24-year-old New York Giant Prince Amukamara recently shared in an interview with Muscle and Fitness magazine that because of his religious beliefs, he is a virgin. The New York Post trumpeted the news by hailing him as the "Black Tim Tebow," a reference to the devoutly religious White football player whose conservative values and Christian faith made him popular with middle America.
Also noteworthy about Amukamara: He doesn't drink, and his fiancee was told that he managed a Gap store when she first agreed to go out with him, making it less likely that she was plotting a future turn on Football Wives.
Amukamara is not the first professional athlete to publicly admit that he has chosen to abstain before marriage. Basketball player A.C. Green also generated headlines in the 1980s and '90s for his choice to wait until marriage. But Amukamara appears to be the first high-profile Black athlete to do so in the social media age, which also happens to be an age in which sexualized behavior has become more commonplace and glorified in media.
