Updated at 2:43pmPT with comments from Charissa Thompson.

Today’s episode of ESPN’s First Take tackled the issue of the New England Patriots’ post-game party. While Skip Bayless didn’t find much fault with the players dancing (possibly intoxicated) at a previously planed event, Rob Parker was most concerned about the fact that there didn’t seem to be many women at the event. Clearly uncomfortable with so many men, some of them shirtless, dancing together, he begged, “where are the females?” Good heavens, we must have females!!

Host Charissa Thompson soon chimed in that at least one woman was spotted near the dance floor, adding, “so that’s good news.”

Thompson said in an email to me that she didn’t mean anything by it:

I was merely making a casual/innocent reference in the context of a response to something Rob said about the lack of women in the party video.  When the video then showed a woman, I was simply responding to him.  I didn’t mean anything by the comment.  I hope this makes sense to you.

It does make sense. I imagine with all the foolish banter between Parker and Bayless, there’s lots of time to be filled and it’s not easy.

Still, this incident is an example of the underlying root of homophobia in many people. It looks weird to some people to see so many men having fun and dancing together without a woman present. These are bigger-than-life men, heroes of today, and they must have women present, damn it! Otherwise it’s just…well…plain wrong. Weird. Queer, if you will.

Why is Parker so afraid of a room of men dancing together? Why does there have to be a woman to de-homofy the environment? Why can’t a bunch of guys who just went through a grueling 19-game season simply dance around together and have fun with friends? It’s sad to see this paid ESPN employee so desperate to declare the scene “no-homo,” and I must say I was disappointed to hear Thompson chime in upon seeing a women with, “that’s good news.” Though her thoughtful response goes a long way!

For his part, Parker is little more than a Bayless-type attention-seeking clown. He’s gotten into trouble in the past for saying Kevin Love would suck in the NBA because he’s white (Parker is black). He had to leave The Detroit News in shame for his pitiful columns.

This is no slam against ESPN. We have praised ESPN repeatedly for the company’s inclusive policies and actions. It’s just sad to see the locker room uber-macho posturing that’s allowed to get on the air. Unfortunately they haven’t posted the clip online so we can’t share it.

A Tweet to Parker was not returned.

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There’s been a long-standing fear of the bulge in American culture. Why do so many American men feel the need to denegrate Speedos? Because our culture says men should not publicly wear anything in which you can see the size or shape of the package. Beckham’s H&M underwear ad sadly complies with that bullshit.

In this commercial’s case, they’re trying to sell underwear without showing the “money shot.” They show the waistband, they pan across Beckham’s tattoos, there’s a shot of his butt. But when they pan around to his front side there’s a well-placed hand; when the camera scrolls down his body, it fades to white just before showing his bulge. God forbid they acknowledge that Beckham has something on the front of his body between his thighs! It would make the average American male run from his TV screaming!

Instead, H&M will spend millions of dollars to sell their underwear…without showing the most revealing part of their product. Good luck with that.

Hat tip to Towleroad.

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We previously reported on a Volkswagen commercial featuring Star Wars dogs and an underwear commercial featuring the best side of David Beckham. Outdoing them both today is a teaser for a Ferris Bueller commercial that has Ferris Bueller trending on Twitter.

While there’s speculation of a Ferris Bueller sequel film, jalopnik says it’s a Honda ad. While it could be under another name, I couldn’t find any reference to a new film on imdb.

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Not surprisingly, she found the fans pointed fingers at the establishment, the establishment pointed fingers at the players, and the players pointed fingers at everybody else. From the show’s description:

Max Clifford, who reveals he has helped several Premiership stars keep their homosexuality secret in order to preserve their careers, goes further by insisting that the mentality of most people in and around the game remains in the Dark Ages. When Amal finally negotiates some access to straight premiership stars – from the Millwall dressing room – she learns that attitudes amongst many footballers may not be as bad as feared.

“Not as bad as feared.” Where have we heard that before? Hmmmm. Maybe here on Outsports over and over and over again for the last 10 years?

The documentary airs on BBC three Monday, Jan. 30, at 9pm.

Hat tip to Keith B.

