As New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita gears up for Super Bowl XLIV, Fujita talks to The Advocate about standing up for gay rights and against inequality, and about Tim Tebow's draft prospects thanks to Focus on the Family.
Scott Fujita is known for many things — being a "big white guy with the Japanese last name." as he says; his dedication to charities and community service; and, more recently, his unapologetic views on gay rights.
Fujita was adopted as a child by his Japanese father and white mother, and he grew up in Southern California. Even though he is not ethnically Japanese, Fujita says he is Japanese in his heart. After a standout student-athlete career in high school, Fujita was recruited by the Ivies but decided to play for the University of California, Berkeley, as a walk-on player.
After going pro, Fujita played for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Dallas Cowboys before settling down with the New Orleans Saints in 2006, the season the team returned to the Big Easy following Hurricane Katrina. Since then, Fujita said, he's found his second home. His team named him Man of the Year in 2009 for his charitable efforts for breast cancer awareness, adoption, and two local organizations, Adoption Services of Catholic Charities of New Orleans and the children's charity Angel's Place.
Fujita made waves in October when he backed Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendan Ayanbadejo's support for gay marriage. Now, with the spotlight on him for this Sunday's Super Bowl, the 30-year-old linebacker isn't backing down. Earlier this week, Fujita talked to The Advocate about getting more pro athletes to open up about gay rights, and the possibility of alienating people by being so outspoken.
The Advocate: The city of New Orleans must obviously be thrilled by the Saints making it to the Super Bowl — what fan reactions have resonated most with you?
Scott Fujita: To say the city is thrilled would be an understatement. No one deserves this more than the people of New Orleans, especially considering everything they've been through. All week long people have been coming up to congratulate me — and my family lives downtown, so we run into a lot of people — and I feel the need to congratulate them. This is good for all of us. I said after the game that Brett Favre is a great story, but the city of New Orleans and the Saints are an even better story.
So far, it's been you and Brendan Ayanbadejo who have been vocal proponents of gay marriage. Do you think there will be a third player anytime soon to express the same sentiments?
I thought what Brendan wrote was incredibly insightful, thought-provoking, and completely on point. And many people would call it courageous. But if Brendan's like me, I don't know if he'd consider what we've done all that courageous. We have strong feelings about equal rights, and to me, expressing those feelings isn't courageous, it's the right thing to do.
I think there will be a third player who expresses support for gay marriage ... and a fourth player, and a fifth, and so on. All it will take is someone who asks more guys their opinion. By and large, the business of football is still pretty 1950s, where the status quo and conformity to the principles of "just shut up and play football" are intact. But the athletes themselves are more than that. We're more than just football players, and many of us are much more open and tolerant than we get credit for. The reality, however, is that the locker room just isn't the place where these issues are discussed, and your everyday beat writer for the local sports page doesn't get paid to ask those questions.
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