Steve Kornacki Appearing On ‘Sunday Night Football’ Was A Big Moment For Gay People In Sports

NBC election guru Steve Kornacki charmed NFL fans Sunday night with his perky personality while breaking AFC and NFC playoff odds. But his appearance on “Sunday Night Football” was more than just a fun diversion. It was an important moment for gay people in sports.

Kornacki is openly gay, and by earning a slot on NBC’s signature NFL broadcast, he shows LGBTQ belong everywhere in sports — including the traditionally macho world of NFL studio shows.

Host Mike Tirico called on Kornacki Sunday to analyze both conferences’ playoff pictures. Kornacki brought back his heralded big board, but instead of showing the results from Fulton County, it displayed the playoff chances for each team. Instantly, Kornacki put some of the day’s most significant games in perspective. Derek Carr’s magical game-winning touchdown pass to Henry Ruggs III may have only increased the Raiders’ playoff chances to 49%; however, losing to the Jets would’ve dropped Las Vegas’ postseason odds to 10-15%.

As Kornacki said, the Raiders “averted catastrophe.”

Meanwhile, he explained why the Ravens still possess a 47% chance to make the playoffs — they have the easiest schedule left in the league — and touted the Giants for their big swing following a win over Seattle.

Kornacki, whose effervescence and sleepless Election Week marathon prompted the creation of the famed “Kornacki Cam,” came out as gay in 2011. In his coming-out piece, Kornacki writes about how he struggled to conflate sports fandom with his identity as a gay man.

“After a trip to Cape Cod with a friend and his family, the kid’s mother said her favorite moment was watching ‘straitlaced Steve’ struggling to make sense of all the hedonism around him when we drove out to Provincetown,” he wrote on Salon. “I remember seeing drag queens and men dressed in skimpy attire and thinking to myself: Get me out of here so I can watch a baseball game.”

I can relate. Growing up a sports-obsessed teenager, I struggled to come to terms with my sexuality, and buried myself into my aspiring career as a sportswriter. It’s easy to avoid introspection when you always have a project to work on.

Since coming out, I have learned to couple my love for men with my love for sports. Four years ago, I came out on WEEI, one of Boston’s sports talk radio behemoths. I’m currently the deputy managing editor of Outsports, an outlet dedicated to covering LGBTQ athletes and their stories.

I enjoy ball games and drag queens.

The coming-out process is a journey, and we’re always evolving. On Sunday, Kornacki’s evolution reached the point where he was featured on “Sunday Night Football” in his trademark khakis. That’s pretty cool.

While there is a growing number of openly LGBTQ sportswriters, there is a dearth of openly LGBTQ sports broadcasters — especially when it comes major men’s team sports. There is not a single openly gay national play-by-play announcer or color analyst for the NFL, NBA or MLB.

This year, longtime broadcaster Thom Brenneman resigned from his role as announcer for the Cincinnati Reds after he had said a gay slur over the air on a hot mic. Fox Sports also pulled Brenneman from its NFL coverage.

On “Sunday Night Football,” Kornacki appeared on the same show as Tony Dungy, who’s made homophobic comments in the past, and raised money for an anti-gay organization that opposed same-sex marriage in Indiana.

National NFL pregame shows stick to the sports broadcasting norms. The hosts set the table, and the ex-jocks are the experts. Neither of the three major networks — CBS, NBC or FOX — employ a woman as a studio host or analyst on their signature NFL pregame programs (former Raiders executive Amy Trask is featured on CBS Sports Network).

Kornacki breaks the traditional studio show mold, and his sexuality was rightly not a topic. He was simply there to break down the playoff field, like any other expert.

And he was spectacular. Going against the grain pays off.