But Brittany's not bitter and doesn't hate Grady's loyal, devoted lady-fans. "I'm not pinpointing his fans, all of his fans are great, it's just one stalker that's been pestering us," she told me during a phone conversation, oh, about 56 minutes ago. That's all she'll say for now, since she and Grady are doing everything they can to prevent anymore embarrassing photos "stolen" from her email account to pop up on the web.

It's gonna be tough to keep the latest batch from popping up multiple places. Especially those websites frequented by, say, gay people.

Grady Sizemore starts legal action against racy photos on web [CPD]

Yesterday, ESPN's LZ Granderson, a gay black man, stepped up and apologized for ignoring Dungy all of those years over the former Indianapolis coach's strident Christian beliefs . Granderson said that he realizes now that the coach's motivations were a little less divisive than he first suspected:

This is why I am apologizing for not coming to your defense. While gay marriage is an issue about equal treatment under the law, what the black community is dealing with is a crisis that threatens its very existence. As an NFL coach, you have not only talked about the crisis, you have followed your heart to do something about it — working with some of those misguided men through prison ministry as well as through mentoring programs in Indianapolis. In retirement, you plan to do even more work and will likely have a greater impact on black men's lives working full-time to help save our community than you did in your 31 years in the NFL. I'm not suggesting your work cannot and does not stretch beyond the black community, but I believe the research illustrates a greater need there.

Fair enough. But Granderson's not getting off that easy — especially from Cyd Zeigler Jr., president of Outports, who says that Dungy doesn't deserve any sort of apology, especially from a gay man:

Dungy isn’t just against gay marriage, he’s against homosexuality. He’s against one of the main aspects of my identity – of who I am – that defines every gay man, whether we want to admit it or not. And he is vocal about it. Many sports casters, coaches and players have lost their jobs because they are racist or sexist; The same standard should hold for homophobes. Instead, Granderson gives Dungy a pass because he’ll be reaching out to black men to help them set their lives straight. He’ll be using his ministry to do that: Dungy will be preaching the “good word” to help lead more black men to salvation. But it’s that same ministry that is the foundation for Dungy’s anti-gay beliefs and anti-gay political positions. To me, Granderson is saying: “I’m OK with you spreading your anti-gay interpretation of Christianity, because black men need your help more than gay men.”

Well, can they both be right? And then there's old-timey Minneapolis Star sports columnist Sid Hartman, who just thinks Tony Dungy is the downright saintly. But Sid's readership seems to thinks the old fella is just nice to everybody:

I agree that Dungy was a GREAT man...But, in the past year [Sid] has written similar articles about Carl Pohlad, Bobby Knight, Brad Childress, Joe Mauer, etc. So when you write about a man truly as great as Dungy it loses credibilty because Sid has written similar things about people who are not as special as Coach Dungy.

Yeah. Get your act together, Sid.

Dungy does not deserve a pass for his anti-gay actions [Outsports]
Dungy's Greatest Work Still Ahead Of Him [ESPN]

This perfectly illustrates how most American jocks are loath to show any skin in their promotional ventures (Terrell Owens being one exception). I think it is mostly the fear of appearing too homoerotic and having to defend their sexuality. There are no Americans like English rugby star Ben Cohen, straight jocks who appeal to their gay fans (or female fans who like to see the result of all that hard training). Instead, we get the Royals, dressing their athletes in clothes right out of a JC Penney "Big and Tall" catalog from 1990, with lousy lighting and bad camera angles. If New York City firefighters can strip without fear of losing their masculinity, what stops athletes?

So here's a memo to professional athletes: If you want to impress your gay fanbase, don't pose in a sports calendar wearing clothes, you insensitive homophobic jerks.

The lame K.C. Royals calendar [Outsports]

Soccer does not explicitly promote homosexuality, if it does at all, but in America, it is regarded as a "girly sport." ...The low-impact image of soccer makes it appear less manly and boring to the casual sports fan. In addition, the phenomenon of "diving" in soccer has only added to the "gay" image of soccer...[H]omosexuality has always been a controversial issue that Americans have tried to avoid, and a sport like soccer that does not appear to be "manly enough" has failed to attract attention from the US.

Alright, first off, I don't buy that soccer is as unpopular in the U.S. as is reported. Most of the spoiled suburban kids in this country (myself included) most likely started playing soccer as their first official organized sport. (You know, we're too small to play football, and plus, what better excuse was there to get out of church on Sunday? )

Also, granted American soccer isn't as big a television draw as, say, the World's Strongest Man competition, but doesn't that have to do with network visibility more than anything else? I'm not a soccer fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll watch the World Cup. I'll watch Mansfield vs. Chesterborough, or whatever they're called. If it's televised. Sure, it's a little boring to watch sometimes, but come on, baseball can also be as slow as a one-legged turtle orgy too.

And gay? Honestly, has this guy seen the UFC? And we love that shit.

Americans hate soccer because it's gay [Outsports]

It was hard to tell Wednesday whether Terrell Owens was a professional football player or getting ready for a bodybuilding contest. There he was in the driveway of his suburban Philadelphia home, doing 40-pound bicep curls and dozens of ab crunches. He delighted locals (and the assembled media) by throwing a football shirtless to one fan, his cut pecs rippling in the sun, and stopping to sign another fan s No. 81 Eagles jersey.

We're only a few steps away from Terrell Owens erotic fan fiction, you know it.

JockTalk [OutSports]