room vibe and team dynamics.

 

So maybe Bruce's point to Molk and anyone still in the NFL who feels that way is that some of the top, championship-contending teams even back in the '90s had a guy who was known to his teammates to be gay, and the locker room vibe and team dynamics were just fine, thank you - so Get Over Yourself.

 

Pretty sure the 2020 Bills had at least one gay player on the roster.  He's not real open about it but he posts stuff on Instagram every now and again that are like "So, (Players Name), is there Something You Want to Tell Us?"

[Doc]

1 hour ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

Billy Joe Hobert? Or maybe Kurt Schulz.....I feel like it is a white guy though for some reason lol

 

Personally I don't know and don't really care.  All I'm saying is that Bruce should have said it another way to get his point across, nothing more nothing less, so as to not potentially out the person or people about whom he was referring.  I have no idea why some have such a vehement reaction to that when all I'm doing is worrying about the person(s) to whom he was referring, but that's just how some are.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

23 hours ago, T master said:

I long for the good old days when you could watch a sport and just watch the sport you were interested in for the game rather than all the other BS of every day life just to get a couple of hrs to leave all that aside .

 

So what's stopping ya?

[Mr. WEO]

5 hours ago, Doc said:

 

Yeah, it was a gut-buster.

 

And you know this for a fact?  Yeah, no you don't.  The rest is just silly.

 

 

Like I said, I hope the person or people to whom Bruce was referring is/are OK with him making that declaration because, as this thread has shown, some people will try and figure it out. 

 

 

How will "some people" "figure it out"?   Based on....what?  That's ridiculous.

 

Or do you think, after almost 30 years,  another player is going wake up tomorrow and decide to out him by name?  Yeah, that makes sense too!  

[HardyBoy]

9 hours ago, Buffalo619 said:

Why is this news? Why would we care about a players sexual orientation? 
 

What is Bruces’ motive here?
 

Keep your personal life, personal. 

 

Ok, so please never post a picture of you and what I imagine is a wife or girlfriend on social media ever, and immediately delete any that currently exist. Make sure all of your posts on here never reference that person in anyway at all. Actually, you talking about what you individually did is personal too. Ok, so only pictures of landscapes with no context of you being there or taking the picture.

 

You do that, then you can start talking about others keeping personal life personal.

 

If you think that it is appropriate for you to share that personal information publicly, then what about this situation is different? 

 

And if by some slim chance you already don't do that, I would say the vast majority of people do, so swap in the avg "keep your personal life personal" person.

 

Also, can we get a mod to please go through and delete every thread and post about Josh Allen's grandma please, and his gf too of course...sorry guys, we need to cancel the money we helped raise for the buffalo children's hospital because Buffalo619 wants us all to keep our personal lives private...that or there is just something about this specific topic that is driving him to want to cancel this topic...

[Doc]

3 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

How will "some people" "figure it out"?   Based on....what?  That's ridiculous.

 

Or do you think, after almost 30 years,  another player is going wake up tomorrow and decide to out him by name?  Yeah, that makes sense too!  

 

Yeah, someone might try.  This world is full of all kinds of people.  Is this such a difficult concept for you?
 

The bottom line that keeps escaping you is that he didn't need to specify the team and time period.  It added nothing except that it started some people speculating about who it could be, potentially upsetting/revealing the person about whom he was referring.  Again a "I've played alongside gay teammates in my career and it was no big deal to me" would have conveyed everything he wanted to say without specifying anything.

 

[Mr. WEO]

2 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Yeah, someone might try.  This world is full of all kinds of people.  Is this such a difficult concept for you?
 

The bottom line that keeps escaping you is that he didn't need to specify the team and time period.  It added nothing except that it started some people speculating about who it could be, potentially upsetting/revealing the person about whom he was referring.  Again a "I've played alongside gay teammates in my career and it was no big deal to me" would have conveyed everything he wanted to say without specifying anything.

 

 

LOL, come on...  

 

And do you really think anyone anywhere heard this shocking news from Bruce and then exclaimed; "oh my GOD!!!  The was a GAY on the Bills roster in the 90's????  Man, I wonder who it was??!"

