athletes Page 13 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Former Coach Picks Up Swoopes' Board
So ESPN has the "first-person" narrative from Sheryl Swoopes announcing that she's a lesbian — or, as YAYSports! put it, "Sheryl Swoopes Is Admitting To Hot Lesbian Action" — and it's a good read. The most fascinating part is how Swoopes made the transition from mother going through a divorce to a...

Swoopes Pulls Back Mask On Lesbianism In WNBA
Well, we've all been curious who the first high-profile athlete to announce that they're gay would be, and now that Houston Comets MVP Sheryl Swoopes has done it, well, we guess we're still kind of waiting. No offense to Swoopes, of course, who is one of the best players in WNBA history and actual...

Why Is This Man So Excited?
This is Astros closer Brad Lidge, and in this picture anyway, he's a very excited young man. (It obviously was not taken Monday.) There are many reasons he might be so happy. He could have just closed out an Astros victory. He could have learned that he wasn't going to be a lot of money for his ca...

Paul Tagliabue, Friend To The Gays
We'll confess something: We had no idea that NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue's son Drew was openly gay. Only of the only references we can find about it on the Web is on the Parents, Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays' Web site; we didn't expect the NFL to put out a press release or anythin...

Todd Zeile, 21st Century Man
Now, we're not saying anything about those lingering rumors about former Mets manager Bobby Valentine helping him deal with some "issues" involving a popular veteran journeyman player who Bill Simmons might call being a "bi-curious guy," or his recent career as a producer of terrible teen movies o...

In Defense Of Joe Pa's Views Of Lesbians
(Honestly, we love that we get to write headlines like that.)...

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....

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...

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....

Indians Gay Porn Reliever Sent Down (Again)
A sad day in Cleveland: reliever Kazahito Tadano has been sent down to the minor leagues. Who's Tadano, you ask? Oh, how quickly you forget: Tadano is the Japanese player who had to apologize to his Indians teammates for making a gay porn film back in Japan. (That's him in the screen shot above....

David Beckham No Longer Fantasized About In Prison
Apparently, athlete culture's a little different in England than it is here. Soccer "megastar" David Beckham — also, in England, you don't necessarily have to be all that good at your sport to be the most famous — lamented to the soccer press that he is losing all of his gay fans to rugby star Gav...

Gays Tell Press To Get Off Niners' Back
In the wake of all the hullabaloo and rigmarole resulting from the now-infamous 49ers' "training video, the organization has been accused of just about everything under the sun. But the fine folks at OutSports.com say that people should cut the team a break....

Blue Jays: All Gay, All The Time
Say what you will about the homophobia inside locker rooms, but in team's front offices, well, whatever pays the bills. The Toronto Blue Jays have announced their plans to host Toronto Pride Day at the SkyDome on June 23. The promotion is called — no kidding — "Men With Bats." (Subhead: "They Wield ...