Keep your eyes on Andrew Luck, for more reasons than one. A couple more photos after the jump.

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Enjoy…

Hat tip to Kelvin.

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But every time I see it I can’t help but get angry. I understand humans think they can trample over any living thing whenever they want, but to kill a harmless animal because it’s bothering your fun little game is disturbing to me. Yes, I know countless animals’ habitats are destroyed when a stadium is built. I know. But I can’t help but agree with PETA on this one:

Here’s our take on it: To bludgeon a 4-ounce animal to death, it takes either a small man or a totally unthinking one-with no respect or consideration for lives humbler than his own. This is a time when athletes in particular need to be on their best behavior around any animal and show that they have brains and a heart, not just reactionary brawn.

The celebration of this on ESPN and in other outlets has been even more disturbing to me. It brings front-and-center the lack of respect we have for other living things. Including each other, I guess. How crappy is it? The Spurs are saying the bat lived and flew away and they can’t find the body! And I have a bridge in New York to sell you….

Now, let the “Cyd is a whiny liberal” attacks start anew.

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One of the brothers, John Mardoyan of Los Angeles, read the Outsports story that detailed the accusation against Gooden from a game on Halloween in which Clippers fan Chris Wylde said Gooden called him and his friend “faggots.” Gooden did not comment on Wylde’s charge, while a team source told local reporters that it was one of Gooden’s friends who used the slur. Mardoyan posted this comment on the article:

When I heard about this story, I just had to comment on it, because I had a very similar incident with Drew Gooden at the Clippers Vs. Bulls game last year. I was sitting at the section where the visiting team enters the locker room, and Gooden was injured so he wasn’t dressed, he was kind of walking back and forth through the hallway, so I just looked down at him and told him, “You Suck Gooden”, just regular heckling you know. Then he turned to me and said, “You suck dick, you fuckin faggot, you suck that guys dick right there”, pointing at my brother. I am not gay, but it was still very offensive. I know the other guy is not lying because this really happened to me. Please expose this story and DREW GOODEN for what he is, a homophobe.

I spoke with John and his brother Michael, who say their interaction with Gooden occurred around halftime of the Jan. 28, 2009, Bulls vs. Clippers game at Staples Center. The brothers say they are not gay.

They said the incident with Gooden, then with the  Bulls, lasted about a minute. While John said he did yell, “Gooden, you suck,” he was angry when the player kept it going.

John says Gooden suggested that John enjoyed male-to-male oral sex and used a closed fist pumping near his mouth to simulate the act.

Michael Mardoyan said he was most bothered by Gooden making it personal. “We were kind of shocked,” Michael said. “Players should be more professional. I guess we really got to this guy.”

The Mardoyan’s story has resonance in light of the denial by an anonymous Dallas Mavericks source that Gooden used the homophobic slur against Wylde and his friend on Halloween. Pinning the blame on an unnamed friend of Gooden could shield the player from an NBA punishment since it comes down to his word vs. Wylde’s. We will be checking next week on the status of the NBA investigation.

What has been most fascinating, in a sad way, are some of the comments on our story where Wylde is the one being blasted by people who themselves have no problem using anti-gay slurs. Two examples:

I can’t believe the USA is becoming full of sissies like this Wylde dude. Really? I’m pretty sure if I called someone a faggot I would admit it, I don’t care. Obviously someone isn’t telling the entire story, (probably the faggot), but it just goes to show that American citizens whine more and more about little shit that does not matter. Faggots!

And…

Do you really think whining like a faggot about a straight man calling another straight man a faggot is going to change *anybody’s* behavior? Hell, it’s encouraging me to call people faggots *more*. You’re telling me gay people don’t ever use derogatory language towards themselves or others?

It’s also interesting that on a gay sports website, about very credible charges of an NBA player calling fans “faggots,” it’s the accuser that’s the one getting attacked in the comments. I expected it on the Dallas Morning News post about the incident, but not here.

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Since winning the 1958 World Series when Republican Dwight Eisenhower was president, all nine of the Yankees’ titles have come under Democratic administrations — 1961, 1962, 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009.  This bodes well for the Yankees for at least the next three seasons. For those who did watch (ratings were way up this year compared to 2008), how would you rank this Series in terms of excitement and quality of play?

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Watchin South Central classic ish… My Yankees went down (pause) but we’ll bounce right back!

Miami weather is ridiculous… Better enjoy this while I can (pause) about to go to my bro’s crib and chill up for a while

Congrads 2 the Yankees! Another win, pulled out at the end (pause)

Thanks 4 the updates! Man I needed the Dodgers 2 lose, well at least the Yankees doing their thing! I might check them boys out tom, pause!

