Craig James: Former Patriots Running Back Compares Gay Marriage Support To Satanism

Craig James is not on board with openly gay players in the NFL and upset at his former team for supporting gay marriage.

The former New England Patriots player turned sports commentator spoke out against the team’s decision to sign an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in favor of gay marriage. In an interview with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, James compared support of gay marriage to the work of Satan.

“If I were a current player in that locker room and my livelihood depended on me being quiet or losing it because of my belief system, I worry, I wonder,” James said. “So, that’s Satan working on us.”

Within the past several months there has been a growing debate about gay players in the lockerroom. Before the start of the 2013 season there were widespread reports that a handful of gay players were preparing to come out at the same time, but it never materialized. Some speculated that a continued hostile atmosphere and fear of a backlash kept the players silent.

Now, Craig James is claiming that growing support for gay marriage is actually unfair to players who see homosexuality as a sin.

“A locker room is a cohesive deal,” James told Perkins. “A locker room is a place where everybody has different belief systems but you just get along. In my opinion, I look forward to seeing now, if management tells you and the coaching staff tells you that you better not say anything about the other side, you talk about implosion in the locker room. I know the believers I was with, my teammates — and there were a lot of believers in that locker room — we wouldn’t have been quiet for a moment, we would have spoken up.”

Craig James has gotten in trouble for his words in the past. In 2011, he left his job as a college football analyst to run for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, and ended up being fired from Fox Sports Southwest after making comments against gay marriage.

While the nation is moving more and more toward acceptance of gay marriage and NFL players are increasingly vocal about their support of gay players, there are some others who join Craig James in speaking out against it. Former New York Giants wide receiver and Super Bowl XLII hero David Tyree has also voiced his opposition to gay marriage, and legendary coach Tony Dungy said last year he would not sign openly gay player Michael Same because he would be a “distraction.”

[Image via Black Sports Online]