Morning Six Pack: March 4, 2013

Monday. It’s the weekend’s hangover day. Get right back on that horse with these six college football stories from around the country.

Auburn's hurry-up, no-huddle offense built around two principles: 'Play fast and physical'

Now that last week's defensive series aimed at breaking down Ellis Johnson's 4-2-5 defense has ended,

Recruit signs with Tulane after mom nixes Texas Tech, others

And here we had thought that (thankfully) the recruiting drama for the Class of 2013 was in the rearview mirror.

UCF working on extension for coach O'Leary

Central Florida is working on a two-year contract extension for football coach George O'Leary that would keep him under contract through the 2017 season.

Manziel still 'same person' despite Heisman

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel says he's still the same person after winning the Heisman Trophy as he was before achieving the honor, even though he's treated much differently now than he was a year ago.

Alabama stars among top performers at Nike SPARQ Combine in Atlanta

Nike's Atlanta SPARQ Combine drew well over 1,700 prospects from around the Southeast on Saturday, working through freezing temperatures to compete in four events

Quotable:

Let's think it through. Say Manti is a homosexual, hypothetically speaking. Does that change anything about the way he performs on the field? Let's face it, the dude is fair-to-middlin', gay or not. I can't imagine how his on-field performance would be changed at all by a proclamation of his orientation. After all, one does not wake up one morning as a homosexual, but rather spends his life as such. We have his body of work from which to postulate upon his future success, and that wouldn't change despite some revelation about his sexual identity.

So then, there must be something off the field that would create, for the NFL, this special allowance. Maybe an openly gay player would not generate an equivalent amount of revenue through memorabilia sales, jersey sales, etc. Even that is a short-sighted argument, as there are gay football fans, just like there are gay players. I'm sure gay football fans spend their funds in much the same way we hetero fans spend our money. Maybe an openly gay player would become the patron saint of gay football fans nationwide, just as Tebow has become an evangelic icon for the devoutly Christian.

Maybe it has to do with the locker room dynamic. Maybe the guy would get ribbed, disenfranchised from his teammates. Then again, maybe not. Countless NFL teams tolerated the pallet fire known as Terrell Owens (and other prima donnas I won't call by name) because of his on-field ability. Am I supposed to believe that a gay All-Pro player would be scorned and ridiculed, to the point of team disruption, for his sexual affiliation? Maybe I'm just naïve, but there is conflict in many NFL locker rooms, so I don't see how that argument could possibly wash either. Prejudice can't be tolerated just because it's the norm, and discriminating against someone based on sexual preference is not terribly different from ethnic-based or religious-based discrimination.

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