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Chicago radio host implies Russell Wilson might be gay: 'You don't have to live a lie'
Outspoken Chicago sports radio host Dan Bernstein made some thinly-veiled comments on WSCR 670 The Score on "Boers & Bernstein" Tuesday, hinting that he thinks Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson might be gay.
Wilson made news when he said on Sunday that he and pop singer girlfriend Ciara are abstaining from sex in their relationship, which created quite the stir on social media, as Wilson said God told him to "guide" Ciara.
Bernstein's comments were spurred by a listener who texted a question about whether God told Wilson to abstain in his previous marriage. Bernstein and cohost Terry Boers suggested that Wilson's first marriage ended because of his ex-wife's unproven "dalliances" with other players.
That led Bernstein into his controversial discussion — without actually coming out and calling Wilson gay:
"If you start to piece this all together, I think you come away with a pretty easy-to-reach conclusion here," he said. "The whole thing. Don't you? Don't you just wish he could feel comfortable enough to be a little more truthful with all of it?"
Boers interjects: "Is it that difficult?"
Bernstein: "Sadly, it still is."
You can listen to the whole exchange on the show's page by clicking on "Russell Wilson is Weird - Boers and Bernstein Hour 4." The part in question starts around the 23:00 mark.
After a joke about Golden Tate ("I meant Golden State!" Boers said with a laugh) — Wilson's teammate who was the subject of Internet rumors with Wilson's ex-wife — Bernstein continued his bigger theory about the quarterback.
"I woud just say, 'Russell, it's OK. It's OK.'"
After Boers seemed to miss Bernstein's point, Bernstein continued:
"I don't think you're quite getting what I am getting at. Put the pieces together. The whole Russell Wilson thing — all of the artifice here. Everything that's going on. All the strangeness. All of the stuff with the first wife, and the discomfort there ... and this isn't a new pattern.
"And I understand there were times past where you felt you had to live a lie. This isn't that time. This is quite the opposite of that; you don't have to live a lie. You don't have to be artificial."
Boers, who seems to be catching on to Bernstein's implication, said, "Oh, I see ..."
Boers said he never quite reached that same conclusion, but Bernstein said of Wilson:
"My point is this: With every day that goes by, we live in a world that is much more understanding and much more supportive and would just say, 'OK, that's cool and get on with the football.'
"I don't think this one is too tough. Based on the evidence presented. Do you have enough for Tom Cruise?"
Bernstein hosts a sports talk show with an edge to it. Half the callers disagree with him and Boers, and that's the dynamic they've built, which has served them well in the ratings. That said, Bernstein has recently found trouble with a couple of controversial statements made on Twitter about a pair of female Chicago journalists and insinuations about one's personal life and possible romantic connection to a married Chicago Blackhawks player.
If you read his comments from Tuesday on Wilson, nowhere does Bernstein say Wilson is gay. At no point does he even say that Wilson being gay would be a bad thing. In fact, he goes out of his way to suggest that Wilson's sexuality would be no big deal if that was indeed to be true.
But Christians might be offended by the idea that Wilson should not be called artificial when he's talking about his faith and choosing abstinence, which some might call noble. It's a dangerous edge to walk, and even if rumors of Wilson's personal life have flooded the Internet, not everyone who posts that stuff is a high-profile talk radio host on a radio station with a wide reach.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
