While this may be the “gayest Super Bowl ever,” especially with Madonna as the halftime entertainment, Deadspin’s Tom Scocca’s reminds us that the big game has had a gay influence for a long time. In fact, a survey of Super Bowl halftime history reveals that, pace Madonna, these splashy, highly choreographed song-and-dance theatrical routines have [...]
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NFL playoffs: Good to the last drops
The Patriots and Giants hold on to reach the Super Bowl as the Ravens and 49ers make crucial game-deciding errors. How I saw the AFC and NFC championships games: Wow. That was the best Sunday ever for conference championship games. The 49ers-Giants game came down to the last play, with the Giants winning 20-17 in [...]
Shaq paying fans to get tattoo of Charles Barkley-Dick Bavetta kiss
Shaquille O’Neal said last last week on TNT’s ‘Inside the NBA’ that he would pay anyone $1,000 who got a tattoo of the famous kiss between Charles Barkley and Dick Bavetta. Shaq wrote: ”I will pay one thousand dollars to anyone who gets a tattoo of that picture. Tweet me the pics.” At least one person, [...]
BCS mess: Oklahoma State loses to Iowa State, so who’s No. 2?
I love it when the bogus BCS is a mess. Major college football stubbornly refuses to have a playoff and the result is a unsatisfying system that got turned upside down Friday night when Iowa State stunned previously unbeaten Oklahoma State, 37-31, in overtime. LSU and Houston are the only major unbeaten teams and Houston [...]
Gus Johnston talks about why he came out when he did, and why he didn’t do it sooner
When Gus Johnston posted a video on YouTube talking about being gay in sports on Sept. 13, he became the highest-level male field hockey player in the world to be publicly out. The video featured Johnston talking for 12 minutes about his feelings on the discrimination that kept him in the closet for so many [...]
Meet decathlete Artem Lukyanenko
Our friend at the awesome sports photography site Trackpic has the privilege of shooting a lot of the top track events in Europe, where the sport is very popular. This summer he was at the U23 European Athletics Championships held in Ostrava, Czech Republic. A complete gallery is here, but he sent Outsports these of [...]
Outsports’ It Gets Better video: Vincent Pryor, former college football player
Our latest video in Outsports’ partnership with the It Gets Better Project comes from Vincent Pryor, who was out to his teammates while playing defensive end for TCU in 1994. We chronicled his amazing story about how he set a school single-game sack record the week after coming out to his team. “When you’re closeted [...]
NBA, players union asked to add sexual orientation clause to contract
The news that the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement adds sexual orientation to its non-discrimination clause has spurred a call for the NBA and its players union to do the same. The Resource Center Dallas, an LGBT advocacy group, sent a letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern and union head Billy Hunter asking that similar [...]
Moment #11: Australian rugby league player Ian Roberts comes out while still active
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Rugby league, 1995: Ian Roberts was a top-level professional player in Australia’s rugby league. And he came out openly as gay to a gay magazine while still playing. He is one of the very few players from a major world team sport [...]
Former Belgian pro soccer player Jonathan De Falco is now gay porn star Stany Falcone
Jonathan De Falco, 27, had been a professional soccer player for the Belgium team Racing Mechelen. But he left the sport this year after an injury to get into the gay porn business. His porn name is Stany Falcone and he says he is doing well. “For several months I have had a boyfriend,” De [...]
Moment #26: Umpire Dave Pallone fired by Major League Baseball for being gay
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Baseball, 1988: Dave Pallone was never one to back down from a confrontation, good traits for an umpire. He was famously known for an April 1988 for an onfield incident where he went chest-to-chest with Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose. But [...]
Moment #59: Diana Nyad swims from Bimini to Florida
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Swimming, 1979. In 1978, Diana Nyad’s attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida was thwarted by bad weather that repeatedly sent her smashing into the side of a shark cage. The disappointment of not completing the record 103-mile swim didn’t deter [...]
Moment #63: NCAA initiates workshop on sexual orientation
Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Various sports, 2003. When the NCAA instituted on-campus diversity education workshops focusing on sexual orientation issues, it made an institutional commitment to ending homophobia in sports. The workshop is free to the school and welcomes athletes, coaches, faculty and others across [...]
The story of the late soldier Andrew Wilfahrt, who happened to be openly gay
The must-read today is a fantastic article at CNN.com about openly gay soldier Andrew Wilfahrt, who was killed in action last February in Afghanistan. According to the article, he was harassed in high school by the football team for being gay…and the hockey team came to his defense. He told his parents everyone around him [...]
Life is good: Baseball is back!
Opening Day 2011 has arrived! In an attempt not to have baseball played in November again, the 2011 season began a few days earlier than in seasons past. So I had no choice but to blow off work, buy some hot dogs & beer, and settle onto my couch and begin the journey of a [...]