Longtime TV host Bob Eubanks is best-known for The Newlywed Game. His voice also greets TV viewers every January 1 as one of the hosts of the Rose Bowl parade. Eubanks does some public speaking, and recently he hosted a parody of The Newlywed Game for a crowd in an auditorium. Eubanks likes to give contestants some ribbing, and on this particular day he latched onto a striped yellow jacket worn by one of the men.

"You look like a referee at a gay football game," Eubanks told him (video below).

Longtime TV host Bob Eubanks is best-known for The Newlywed Game. His voice also greets TV viewers every January 1 as one of the hosts of the Rose Bowl parade. Eubanks does some public speaking, and recently he hosted a parody of The Newlywed Game for a crowd in an auditorium. Eubanks likes to give contestants some ribbing, and on this particular day he latched onto a striped yellow jacket worn by one of the men.

"You look like a referee at a gay football game," Eubanks told him (video below).

The audience loved the joke because, of course, the idea of gay men playing football is completely absurd. The guy actually looked like a recent inductee to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But Bob probably didn't realize that connection.

Coincidentally, Gay Bowl XII — the gay flag football national championship — takes place in two weeks in Denver. The tournament's head referee, Lance Burage, took Eubanks' joke in stride.

"Honestly, I think that Bob Eubanks is so old and irrelevant, that it doesn't really matter what he thinks or said," Burage told Outsports. "However, I know many gay officials in many different sports, and those officials are just as studious, qualified, well-trained, and professional as any straight sports official. A professional appearance is important in the officiating world, and Mr. Eubanks should know that gay officials take that challenge as seriously as the next official."

Burage has also officiated at various levels of organized football.

Sam Lehman, an officer with the National Gay Flag Football League and a longtime referee in the New York Gay Football League, took it as a compliment.

"My first thought, it was a light attempt at humor," Lehman said. "It also led me to believe the Eubanks believed gays had a higher standard of fashion then non-gays. I am confident good old Bob had no idea what ANY football officials looked like!!"

Maybe we'll all see Eubanks show up at the Gay Bowl in Denver later this month…in a yellow jacket, of course.

It should be noted that, on his Web site, Eubanks claims his broadcast of the Rose Parade "traditionally receives a fifty plus share," with the ratings of his shows "many years surpassing the ratings of the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards." Funny, I don't see "Bob Eubanks' Rose Parade special" on the list of top-10 rated shows in 2011.

PHOTO: Los Angeles CA, USA; Promoter and television personality Bob Eubanks throws out the first pitch before the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

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