Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Reggie White --an ordained minister -- condemns gays, sex and secularism in an address to the Wisconsin Assembly. His sermon has politicians and corporate execs nervous.

Web Posted: March 29, 1998

he Defense has spoken.

    Make that the Rev. Reggie White, part-time ordained minister and full-time defensive lineman for the Green Bay Packers, who yesterday expounded his opinions on religion and society for the Wisconsin State Assembly. In Wisconsin, of course, football is nearly as much of a sacrament as it is in Texas, and Reggie White is, well, almost a god -- even if the Pack didn't win the last Super Bowl.

    In a rambling discourse, White told his audience of elected representatives that "we as a people need to come together, and this nation needs to submit under God and his authority and denounce sin." It wasn't the first time this sort of message came from the Minister of Defense; White's outspoken opinions have attracted coverage from news media for several years, and there was plenty of it recently when he justified "prayer circles" of beefy Packers kneeling on the turf at the end of each game.

    But yesterday, the content was more blustery and offensive than the usual thank-you-to-the-deity-for-a-helluva'-game, or a chance to grab the Lombardi Trophy and bring the NFL championship back to Green Bay, a feat which Reggie White contributed mightily to a couple of seasons ago. Yesterday's sermon has ignited a fire storm of controversy in Wisconsin, the NFL and even some corporate offices in New York. White condemned homosexuality as a sin which is has been permitted to "run rampant" and talked about supposed "gifts" of various ethnic and racial groups -- something which certain observers say came dangerously close to echoing old offensive stereotypes. Associated Press noted that according to White, "blacks were gifted worshippers, whites were good at tapping into money and American Indians weren't enslaved because they knew the territory and 'how to sneak up on people.'"

    White also echoed his evangelical refrain, that not only was homosexuality a sin, but heterosexual sex outside of marriage fell into the same category. David Smith of the Human Rights Campaign assessed White's remarks, and told media that they displayed "complete disrespect" for gays in America.

    There have been rumors that the Minister was thinking of retiring from the NFL, and was under consideration for a sports announcing job with CBS... at least until yesterday's service at the Wisconsin capitol. When word of Reggie White's sermon hit the wire services and the corporate hallways in New York, network spin doctors promptly went to work. Leslie Wade, Director of Communications for CBS sports, said "Reggie White is not a CBS employee," and that "CBS as a corporation has a hard-and-fast policy against bias of all kinds... We are very aware of the fact that every human being has some bias about something in their world because of their life experience. But those biases have no place in the broadcast booth or in the work place at CBS."

    White gave his own feedback later as reaction to his Assembly sermon poured in. "I'm not going to live the kind of life where I'm trying to please everyone," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I don't need no more money... I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing."

Media History Of Slurs

    But he probably won't be doing it at CBS, ESPN or any of the other major networks. With the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) in a ferocious competition with cable and satellite service providers, as well as Rupert Murdoch's FOX, anything which smacks of controversy -- even by Reggie White -- is taboo. Ratings conscious execs still remember the 1996 faux pas where CBS canned golf commentator Ben Wright for his claim that women golfers were "handicapped by having boobs." and that "lesbians in the sport hurt women's golf." And there was Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder in 1988 who said that black athletes were superior to their white counterparts because they had "been bred to be that way because of his thigh size and big size." Snyder also opined that during the Civil War, "the slave owner would breed his big black and his big woman so that he would have a big black kid. That's where it all started."

Reggie -- Football, God and Conspiracies

   Mr. White denied vehemently that he meant to offend any specific ethnic or racial group, and blames the media for being "extreme dishonorable to me because they haven't presented the whole message and what was the core of the message." He refused, however, to retract any of his claims, as well as his digs at President Clinton and his popularity. In Biblical times according to White, "when the kings were righteous, the nation was righteous; when the kings were wicked, the nation was wicked."

    But White has made provocative remarks before which reflect his unique brand of belligerency, Bible mania and conspiracy theory thinking. Last year in a talk to students at a Knoxville, Tenn. school, White took aim at a pantheon of targets -- rappers, drug dealers, police, fellow athletes like Michael Jordan who commanded huge salaries, team owners, scientists and others. "Condom sales. That's a moneymaker," declared White. "You got young people today that's buying PLAYBOY magazines. That's a moneymaker. Hugh Hefner's making a whole lot of money off a whole lot of people from buying his magazine. Then there's sex. You get pregnant. You get a disease. You catch AIDS."

    White told his audience that "they're not doing all they can to find a cure for AIDS... because if they find a cure for AIDS everybody starts getting well and nobody wants to keep spending their money. So they ain't going to find not cure. Because they want you to have diseases..." He then described so- called "partial birth' abortions. "They use these babies for what they call fetal tissue research... they stick a needle that long in the back of their head. They pull the baby's brains out and they use the baby's brains for fetal tissue research... That baby's worth a whole lot of money."

NFL Owners Distance From Remarks

    Sports wires reported today that throughout the National Football League, owners and many players were silent on Reggie White's remarks. The word from commissioner Paul Tagliabue's office was one of "no comment," and Packers officials were "unavailable." Dallas Cowboy's owner Jerry Jones, who viewed White's sermon on television was about the only major sports exec speaking out; he told USA TODAY that White was "a genuine person," one that formed "a complete image of God."

    In Madison, GOP Speaker Scott Jensen, who had invited Mr. White to address the Assembly, described the talk as "far-ranging... I'm sure everyone who listened could find something to disagree with."

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