Former college football captain Brian Sims took a huge step towards becoming the first openly gay member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives by apparently unseating longtime Rep. Babette Josephs in the Democratic primary for the Center City and South Philadelphia 182d district. With 87% of the vote counted, Sims had 51.6% (3,661 votes) to [...]
Posts under ‘Football’
Football players at Johnson High School in San Antonio stand up for bullied teens
For all those people who still think every football player is a bullying thug, check out this fantastic story from Claudia Taylor Johnson High School in San Antonio, Texas. A student there was being bullied last autumn, and the bullies wouldn’t stop. Counselor Carri Elliott asked the football coach to find some footballers to help [...]
‘Glee’ creator Ryan Murphy claims he dated ‘a lot of football players’ in high school
Some of the cast of ‘Glee’ went “Inside the Actors Studio” last night. Show creator Ryan Murphy went along with them and dropped an interesting lines about how popular he was in high school, and his inspiration for the football pieces of the show: I was an odd creature in high school because I was [...]
New Zealand gay referee discusses his love of American football
American football is far from a popular sport in New Zealand, where rugby is king. But that hasn’t stopped Stephen Bowness, 46, from his love of the game as a referee there for 17 years. He is also openly gay and recently made history by being the first Kiwi to be head referee at an [...]
Football as a homoerotic ritual — are players really gay?
With the Super Bowl only days away, it’s time to revive a classic that has long been forgotten: An academic paper from 1978 by Cal-Berkeley anthropologist Alan Dundes called “Into the End Zone for a Touchdown: A Psychoanalytic Consideration of American Football.” I can sum it up with this opening line from a 1978 Time [...]
Former high school footballer Adam Goddard’s amazing poetry slam for gay marriage
When we first met Adam Goddard about a year ago, he was overjoyed to have found the Los Angeles Gay Football League. A student at Long Beach State and attracted to both men and women, he was struggling to find his corner of the LGBT community; As a former high school fullback (“the meanest 130 [...]
Paris Jackson as good at flag football as Michael Jackson was at the moonwalk
As a big Michael Jackson fan, I found this kinda cool. The king of pop’s daughter, Paris, apparently got her father’s dance moves and is taking them to the football field. The 13-year-old became the first girl to join her private school’s flag football team as a linebacker this autumn. You can follow the actress-athlete [...]
‘Power gobbling’: Hazing leads to sex assault charges for Montana high school football player
A Great Falls, Mont., high school football player is facing rape and sexual assault charges after a hazing incident this fall in the locker room. Alex Botina-Roehm, 18, was arrested Monday and is charged with hazing two students. His bail was set at just more than $100,000. Court records say the hazing involved coming up [...]
Wyoming high school football coach resigns after mock survey has question “I am a queer”
A head high school football coach in Wyoming has resigned after he gave his team a mock survey that used homophobic and sexist language. The coach, Pat Lynch, of Buffalo High School handed out the survey called “Hurt Feelings Report” to his players prior to a playoff game. (Update: See survey below). It provided boxes [...]
My Life, Part 1: Greg Congdon shares his story of being closeted…and being outed
Editor’s Note: Greg Congdon was a high school football player and wrestler in rural Pennsylvania. He struggled with his sexual orientation for years until he was outed. It was such a touchstone in 1998 that it is our #83 most important moment in gay sports history. For the first time ever, Greg tells his story [...]
Alleged closeted gay Div.1 football player taking your questions
We have no idea if this person is legit (and frankly, after the Mikey hoax, we wouldn’t trust any anonymous person on the Internet). But someone on Reddit claims to be a starting offensive lineman in Div. 1 football. Jim and I have met a gay offensive lineman at a top program, so they’re out [...]
Moment #6: Corey Johnson’s story is told by Bay Windows and the New York Times
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Football, 2000. OK, it’s is a bit of a cheat: This moment is really two moments that each elevated an important story in our history. In April 2000, New England-based Bay Windows printed the story of Masconomet (Mass.) High School football player [...]
‘Blue Mountain State’ returns as homoerotic and gay-friendly as ever
There’s a great review of Spike TV’s ‘Blue Mountain State’ over at AfterElton, highlighting some of the nudity and some of the good-natured fun of the show. From Michael Jensen: While it would certainly be a stretch to say that Spike TV’s Blue Mountain State is free from stereotypical gay jokes and gay panic humor, [...]
Phillies to say “It Gets Better” (finally)
In the end, it seems DeSean Jackson’s stupidity helped do some good after all. I was pleased to see that MLB teams began to create their own “It Gets Better” videos to help combat bullying. The San Francisco Giants were the first to complete theirs, followed by the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox. In [...]
Out athlete Greg Congdon breaks silence and tells how he has turned his life around
For a while in the early 2000s, Greg Congdon was a regular fixture in the media for his coming out story. Or rather, his story of how being outed as a high school football player ruined his life. He disappeared from public life in 2004 and took heavily to drinking, but teens still sought him [...]
Video: Macho football players flee when ‘escaped gorilla’ interrupts their workout
This video is making the rounds and is pretty funny. Tom Shaw runs a camp in Florida that helps prospective NFL draftees work on their skills. The camp is next to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Shaw told the players that a gorilla had escaped. The players get very macho with a sort of “bring it on” [...]
Reggie Bush: No to “no homo”
I was checking Twitter just now and found something re-tweeted into my timeline. It was a reply to a query from New Orleans Saints star Reggie Bush that he posted sometime yesterday: If someone says “no homo,” is that offensive towards gay people? Shortly afterwards, after getting feedback, I suppose, Bush tweeted the following: Share [...]
Outsports at 10: Corey Johnson
The story of Massachusetts high school football captain Corey Johnson captured the imagination of many in 2000. His was one of the first big stories Outsports covered in our infancy, and it was a story that showed us the potential for what we were doing. Johnson has since moved to New York City. He’s a [...]
Kicker with pink cleats returns to team
High school football player Coy Sheppard is back on his team after his coach kicked him off the team for wearing pink cleats. He wore the cleats to bring awareness to the fight against breast cancer; The cleats were the gift of his 82-year-old great grandmother, and he wore them in honor of his grandmother, [...]
High school football ‘faggot’ chant
Students at North High School in East Lake, Ohio, face suspension after their anti-gay chant at a football game was caught on tape. The fans chanted “Powder blue faggots” at Willoughby South, whose uniform is light blue. “It is completely unacceptable and we will look at the video and see if we can identify students [...]