Now that the Super Bowl’s over, let’s revisit that steamy gay football romance from “Queer as Folk”
Confession: I’ve seen the incredibly cringe Showtime series “Queer as Folk” more times than I can count. The show—adapted from the UK original created by Russell T Davies in 1999—concerned a group of (all white, all cis) gays living in Pittsburgh and navigating their 30s.
It was not very good, but it was all we had, and somehow, I not only watched it until the bitter end, I keep on watching it.Embarrassing as that is to admit, it means I come to the table with a complete and detailed knowledge of every absurd plot twist, character arc, and bad joke that ever made its way through that fabled writer’s room—including one very steamy arc including a closeted football player and the show’s most femme character, Emmett Honeycutt.Things kick off in Season 4: Emmett (Peter Paige) is at this point running his own catering business, and one of his clients, a straight woman named Sierra, is engaged to the impossibly butch football star Drew Boyd.
Boyd, played by real-life footballer Matt Battaglia, is chiseled, monosyllabic, and basically the archetype of the jock bully come to life.
When Emmett caters Sierra and Drew’s engagement party, Drew makes a homophobic comment about Emmett’s obvious queerness. And Emmett, of course, won’t take this lying down.Not one to be bullied, shamed, or silenced, Emmett lets Drew have it in front of his football friends.Emmett puts Drew right in his place, and then promptly leaves the function.
