Scott Fujita. I mean, damn — an outspoken, feminist, gay-rights supporting dude who loves his grandma? Chose to play in New Orleans after Katrina, and gives a lot back to his adopted city? And he sounds pretty humble?
Here’s what he told the New York Times about the anti-choice Tebow ad:
Fujita has spoken out before in favor of abortion rights and gay rights.
“It’s just me standing up for equal rights,” Fujita said. “It’s not that courageous to have an opinion if you think it’s the right thing and you believe it wholeheartedly.”
The Tebow ad suggests that Tebow’s mother was advised about having an abortion when she was pregnant with him, but chose instead to give birth.
The issue resonates with Fujita because he was adopted, and Fujita said he respected Tebow for standing up for what he believed in.
“The idea of focusing on the family — who wouldn’t agree with that?” Fujita said. “But the means of doing so, he and I might not see eye to eye all the way.”
When Fujita was born in 1979, his biological mother, he said, was in her teens and she gave him up for adoption because she did not have the means to raise a child.
“I’m just so thankful she had the courage and the support system to be able to carry out the pregnancy,” Fujita said. “I wouldn’t expect that of everybody.”
He and his wife have twin daughters. Those girls sound like they’re going to be raised by a great dad.
Read the whole Reasons to Love Scott list over at Jezebel.
What were the other reasons to root for the Saints?
I love his quote on marriage equality.
“I wish they would realize that it’s not a religion issue. It’s not a government issue. It’s not even a gay/straight issue or a question of your manhood. It’s a human issue. And until more people see that, we’re stuck arguing with people who don’t have an argument.”
Swoon.
Nice, very nice! I was already rooting for the Saints, but this SEALED THE DEAL!
I don’t give a flying crap about football, I can barely contain my boredom to make it through a game. But I am a newly minted Saints fan, or at least a newly minted Scott fan (because I still probably won’t be able to sit through football). And people pick their teams for way sillier reasons than that.
Ditto.
And now I can’t wait to watch the Superbowl.
i think i’m a little bit in love with him now… and very thankful that there are people like him out there. sometimes it seems it’s getting harder and harder to find them. go saints ;)!
I love how much more actually badass he is than any dudes who are trying to tough-ass badasses.
The Saints are just climbing up the ladder in terms of teams I care about. I’ve liked ‘em since they signed Brees, cause I like Brees, and I’ve only taken to them more since then.
OMG. Ditto what Andrea said.
There wouldn’t be an equivalent pro-equality and pro-choice player for the Colts? I’ve been invited to a SuperBowl party and I have to pretend I’m rooting for them.
He’s also one of the few white dudes who sounds serious and believable when he says that he’s Japanese at heart. He’s what we sometimes call an egg: white on the outside, yellow on the inside.
WHO DAT!!
Peyton Manning is overall not a huge asshole. He does a lot locally with children’s illnesses and such. But I don’t follow the team well enough to know.
I’m not particularly a sports fan, let alone a Colts fan, except in the vague geographical sort of way. But we are going to a friend’s house to watch the game, and I am enjoying it in the way I prefer, which is that I am taking some very good pulled pork, and possibly some cupcakes or cookies, and I am going to enjoy being somewhere other than my own house, and talk with my friends, and when the game gets very serious I will pull out a nice comforting book on genetics or something and curl up in a chair, or if I get it to that point I will work on the dress I need to have ready to wear to a wedding in March. (I need a better pair of scissors before I can cut this crepe de chine.)
Great story about a great guy. Given that my brother and his family have lived in NOLA for the past 20+ years, there was never any doubt about who I would be rooting for this Sunday. This just makes me even happier about rooting for them.
Rachel Maddow just did her show tonight from the French Quarter (and it was called the “Rachel Maddeaux Show” for tonight), and you could see just how excited that still suffering city is about this team.
Who Dat? Who Dat? Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Beat Dem Saints?
Geaux Saints!!!