In college, young people do things that may impact their future employment:
https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2021/01/15/dan-campbell-detroit-lions-head-coach/4182680001/
The reporter, who wrote the above article, has an even more recent, worse past record and had been called out on it:
https://prosportsextra.com/your-hypocrisy-is-showing-marlowe-alter-detroit-free-press-author-who-wrote-article-about-dan-campbell-saying-he-made-homophobic-remark-in-past-had-many-tweets-with-slurs-in-them/
There's a certain satisfaction in seeing the cancel culture backfiring on someone...
Just my own take
What one does when they are young and foolish, if isolated instances, should not affect your life as you grow older and hopefully smarter.
I believe we all do foolish things as we grow, that is a learning process, growing up/ Those that learn from past errors would be given the benefit of the doubt, that they had matured, learned from life and ready to move on. Their past would not affect their future in most cases.
Have they not learned and continue to make the same mistakes again and again, well, then, there really isn't much more to say on that.
Blue Fire, I think the "two wrongs don't make a right" saying applies here. One homophobe doesn't negate the other homophobe.
That said, I think that our nation has come a long way in terms of the rights of the LGBT community and their rights and equality as Americans. I would like to think that the next Michael Sam is treated better, 5 years removed. I also agree with Len that stuff we said and done as young men and women shouldn't define us for the rest of our lives (assuming what we did wasn't too terrible).
As for the story itself, I not surprised that a clickbait reporter who dragged up a 22-year-old story in an effort to attract attention to himself, was in the end just another self-serving hypocrite.