‘Have You Got Game?’ Hegemonic Masculinity and Neo-Homophobia in U.S. Newspaper Sports Columns

In February 2007, U.S. media outlets covered the coming out of retired NBA player John Amaechi, one of only 6 professional male athletes from the four major U.S. team sports to have announced that he is gay. This study analyzes newspaper columns by prominent U.S. sportswriters about Amaechi's announcement. Textual analysis found that although the columns could be read as progressive, they were not; they condemned individuals who expressed overtly homophobic views while reinforcing the status quo in a variety of ways. The neo-homophobic discourse can be compared with that of new racism, a strategy that maintain racial hegemony in the U.S. As such, these columns effectively rendered Amaechi's announcement as having little value in addressing homophobia in the sports/media complex.