TX Sports Anchor Tells Ellen ‘It Wasn’t a Brave Thing’ to Stand Up for Michael Sam

Texas sports anchor Dale Hansen gave a stirring defense of openly gay football player Michael Sam this week that went viral, and Hansen opened up about that moment with Ellen DeGeneres Friday, telling her, “It wasn’t a brave thing, it wasn’t a great thing I did. The brave thing and the great thing was what Michael Sam did.”

DeGeneres applauded and profusely thanked Hansen for saying what he did. Hansen said he’s received “incredibly, overwhelmingly positive” responses from all across the country, telling DeGeneres it gives him great hope for the future of the country.

Hansen suggested there may have been a soft bigotry of low expectations inherent in how surprised people were that “an old fat white guy from Dallas, Texas would say this,” but maintained his position that there is some truly galling hypocrisy from proponents of small government.

“They want us to tell people that a loving man cannot marry a loving man, a woman cannot marry a woman, what a woman can do with her own body, the argument just drives me nuts, and it’s just the same hypocrisy that set me off with the NFL’s argument.”

Hansen’s wife was watching in the audience, and when the spotlight turned to her for a brief moment, she made it clear this was just the best Valentine’s Day gift ever.

Watch the video below, via The Ellen DeGeneres Show:

[h/t Poynter]

[photo via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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