PLEASE. WE WANT TACOS.
Before we even start: we might have to do this with other states, so know that it's not just you, Arizona. It might even be the state where we live, Georgia, a state so fundamentally dull and stupid that we can't even come up with our own bad ideas anymore.
No, we borrowed one from Arizona, where a bullshit bill cloaking anti-gay discrimination under the notion of religious liberty is currently a sitting duck for a veto by Governor Jan Brewer. It is likely to be vetoed, but just in case the state is insane and bigoted enough to pass the law, this puts us in a position we've never been in before: to make the choice not to go to a place to watch football because of the negligent and cowardly actions of its legislators, and NOT its otherwise pleasant and friendly football fans.
That sucks, since we really want to go watch the September 25th UCLA/Arizona State game, and get some of the Tempe tailgating tacos we've heard so much about. We really want to do that, and to see what could be an early season shootout between two of the Pac-12's best teams. It would not be the fault of 99% of the people in that stadium, either, since they had nothing to do with it, and just want to play and/or watch good football.
But if Arizona somehow passes this bill, we can't go, or put a dollar into the economy of the state willingly trampling some of its citizen's personhood in order to get the worst humans on the planet another term in the state legislature. That's just one person, though, and not a very important one in us, a lowly college football blogger.
Take an entire network--a network like ESPN, one of the country's most gay-friendly employers, and the current overlord-in-charge of college football--and now you're talking something significant. If ESPN decided not to show games in Arizona, now you're talking about a proper kick to the goods. You want your beliefs respected, then fine: you have them, and ESPN will have theirs, since they have a long track record of believing that gay employees with live-in partners have a right to benefits just like any other couple.
Oh, and you may want to pressure the Pac-12 Network on that, too, and see how far it gets you, since it's headquartered in San Francisco, and probably has a mighty solid corporate non-discrimination policy, too.
And finally: if an SEC state is stupid enough to pass one of these in the interest of the lowest possible redefinition of religious tolerance, we'll boycott them, too, and that includes Florida. (Not that we really want to watch Florida play football much anyway these days.) And if ESPN has any backbone whatsoever, they'll do the same, because nothing would delight us more than watching the offices of the SEC squirm when the retrograde policies of its elected politicians start to kneecap all the football its fans could be watching on television. Mike Slive, crusader for gay rights! The image alone almost makes us want this to unfold. (Almost.)
P.S. This is all political science fiction at this point. It'd be great it if stayed that way, because boycotting Georgia would mean moving from the spot where we're typing this, and moving sucks. It's almost as bad as having to believe things in the name of people you love and respect, and then having to apply it to your otherwise apolitical football life where you go to not discuss things as awful as politics.