LaRon Landry

A funny sideline moment with former Washington Redskin Charles Mann doing an awkward sideline interview with LaRon Landry (O.J. Atogwe is watching).

Mann tells Landry he “looks fantastic” but makes it very clear it’s in a 100% non-homoerotic, non-gay way:

Hat tip to Deadspin.

Share on Facebook

Barkley, on SiriusXM Radio, was asked about New York Ranger Sean Avery supporting same-sex marriage and whether openly gays athletes would be accepted in pro sports.

Barkley replied how gay athletes would only be judged by “whether he can play or not. If somebody is gay, that’s their own business. But it bothers me how people try to say that jocks are not going to like a gay. … I think gay people should be allowed to get married and God bless them, that’s their own business. Listen, if a guy can’t play that’s the only time we don’t want to play with him. We don’t care about all that extracurricular stuff.”

That’s really what it should be about and my guess is that how it would go in pro sports, once the initial hubbub died down. Pro sports is a bottom line business and that is winning, and in the end the only criteria a team should use is whether a particular player will help his team win or not. The rest should be superfluous. But until someone has the guts to publicly be who they are, we have to depend on the Barkleys and Averys of the world to take a stand.

Share on Facebook

On Saturday night during Marshall University’s preseason baseball banquet and fundraiser at the Cam Henderson Center, Brennaman – the keynote speaker – determined that Marshall’s president [Stephen Kopp] must be “queer” for softball since the university managed to open a $2.5 million softball facility in March 2008, but baseball is still traveling for home games.

Brennaman backpedaled, sort of, the next day, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer:

“I probably could have made a better choice of words, but in no way does that reflect my opinion about gays at all. It’s just a comment I made about the president of the university.”

Brennaman, 68, is approaching his 38th season as Reds play-by-play radio voice.

“People are going to think what they’re going to think,” Brennaman said. “My point was he’s willing to spend ($2.5) million for girls’ softball, but he won’t even attend a baseball banquet trying to raise money to build a baseball facility.”

Using “queer” when discussing softball is an odd choice of words, and I will give Brennaman the benefit of the doubt that he did not mean it in a homophobic sense. But the traditional definition of queer means worthless, questionable or weird, so the announcer was still taking a shot at Marshall’s president.

I don’t know the goings-on at Marshall, so I don’t know why softball has a facility and the baseball team has to travel 45 minutes to home games. Neither team had a winning record a year ago. The Brennaman quote has a no-big-deal quality about it, and I wonder what you think.

Hat tip to Sports Fat for alerting me to the item.

Share on Facebook

In his dissection of a clip of Terrell Owens (in which the receiver scored very low), Luntz told T.O. to ditch the sunglasses and hat because millions of young people look to him as a role model and would start dressing how he did. He was then asked about T.O.’s earrings:

“That may work in San Francisco.”

GLAAD is asking CBS for an apology:

In one breath, Luntz speaks of being a good communicator and role model, and in the next, utters a slightly-veiled gay joke. It’s time that Luntz and CBS realize that men of all orientations wear earrings, that the LGBT community does not exist solely in San Francisco, and that the LGBT community can no longer be used as a punchline for tired old jokes.

I am less eager for an apology than for telling Luntz it’s 2009, not 1979. Men have been wearing earrings for years and no one thinks it’s gay. And the San Francisco line lost any snap years ago. As for T.O.’s wardrobe, if he thinks wearing sunglasses and a hat in public is the sign of a bad role model, he’s more clueless than I thought. My guess is that T.O. scored low in the clip not because of how he was dressed but because he is seen as a me-first diva who has been a lousy teammate.

I have always thought of Luntz as a hack who is out of touch with how the country is changing and his lame attempt at humor demonstrates that.

The Frank Luntz clip:

Share on Facebook

Bob Griese

ESPN college football analyst and NFL Hall of Famer Bob Griese has been suspended one week by the network after a remark he made about NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya.

During Saturday’s Ohio State-Minnesota game, ESPN ran a NASCAR graphic and co-analyst Chris Spielman wondered where Montoya was, since his name was not in the Top 5 in points standings, causing Griese to say:

He’s was “out having a taco.”

I had the game on, heard the comment and immediately knew that Griese was in trouble. He apologized twice during the broadcast and ESPN issued a release disapproving of his comment. Montoya is from Colombia, while tacos are Mexican, but to Griese they all must look and eat alike.

It was a dumb and stereotypical thing for him to utter and a week off sounds right. Broadcasters need to learn that ANY attempted joke with an ethnic bent is just asking for trouble and should resist the urge.

Video of Griese comment and apology:

Share on Facebook

Situation: Packers need the first of two touchdowns plus 2-point conversions. They score the touchdown and then line up for the conversion.

Mike Tirico: “You go for two point plays, going in from the one. Does that change where you go on your playsheet?”

Gruden: “Yeah you go to your goal line offense. But it all depends on what you feel about the Viking defense. I’d stay out of the goal line offense, we saw what [the Viking's defense] did to that earlier. They’re gonna spread ‘em and take their chances.”

Hmmm, you can hear that every night at the Faultline or Rawhide.

This kind of stuff is old hat for Gruden. There was this gem from 2002 when he was coaching Tampa Bay:

The meeting was brief, the request bizarre. Tampa Bay Coach Jon Gruden didn’t ask [quarterback] Rob Johnson to throw a pass or even set foot on the football field. A stack of videotapes told Gruden everything he needed to know. Well, almost everything.

