My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana is on the uproar over Tony Dungy’s comments about Michael Sam.

From the column:

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Excuse me, but will everyone just let Michael Sam play football for the St. Louis Rams?

The hoopla continues to be way too high for a seventh-round pick. This week, it was fueled by Tony Dungy.

The former coach made comments to the Tampa Tribune saying he would not have wanted Sam, who is gay, on his team.

“Not because I don’t believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn’t want to deal with all of it,” Dungy said. “It’s not going to be totally smooth … things will happen.’’

After being roasted by many outlets, Dungy issued a clarification Tuesday. While stressing that his comments weren’t about Sam’s sexuality, he said:

“What I was asked about was my philosophy of drafting, a philosophy that was developed over the years, which was to minimize distractions for my teams.

“I do not believe Michael’s sexual orientation will be a distraction to his teammates or his organization.

“I do, however, believe that the media attention that comes with it will be a distraction. Unfortunately we are all seeing this play out now, and I feel badly that my remarks played a role in the distraction.”

The statement probably won’t calm the waters for Dungy, given his religious views about homosexuals. And then there’s his role in trying to revive the career of Michael Vick after his return from jail.

Ray Ratto at CSNBayArea.com sees hypocrisy, writing:

“For Dungy, who defended and even offered to mentor Michael Vick after his nationally provocative dog-fighting conviction was not “a distraction,” because he had football gifts still to be exploited. Michael Sam, though, IS a distraction because he is a seventh-round pick who may not last more than a training camp.”

Indeed, that’s the way it works in the NFL. Coaches will put up with all sorts of distractions if a player is the real deal. Vick, despite his questionable character, still had immense skills as a game-changing quarterback. Philadelphia thought he was worth the baggage that comes along with him, and for the most part, got a decent return on its gamble.

Sam, meanwhile, is a different story. Poor draft workouts saw his stock tumble, provoking questions about whether he will be a good NFL player. If teams thought he had the goods, he wouldn’t have been sitting there in the seventh round for the home-state Rams to select him. Sam could be something more, but it seems unlikely he will be a difference-maker in the NFL.

That brings in the “distraction” issue. Dungy hardly was the only person to suggest teams might not want to be part of whatever comes along with drafting Sam. There were plenty of coaches, analysts and executives who worried that the coverage for the first openly gay NFL player could be overblown, creating those dreaded distractions. Dungy merely was echoing what others were saying.

Keith did another number on Dungy last night.

While I was gone, I realize I haven’t posted any vintage baseball cards lately. As I have written previously, I love looking back at old cards in any sport. Makes me feel like I’m 12 again.

So here’s one of my all-time favorite players, Greg Luzinski as a young bull with the Phillies.

“The Bull” hit 307 career homers. A few of them were rooftop shots at old Comiskey Park when he played for the White Sox.

Here are his stats from BaseballReference.com.

Feeling the heat, Tony Dungy issued a statement today about his comments on Michael Sam.

From ESPN.com:

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On Tuesday, via a statement released to multiple media outlets, Dungy defended Sam’s right to play in the NFL while saying he gave an “honest answer,” and that his comments were made several weeks ago when “the Oprah Winfrey reality show that was going to chronicle Michael’s first season had been announced.”

“I was not asked whether or not Michael Sam deserves an opportunity to play in the NFL. He absolutely does.

“I was not asked whether his sexual orientation should play a part in the evaluation process. It should not.

“I was not asked whether I would have a problem having Michael Sam on my team. I would not.

“I have been asked all of those questions several times in the last three months and have always answered them the same way — by saying that playing in the NFL is, and should be, about merit,” the statement read. “The best players make the team, and everyone should get the opportunity to prove whether they’re good enough to play. That’s my opinion as a coach.

“But those were not the questions I was asked. What I was asked about was my philosophy of drafting, a philosophy that was developed over the years, which was to minimize distractions for my teams.

“I do not believe Michael’s sexual orientation will be a distraction to his teammates or his organization. I do, however, believe that the media attention that comes with it will be a distraction. Unfortunately we are all seeing this play out now, and I feel badly that my remarks played a role in the distraction.

“I wish Michael Sam nothing but the best in his quest to become a star in the NFL and I am confident he will get the opportunity to show what he can do on the field. My sincere hope is that we will be able to focus on his play and not on his sexual orientation.”