 

Smith played on the Bills....for 15 years (10 of those int "the 90)!  EVERYONE would conclude that he was talking about one of the Bills (Skins were way too butch in the 90's...you know).

 

 

And while we're at it, let me help those "I'm now dying to out that gay player!!" sleuths out there and tell them the clue is:  it was one of the perhaps 100 (or more?) players on a Bills roster over a 10 year period spanning the 1990's!

 

Go to it, hetero cis binaries!!.

[Doc]

2 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

LOL, come on...  

 

And do you really think anyone anywhere heard this shocking news from Bruce and then exclaimed; "oh my GOD!!!  The was a GAY on the Bills roster in the 90's????  Man, I wonder who it was??!"

 

Smith played on the Bills....for 15 years (10 of those int "the 90)!  EVERYONE would conclude that he was talking about one of the Bills (Skins were way too butch in the 90's...you know).

 

 

And while we're at it, let me help those "I'm now dying to out that gay player!!" sleuths out there and tell them the clue is:  it was one of the perhaps 100 (or more?) players on a Bills roster over a 10 year period spanning the 1990's!

 

Go to it, hetero cis binaries!!.

 

Yeah, absolutely no one would do this.  I haven't heard anyone anywhere wonder. 

 

[Mr. WEO]

2 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Yeah, absolutely no one would do this.  I haven't heard anyone anywhere wonder. 

 

 

How would your proposed "quote" change anything?

 

And how will anyone "figure it out"---which is much different than "wondering" (I mean....Rob Johnson?  Come on....).  Wondering has no potential to harm anyone.

 

 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

And while we're at it, let me help those "I'm now dying to out that gay player!!" sleuths out there and tell them the clue is:  it was one of the perhaps 100 (or more?) players on a Bills roster over a 10 year period spanning the 1990's!

 

Per the OP link, Smith said it was the "mid to late 90's"

[Doc]

10 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

Per the OP link, Smith said it was the "mid to late 90's"

 

Don't confuse him. 

[Mr. WEO]

16 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Per the OP link, Smith said it was the "mid to late 90's"

 

That brings it down from 100 to about, what, 75-80?  That will really out the guy!  Doc should hav this sussed out by sunrise now.

[NoSaint]

30 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Per the OP link, Smith said it was the "mid to late 90's"

that should get us a pretty good list of like 40 or so guys. 
 

would you prefer to make a burner account to catfish Todd Collins or do you prefer the in person approach?

 

I’m just hoping not to get assigned big Ted Washington 

 

jokes aside, it’s probably a bit ridiculous to think Bruce changed much here unless the player makes a decision to open up. The same people who knew and weren’t talking about it the last 25 years probably aren’t about to spill the beans suddenly.

Edited June 30, 2021 by NoSaint

[HardyBoy]

22 minutes ago, Buffalo619 said:

 

Would you like speak to the manager?

 

 

Relax bruh..

 

 

 

Haha, oh the projection. You're literally going to the manager asking that they stop someone from talking about something you claim is personal.

 

"Excuse me manager, the cashiers were talking about their plans for after work for the first five seconds I walked up, and well yes I was staring at my phone the entire interaction, it's just that I would prefer they would not talk about personal stuff when they are working.

 

"It wouldn't be so bad, but they're talking about a (whisper) gay friend inviting all of them over to his boyfriend's house later to hang out.

 

"Well my wife and I, we're not sure why people just always have to bring sexuality into the conversation. I am not triggered by this, it's just upsetting enough for me to have to speak loudly about it to anyone that will listen over and over again.

 

"Really my hope is that people stop saying things that make me feel like that when I am trying to buy condoms, cigarettes and beer from a cashier making like $9 an hour. My wife here who spends hours a day applying and removing makeup everyday to look more attractive, but not in a sexual way...she likes to point out that we aren't canceling others, we're canceling negative feelings inside ourselves, and yeah that requires others to only talk about a specific set of things, but those things are freedom and those other things are totally against freedom, so we good."