“He asked me to lift my shirt to see my abs,” said Johnson, 29. “He’s just crazy like that. He wanted to see how hard I’ve worked.”

“I’ll be the first to say I like this guy,” said Gruden. “I see something in this guy.”

Plus, Gruden did coach Jeff Garcia.

Share on Facebook

Tuiasosopo then stepped up for his second at-bat in the fifth inning …

Share on Facebook

Give up? Keep reading.

Andrews is an ESPN sideline reporter not known for anything besides the fact that straight men think she’s uber-hot. Blogs that cater to straight sports fans know she’s a traffic generator, and on any blog, page views are king. Deadspin, a site I enjoy and visit almost daily, has run 102 posts on her in three years and by my rough count has easily amassed more than 2 million total page views. A gratuitous screen capture of her in 2007 eating a foot-long sandwich (titled “Assorted Cold Cut Poon.” How classy!) got 158,000; one post with a photo of her in a tight sweater got 171,000.

Deadspin is far from the only blog to drool over her, with often nothing more than a shot of her ass or tits and a sentence or two. Even corporate-owned sites have gotten in on the act; Sports Illustrated devoted an entire photo gallery to Andrews at the ESPYs. A Google blog search of “Erin Andrews” yields 2.1 million results, most of the posts with the sophistication level of jokes in a junior high cafeteria. She’s famous because she’s hot and guys want to screw her.

Now these same blogs are doing a little soul searching after video appeared that showed Andrews naked in her hotel room. The video was shot by some creep through a peephole. TMZ (who else?) has six videos and they “raise the suspicion that the person who shot them may have been familiar with her work schedule and may have been traveling with her.” ESPN is investigating.

The same blogs that promoted all Andrews all the time have suddenly sobered up and realized some things cross the line. I could find none that were linking to the video, most claiming they didn’t want to invade their privacy or avoid legal action (Deadspin threatened to ban any commenter who posted links). The hypocrisy is pretty rich — “Cold Cut Poon” is acceptable, posting a link to a video all of a sudden is an invasion of privacy.  (As a side note, I would advise not searching for these naked videos since spammers and hackers have figured out a way to attached malware and viruses to copies).

I know the vast majority of Outsports readers would yawn if Andrews came into their room naked, then would tell her to put a robe on. But I have to admit this incident (and reading how much Andrews has been mentioned on websites the past few years) crystallized something for me the more I thought about it — I am sick of the straight people (and some gays) who harp that it’s just gay men who are sex-obsessed.

This charge has been leveled at Outsports by those who object to us running photo galleries that often feature shirtless jocks. These same people seem to think straight guys prefer women in petticoats or burkas (ever hear of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue?). We make no apologies for our galleries, which are of athletes at their competitions, not beautiful sideline reporters who should be a sideshow but are instead the main attraction on some sites.

The obsession with Andrews has been about nothing other than sex. Sports Media Watch did a terrific analysis of the Andrews affair, reaching this conclusion:

Certainly, there are very few — one would hope none — in the sports media who support the blatant infringement of Andrews’ right to privacy. But when someone is valued solely for their looks — and becomes a prominent figure solely for their looks — is it really surprising when members of the fringe of society go over the line?

I hope this incident at least gets everyone to admit that it’s men — gay, straight or bi — who are focused on sex, and that no one has the high moral ground. As I’ve often said, it’s a guy thing, not a gay thing. In the case of at least one Erin Andrews fan, unfortunately, it’s a sick and twisted obsession.

Share on Facebook

Except, we never saw the whole pitch, just Obama’s windup and delivery. We never saw who caught it (Albert Pujols was IDed about two minutes later) and we never saw it actually go over the plate. A graduate student director could have gotten that shot (hint: use the camera behind home plate, or a camera behind Obama). And there was no replay as they went into commercial. So we have no idea whether Obama did a good job or would make the blooper reel.

Just checked Deadspin’s live blog and loved this: “WHAT KIND OF CAMERA ANGLE WAS THAT ON THE FIRST PITCH, YOU DUMB [F***S]?!” And I had to read a blog on the New York Post to find out what happened:

He threw lefty and didn’t have much heat on the looping toss, but Albert Pujols stepped up and made the catch before the ball hit the dirt and President Obama gave a fist pump. He gave it his best shot.

This is not some evidence of a vast Fox right wing conspiracy, just the network’s usual incompetence when it comes to televising sports.

I do not have a HD set. Did those of you with HD see the whole pitch? If so, it still shows incompetence since most people still don’t have HD.

Update: Found this on YouTube (not sure how long it will stay up) and you see a bit more on a wide screen, but still a lame effort by Fox:

Share on Facebook

Kornheiser said he was leaving because he’s afraid of planes and he would have had to fly this season because of the schedule. Right. While there are a couple coast-to-coast trips for MNF this year, last year featured a Washington-Arizona-Buffalo three-week stretch, which was after a San Diego-Pittsburgh trip. The year before that, he went from Pittsburgh to Seattle. Sounds like a good excuse to get out (if he wasn’t actually ‘let go’). Now if only Ron Jaworski could develop a fear of planes too, we’d be all set.

Share on Facebook