Been a long time since I’ve written about my old pal Jason Whitlock. How is that move to ESPN working out?

Whitlock showed up on everyone’s radar last night following his remarks about NBA players from Canada on Olbermann.

Whitlock’s initial remarks start at the 3:15 mark in this clip.

Even Olbermann realized how ridiculous Whitlock was in his generalization about Canadian NBA players. In a second segment, he brings up the issue again at the 1:24 mark.

In this clip, Whitlock talks about Canadians being laid back in general. Apparently, he never has watched a hockey game, a sport dominated by Canadians. Nobody would call them laid back.

Josh Gold-Smith at Awful Announcing, who is Canadian, writes:

How quickly he forgot about two-time MVP and eight-time All-Star Steve Nash. Since he included all “Canadian athletes”, how about the multitude of Canadian Olympic gold medalists, the thousands of Stanley Cup champions, the American and National League MVPs, the Baseball Hall of Famer, the Masters champion, and the UFC welterweight champion?

Clearly, they didn’t “want it as much.”

Whitlock tosses in “NBA players and NBA people” to imply that it’s not his opinion, but it doesn’t matter who he’s attributing the opinions to. They’re asinine, and whether he’s saying them for the first time or passing them along from other sources, he’s perpetuating stereotypes by not dispelling them as unfounded myths.

Bryant Gumbel tackles the drop in participation for golf in the latest edition of Real Sports (tonight, 10 p.m. ET, HBO). All I can say is that even as a 15-handicapper, the pizza-size hole option isn’t for me.

Rick Morrissey made my day with his column on Joe Goddard in the Sun-Times.

Even though he was the competition, Goddard, the long-time baseball writer, took pity on me when the Tribune threw me off the deep end, making me the White Sox baseball writer in the ’80s. Only in my mid-20s, I was fairly clueless. Goddard, though, helped shepherd me through the various obstacles. Otherwise, I still might have been lost in Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium when they tore it down. I always will be eternally grateful.

Goddard remains one of the most popular writers ever to work the press boxes in Chicago. Even though he has had some ailments in his older years, he still will be “Young Joe” to all of us.

Morrissey writes:

The Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony is Sunday. Many of you are thinking about Frank Thomas and Greg Maddux, this year’s inductees. I can’t help but think of Goddard, 76, who classed up a game and a profession.

He twice finished second in voting for the writers’ wing of the Hall. He’s fine with that, saying he doesn’t think he deserved the award, which is the kind of thing he would say. You’ve probably heard somebody referred to as “a sweetheart of a guy.’’ I deal in opinions, but this is simply fact: Goddard is the sweetest sweetheart of a guy there is. Anybody who has been around him, even ballplayers and managers who don’t always take kindly to us media types, knows it.

Even when Goddard lost, he won.

“One day, [then-Sox manager] Chuck Tanner stuck out his hand,’’ he said. “I went to shake it, and instead he pulled hard on my mustache and brought me down to the ground. He said, ‘That wasn’t a very nice thing you wrote about Rich Gossage in today’s paper. You owe him an apology.’

“So I went to Gossage and said, ‘I’m really sorry about that article.’ Gossage said, ‘I deserved it. I was horse[bleep].’ ’’

It was a different time all the way around.

Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Daily has a breakdown on the huge money each NFL team stands to earn under terms of the new TV deals.

Kaplan writes:

Each NFL team will get a 20 percent increase in national television money this year compared with 2013 — up $27 million — as a result of the new TV contracts that commence next month, according to sources who have seen the internal figures. Over the following two seasons, the increases will total an additional $23 million per club, at a minimum.

That means by 2016, each NFL team will bring in at least $181 million from national TV alone — more than enough by itself for teams to cover their salary cap expenses.

Still trying to shake out cobwebs after a 22-hour travel experience on Sunday. But definitely worth it if your day started in Monte Carlo. It was the last stop on our week-long cruise that started in Barcelona.

I will say this: Monte Carlo is the only place where a Mercedes feels like the equivalent of a Chevy in the U.S. It seems like every other car is a Bentley, Porsche, Rolls, Ferrari, etc.. Neat place.

Anyway, glad to be back. Well, not so glad, but I still need to save a bit more cash before I can buy my place in Monte Carlo.

Hope all is well. What did I miss?