Duke University Haters and Homophobia

Morning might have come a little too early for some of us who stayed up late last night to watch Duke University snap Butler University's 25-game winning streak, to win their fourth NCAA men's college basketball championship — Duke's first since 2001. While the folks in Durham, North Carolina might be happy this morning, make no mistake that Duke is one of the most hated teams in all of college basketball, if not all of sports. And the media loves to portray them that way.

The visceral hatred that many share toward one of college basketball's most revered programs is palpable. Some of my favorite comments? "Cheering for Duke is like cheering for the Yankees." "I don't care if they won, Duke still sucks." And of course: "If u like Duke ur gay and suck man cock."

Ah, the good old 'beat up on Duke' by calling the university, their fans, and their players gay. How 1992.

The fact of the matter is that Duke haters have been using homophobia to demonize the team for decades, ever since they won their first championships in the early 1990s. Back then, one of the best college basketball players of the era, Christian Laettner, was regularly rumored to be gay. Since they couldn't catch up with his skills on the basketball court, his opponents decided to try something different — target him with the gay label and attempt to ruin his reputation.

Which is why I love Laettner's response to the whole situation: "The stereotype of a bigtime athlete is that he's supposed to be able to get a date with anyone he wants and that he 'gets around' [heterosexually]. It's stupid. I wasn't doing any of that. I had male friends. I wasn't seen with any females. I had bigger and better things to do. So now it's I 'get around' and I'm gay. It's so hypocritical."

Yeah, the bigger and better things that Laettner had to do were win back-to-back national championships, and take part in the college basketball play that's regarded as the best of all time.  Meanwhile, twenty years later, Laettner is married to a woman, raising a family and giving money back to Duke.

But homophobia targeting Duke doesn't end with Laettner. As Seyward Darby writes at NPR this morning, a decade and a half after Laettner graduated, another breakout player was targeted with anti-gay slurs: JJ Redick.

"A quick perusal of Redick's Wikipedia history reveals dozens of now-deleted comments like, 'J.J. Redick is a confirmed homo sexual' with whom it's rumored 'coach K made sexual arrangements.' A notorious photo snapped during a game shows a Duke fan with a 'JJ is Redickulous' sign standing unsuspectingly next to a Maryland supporter who adds '-ly gay' with his own poster," writes Darby.

Laettner, Redick ... who's next? That would be current player Kyle Singler. Anti-Duke sports fans have regularly accused Singler of giving his fellow players blowjobs in the locker room; have consistently altered his Wikipedia entry to suggest that he's gay; suggested that he likes to twist the nipples of opposing players; and have suggested that he makes out with his fellow teammates.

Meanwhile, Singler is sporting an NCAA men's basketball championship this morning. Think he cares what a few homophobic fans think of him today?

All this is to say that, yes, Duke is a school that a lot of people love to hate. But let's not continually stand by and watch as that hatred gets expressed in the form of homophobia. To date, no Duke basketball player has been openly gay. In fact, no Division I college basketball player has ever come out while playing. And in a culture where fans get to sit by and make fun of a player's alleged sexuality without any sort of condemnation, who can blame them?

So hate Duke if you must. But let's leave homophobia out of the picture.

Photo credit: Live4Emma(L4S)