athlete Page 43 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Does Joe Pa Hate Lesbians Too?
Yesterday, we made a glib remark about Joe Paterno and Penn State's homophobic coach, because hey, we're a blog, we're glib, it's what we do. We joked that you could say what you want about Joe Paterno, but at least unlike his women's basketball coach, he didn't hate lesbians....

Hockey Didn't Land On Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock Landed On Hockey
Fantastic find from The Mighty MJD: AOL's Black Voices has a sports section that tracks black players in the NHL. According to the site, there are 12, many with Afrocentric names like "Bryce Salvador," "Fred Braithwaite," "Sean McMorrow" and "George Laraque."...

Brokeback Mountain Update: Inscrutable Brit Slang Edition
We still can't quite get enough of these still-percolating Peyton Manning-Kenny Chesney rumors. To get you up to speed, British gossip site Popbitch reported that one of the main reasons for the Zellweger-Chesney divorce might have been his "friendship" with Manning. We then uncovered an old quote...

Phil Simms Keeps His Eye On The Balls
One of our favorite ongoing gags at Out Sports is the running tab of homoerotic comments made by CBS analyst Phil Simms during his telecasts. Favorites from the past include "[Miami running back] Lamar Smith doesn't look like much in his underwear" and his constant references to Dan Marino as "a h...

Bad Time To Think Of Peyton
Just an update on our Peyton Manning/Kenny Chesney/Brokeback Mountain item from yesterday: We were doing some searching, and we found this pretty damning story from Chesney, via Anecdotage:...

Peyton Manning Going All Brokeback Mountain On Us?
OK, now this be should be filed under "Complete Random Rumor From Gossip Newsletter That Knows Nothing About American Sports," but the pure notion of it is so hysterical that we can't help but bring it to your attention....

Jay Mohr: Comedy's Skip Bayless
We'll admit it: We don't really understand those columns that failed movie star/failed TV star/failed game show host Jay Mohr is writing for SI.com. They're not funny, but they're not really incisive about sports either; they just kind of hang out there, like a faded balloon (or a Marge Schott bre...

Ryan Church, Theologian
Because we love baseball so much, we sometimes forget that the average athlete often lacks some basic education on fundamental issues. Take Ryan Church, Washington Nationals outfielder. As reported by The Washington Post — that is to say, he told this to a reporter — Church went to his team's chap...

Laveranues Coles: Stepping Stone To A Gay Athlete?
Is Laveranues Coles' admission that he was sexually abused by his stepfather the equivalent of a professional athlete coming out of the closet as a gay man? We wouldn't think so, but OutSports' Cyd Zeigler Jr. says they're more similar than you think....

Kordell Stewart Is Back, And, So You Know, Still Not Gay
Today is a beautiful day, and not just because Jay Bilas is in Kuwait. No, today the news came across: Kordell Stewart could be returning to the NFL, likely with the Ravens again to help with the injury to Kyle Boller. This is fantastic news, because, as the old maxim goes, Nobody Denies They're G...

Dontrelle Willis Did Not Land On Plymouth Rock
We hadn't noticed — because we're devils, of course — but something rare happened in baseball yesterday: Two black starting pitchers went against each other. Florida's Dontrelle Willis earned his 17th win over the Dodgers' Edwin Jackson, and it has the always sane folks at Black Athlete comparing...

Rony Seikaly Partying Too Much For Hot Wife
See that woman right there? Her name is Elsa Benitez, and she's a supermodel. She is also married to former NBA oaf Rony Seikaly. Pretty good, right? Way to go, Rony, yeah?...

Sigh. More Mike Piazza Gay Rumors
Honestly, we never get tired of Mike Piazza gay rumors. No, seriously. We love them. The newest one, as "printed" by our twisted sister Gawker, is that Mets catcher Mike Piazza and local weatherman Sam Champion are building a place together on the Jersey Shore....

Rosey Grier Knows Your Needlepoint Needs
This is an actual, real book that came out in 1973: Needlepoint For Men, written by former NFL defensive star Rosie Grier. Flickr has all the photos, and look: You can even buy it on Amazon....

What? Sports Aren't <em>Funny</em>
According to Daily Variety, which we don't have a subscription for, so we're gonna just link to someone else who heard about this, Comedy Central has just filmed a pilot for a sports program based on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart." The show would be an half-hour weekly program, and the channel...

Here Come The Fat Dudes!
The old fat men are returning to the sports world. One would think fat men would be comfortable in their post-sporting life; they could, you know, just sit around and eat. But former Red Sox whale Rich Garces and former Supersonics DNA machine Shawn Kemp are making their way back. Garces, "El Gua...

Blind Item Guessing Game: Sports Edition!
National radio DJ Ben Maller passes along this juicy tidbit:...

Robinson Boozes It Up At The Wrong Time. Again
We aren't one to talk about public drunkeness, but we still feel obliged to point out that when former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Koren Robinson decided to show up at his one-day jail sentence for a DUI conviction, well, he probably shouldn't have been drunk. Just a thought. The good news: Bei...

Players Just Don't Care About Their Balls Anymore
We may have mentioned this before, but back when we were young, untalented, jittery baseball players, we refused to wear a cup. We had a complicated explanation involving positioning and playing catcher, and, in retrospect, it doesn't make much sense. But apparently we're not alone. Slate reports...

Scrappy Podsednik Upgrading In Lady Department
We've always liked Chicago White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik. He's small, he's scrappy, he plays hard, he steals bases, he likes to get his uniform dirty in the way that fans always like white players to get their uniform dirty. But we always liked his understatedness the most: Nothing flashy, ...