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“I want to be on Dancing with the Stars,” he tells PEOPLE. “It would be such a blast.” …

“I don’t know about the outfits, but I’ve worn worse,” laughs Louganis, who as a child wore “sequins, headbands and poofy sleeves” for jazz routines. “I’ve never done ballroom but I want to try … Dance really captures something you just can’t put into words.”

The Facebook campaign currently has over 1,500 likes. It would be great to have such a successful gay athlete on the show, so please do head to their page and “like” it too. Past athletes on the show have included Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Kristi Yamaguchi, Apolo Anton Ohno, Jerry Rice and Kurt Warner.

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As a long-time Star Wars fan, this one certainly has me excited. A dozen dogs of all shapes and sizes bark the Imperial March from Star Wars. What makes it even cooler is that each dog represents a different character from the beloved Star Wars trilogy (not the mostly crappy trilogy). There’s the bulldog representing the Storm troopers, the terrier as Chewbacca, a pug for R2-D2. If I had to cast Luke Skywalker, I’d use a vizsla too. The Ewok actually looks like an Ewok, and the AT-AT whippet is brilliant!

I just can’t figure out who the chihuahua is. A Jawa? Obi-Wan Kenobi? Whomever it is, I can’t wait for this Super Bowl commercial! Teaser video…mission accomplished.

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This year, as far as we can tell only one of the 151 nominees is directly related to sports: ESPN’s segment on Kye Allums. What makes that nomination a little strange is how negative that piece was, with so much focus on made-up negative aspects of Allums transitioning and playing on a women’s basketball team (not to mention Kevin Blackistone constantly referring to Allums as “a woman” and “she”). We’re glad any time sports are highlighted by gay organizations; This one, however, is a bit of a head-scratcher.

Interestingly, Outsports’ groundbreaking piece on Allums, which introduced him to the world, was not nominated last year. This is also the first time in years the work of LZ Granderson at ESPN is not highlighted.

We are however thrilled to see some of our friends receive nominations this year! Our good friend Josh Berman was nominated for Outstanding Individual TV Episode for the “Prom” episode of Drop Dead Diva. Towleroad, which was overlooked last year, was nominated for Best Blog this time around; Rod McCullom at Rod 2.0, who often highlights sports news, is also nominated in the same category. Howard Bragman, associate producer of Becoming Chaz, was nominated for Outstanding Documentary.

Congratulations to all of the nominees!

You can see the full list of nominees here.

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Video after the jump. Allums comes in at minute 36:00. 

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He told Brian that he will “be myself and prove my family proud.” The Welshman said he was “happy to be here” although it sounds like he’s already out to win, telling the host “I am competative at everything I do”.

Gareth added that he has a short fuse and said that “If the housemates deserve my Welsh temper, they’ll get it”.

I didn’t recognize any of the other “celebrities” listed as contestants with Thomas. Though, I think most people struggle to recognize a lot of the “celebrities” in these C-list TV series.

Good luck to Thomas! We’d love to see him win something where he doesn’t have to break his teeth to do it!

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The best part of watching the video (after the jump) is probably the celebration on the Cowboys sideline after they blocked the kick and “won the game.” Jerry Jones has his arms raised in victory…then he sees something in the field…oh wait…what in hell? Troy Aikman is hugging Michael Irvin…then says something to him…then they both turn…what in hell?

Compounding it all is the fact that just months earlier in the Super Bowl, Lett showboated to a touchdown against the Buffalo Bills…except…wait, Don Beebe knocked the ball out of Lett’s hands at the goal line and the Bills got the ball…what in hell? It was that boneheaded play in the Super Bowl that led color man Bob Trumpy to scream into his microphone on the Thanksgiving game, “It’s Leon Lett! NO! Not Leon Lett!” Trumpy called both games on TV.

The game was over. Done. The Cowboys had won…if not for Lett and quite possibly the most boneheaded play in NFL history. Since that game the Dolphins have played the Cowboys on Thanksgiving more than any other team: This will be their third visit in the last 18 Thanksgivings.

The videos below are great. The first one is 10 minutes of the TV broadcast – the mayhem starts at about the 5-minute mark. The second is Jimmy Johnson, Emmitt Smith and some others talking about the play. The third video is Lett’s boneheaded touchback 10 months earlier. Enjoy.

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