KANSAS CITY, Mo. - We are here in a professional sports locker room, one of the most testosterone-filled places in this country. The men in this room have won the genetic lottery. They are young and make terrific livings with their bodies. Macho rules the day, so in between jokes and video games and weightlifting, you might expect this to be the last place to find acceptance and tolerance regarding homosexuality.

But look over there, at the table where three young millionaires are playing cards. Shuffling the deck is Aaron Crow, a Topeka kid who pitched at Missouri and who responded with support to news of NBA center Jason Collins becoming the first openly gay and active athlete in major professional men's sports.

"Good for him," Crow says. "If he's happy, then that's great. I don't know him personally, but whatever makes that guy happy, I'll support him."

Crow's partner in that card game is Billy Butler, a north Florida kid who signed with the Royals out of high school and wants you to know he'd be proud to call a gay man a teammate.

"I hope people would be professional," he says. "Realize they're there to win a ballgame each day, and (being gay) has nothing to do with what type of person he is. I would handle it like he's still my brother. It has nothing to do with me, what he does in his off time."

Sports are like the bigger world around it, in that there is much room for improvement in gay rights and acceptance. Collins is now pushing this issue in front of a bigger audience, and what we're about to see is progress. This is how it's always worked.

There will be hiccups, and mistakes, like the tweet from Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace that was quickly deleted and condemned by the team.

But when Collins changed professional sports on Monday, the reaction was mostly ... welcoming. There were many more shows of support such as those from Crow and Butler than regrettable displays of ignorance such as the one from Wallace.

Sports have always been a driver in societal and civil-rights changes. Gay equality is just the next step. Barack Obama has shifted toward acceptance of gay marriage, and he reached out to Collins after the announcement. NBA commissioner David Stern released a statement of support. Last week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated his stance for "not just tolerance, but acceptance."

Public figures from Celtics coach Doc Rivers ("If you have learned anything from Jackie Robinson, it's that teammates are always the first to accept") to the Red Sox ("Any time you want to throw out a first pitch at Fenway Park, let us know") to Bill Clinton ("an important moment for professional sports and in the history of the LGBT community") have backed Collins.

In the 1990s, Packers star Reggie White was in an advertising campaign attempting to convince gays and lesbians to "cease" their homosexuality. When tennis star Martina Navratilova came out in 1981, she lost endorsement contracts. Now, NBA stars Steve Nash and Kobe Bryan Bryant film anti-homophobia commercials. NFL players Brendon Ayanbadejo and Chris Kluwe have been vocal supporters of gay rights. The world is changing. Sports are is part of that world.

There is no doubt that Collins will deal with complications. There will be jokes and heckles and assumptions. Collins acknowledged this in the announcement. He says he is ready for it all. This is a smart, mature, strong man. It's silly that it took this long for an active male athlete in major pro team sports to come out, but Collins is OK with being the pioneer.

Two longtime executives - one in major-league baseball, the other in the NFL - said Monday that they didn't know of any player they had scouted or signed who was gay. Together, they have scouted and studied thousands of players. Both acknowledged that simple math makes it impossible for all of those prospects to have been straight.

When asked about the dynamics of an openly gay player in their sport, each evaluator said there would be difficulties but expressed confidence that it would (and will) be accepted.

One said that Monday's mostly warm reception is misrepresentative. Athletes who don't accept homosexuality are less likely to express it because of public pressure. Look how quickly Wallace deleted his offending tweet, the executive said, and how quickly the Dolphins apologized for it.

I told him he was actually making an observation about progress. Twenty years ago, an NFL star was telling gays and lesbians to stop being themselves. Today, the reaction is support, the encouragement is for honesty and equality. That's an enormous shift, even if we're measuring over decades.

"I hadn't thought about it like that," he said.

He's not the only one thinking differently. Sports can help.