The average football player has the guts to step on a field and risk losing a spleen to Ray Lewis. Your everyday basketball player will take one for the team by taking a charge from Shaquille O'Neal. The typical baseball player will stay in the batter's box and face chin music from Roger Clemens rather than retreat. And who's afraid of a puck traveling at 100 miles per hour? Not hockey players.

But put any of them in the locker-room shower with someone who's gay, and watch them run.

When it comes to men's team sports, bravado does have limits, after all. By suiting up, a "real man" routinely ignores the possibility of intense physical pain, bodily harm or life in a wheelchair. That same "real man" will feel very threatened, however, should one of his teammates, after announcing he's homosexual, ask for the soap.

That's why you'll probably never see an openly gay man in professional team sports, and Colorado Rockies pitcher Todd Jones was only confirming why the other day, when a Denver newspaper asked him about it.

"I wouldn't want a gay guy being around me," said Jones, when he was asked for comment in a story regarding the Broadway play "Take Me Out," which is about an openly gay major leaguer. For his honesty, Jones was wrist-slapped Tuesday by the Rockies, who quickly announced Jones doesn't speak for the team.

Maybe he doesn't for the organization. But I suspect Jones does speak for about 90 percent of his team, Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, many colleges, high schools and a fair number of pee-wee squads with boys old enough to know the difference.

Only the naïve would doubt the Denver Broncos' Shannon Sharpe when he told HBO last year that former NFL player Esera Tuaolo would've been "eaten alive" by teammates had Tuaolo announced he was gay before he retired.

Only someone with his head in the ground thought the Giants' Jeremy Shockey was just joking when he drew the line against dressing and showering next to a gay teammate.

Only a person who doesn't realize how deep the macho culture runs in sports can imagine this will change anytime soon.

When you examine it, the rampant homophobia in men's sports seems stupid. Some of the toughest, meanest people on the planet routinely demonstrate their courage by playing risky or violent games. Then they become punks when it comes to being around gays. It makes you wonder: Exactly what danger does a gay teammate present to a straight one? Isn't the potential victim here the one who outs himself? Of course, the threat against straight players lies only in perception, nothing else. Having a gay teammate would generate suspicion, rumor and jokes, and the average hetero jock couldn't handle that. You must understand the typical locker room. It's where testosterone and "guy talk" rules. It's a sanctuary that all but advertises itself as being for straight males-only.

Almost from junior high on, the athlete develops a low tolerance for anyone who doesn't fit his profile. Even in high school, his coaches warn against being "a sissy." The process takes root and an unofficial club is formed. The straight athlete develops an inflexible attitude. The gay athlete takes stock of his surroundings, realizes it could turn hostile, and figures it's best to keep a secret.

An openly gay player in a pro sports locker room, therefore, would be as welcome as a mouse running through a sorority house. His teammates, very subtly in most cases, would likely avoid him. The media crush would make any confession a complete waste of good intention anyway. Interview after interview would focus on the plight of being a gay Jackie Robinson; meanwhile, teammates, even the supportive ones, would resent the circus in the clubhouse. There's no telling how the drunks in the stands would react, especially these days when first-base umpires and coaches are tackling dummies.

The only way it might work is if a Hall of Fame-caliber player came out, and he wouldn't do so unless he had already made his money, since endorsement dough would dry up faster than a Dennis Miller joke.

That's too bad. I'd like to think many of us could care less. Sports is supposed to be different than politics, corporate board rooms and other 9-to-5s. Sports is about meritocracy, at least on the field, where the best are applauded and respected as long as they don't do anything dumb.

Obviously, the rules are different in the clubhouse.

Most of our strong and tough athletes wouldn't want a "gay guy" being around them, to quote a Rockies player. And yet: If a "gay guy" did come around, I'd immediately recognize the strongest and toughest athlete of all.