Me, I couldn't care less. Always been a non-factor for me, always will be. Should make for some interesting discussion. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2501916&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines EDIT: Excerpted below due to the length of the article. Updated: June 27, 2006, 1:39 PM ET Openly gay ex-player talks to NFL rookies on diversity By Len Pasquarelli ESPN.com As part of this week's 10th annual rookie symposium, an event aimed at preparing draft choices for life in the NFL on and off the field, the league arranged for experts in and out the game to address young players on issues ranging from financial planning to social relationships to dealing with the media. Former defensive tackle Esera Tuaolo, who in 2002, three years after his retirement from the NFL, revealed that he is gay, was part of the panel in Monday evening's discussion with rookies highlighting diversity in the league. The diversity segments of the program, with the 255 choices from this year's draft divided into four groups, lasted 30 minutes. League vice president of player and employee development Mike Haynes hopes the message delivered by Tuaolo and others resonates much longer. "When I took the job four years ago," Haynes said Tuesday, "one of the things I wanted to really stress was tolerance. And that takes on a lot of forms, from tolerating the kind of music that's maybe being played in the locker room, to the way a guy dresses, or even what part of the country he is from. And so this was just a natural step in the evolution." Tuaolo, 37, a few years ago addressed league officials on the subjects of diversity and tolerance and, in a subsequent meeting, Haynes asked if the former defensive tackle would be interested at some juncture in being a part of the rookie symposium. This year, Tuaolo's schedule permitted him to appear. The timing was only coincidental but, coming in the wake of remarks made last week by Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, the appearance of Tuaolo was particularly pertinent. "I think it does make it a more timely issue," Haynes said. "I don't want to speak for baseball, but what happened [with Guillen] probably demonstrates that we all still have some work to be done in terms of the tolerance issue in general. Hopefully, with Esera being here, our league took another step forward."