Another is fellow New York Knick Nate Robinson:

At star dinner, get n my 2scramble eggs grits sausage patties pause and grilled cheese sandwich its crazy word aaappp

Man I’m sit n n my jeep listen n too one of the best R&B songs tyrese(give love a try) classic pause ! Word aapp

Now what am I suppose to do when I want n my world but how can I want u 4 myself when I’m allready someone’s girl(pause)

It’s tough for me to get too excited about this term. “No homo” didn’t upset me, and this colloquial term meaning “No homo”…I’m just not offended or upset about it. To me, the term means, “Hey I’m not gay.” It doesn’t mean, “I hate gays.” Does it? Am I missing something here?

BTW, anyone know what aapp and aaappp mean?

Interestingly, Chandler’s Twitter feed has been taken down. I’m not sure why, but it’s an interesting coincidence that it got taken down after all these “pause” posts.

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I was shocked when his name was announced, because it seems pretty impossible that he had the fewest points of the night. So shocked I’m assuming it didn’t actually happen. Michael had 47 points (12.9% of the total) from the judges and Mark Dacascos had 43 (11.8%). For Mark to not be at the bottom, he had to beat Michael’s popular vote by at least 1.1%. DialIdol had Michael beating Mark by a considerable margin. In fact, they said that Michael being the bottom vote-getter wasn’t even possible. Were they that far off? I doubt it.

Even worse was Aaron Carter being in the bottom three. He also had to lose to Mya in the popular vote by at least 1.1% to drop below her; Yet DialIdol had him with a HUGE margin over her. I just don’t buy it.

Still, Michael isn’t upset to be gone. The rigor of the show had been hard on him. He was flying between Dallas and Los Angeles, appearing on NFL Network every Sunday, doing his daily three-hour radio show…and it was tough. He’s sad to be gone but happy to be back with his family and back to his normal. life.

With Michael’s ousting, there are now no pro athletes left on the show.

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Snyder’s heavyhanded attempt at message killing, Douchewellian as it was, worked in the short term: The censorship of fans was treated as a non-story. (Well, OK: Almost a non-story.) And, as we’ve learned over time - Jeff George, Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, etc… - Snyder only cares about the short term.

No doubt feeling empowered after the Post’s appeasement, Snyder’s behavior had grown insane by Monday’s game with the Eagles. And the once-burned Steinberg, who now buys tickets to the Redskins games to avoid the team’s new restrictions on his reporting, became a war reporter. He embedded himself with the insurgents that night, and has continued telling their tales.

I can’t stand the word “douche,” but “Douchewellian” is inspired!

Hat tip to Twin Fifty Eight.

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There hasn’t been progress on this issue for years. When I ran the idea for this column by my uncle, a sportswriter and editor, he mentioned a piece he wrote 20 years ago after the general manager of a major junior hockey team in Canada said something like: “We don’t have any weak-wristed players in this locker room.”

Twenty years later, this attitude has yet to be shucked from hockey. We can’t wait another two decades ignoring the small but consistent strides of progress that the world outside sport is making.

We need to make a change now, because kids who move away from home to play junior hockey at 16 or 17 are still impressionable. If they don’t encounter a good role model, the seeds are sown for a person, who after trying to fit in, thinks it’s OK to drink, treat women a certain way and use homosexuality as a punchline.

Of course, this kind of column drags out the Neanderthals like “Emmitt”:

So they can take a flying, blind-side, cross check in front of millions but don’t dare call them a queer. Come on,,,, toughen up! Anyone and everyone in a locker room has been called some kind of name at some point in their life. Toughen up. It builds character and gets you ready for that big bad world!

And Bonnie…

We’re all becoming a bunch of pansies that can’t take a punch. Our sexual preference is a private thing and has no place being held out there like a flag.

And Astrolite, who totally misses the point…

Locker rooms like confessionals are sacred places where what’s said there should stay there.Why does everyone have to be afraid to have some good old natured fun at someones else’s expense.

No one’s talking about good-natured fun, you fool. They’re talking about hateful words.

And the genius of Rober…

We’re all supposed to tolerant of “gays” but they don’t seem to tolerant of heterosexual people.

And keystonekid…

Oh stop with the offending stuff. That is the problem with this country these days. Ohhhh we don’t want to offend anyone or hurt their feelings….. We need more people standing up and exclaiming what is wrong is wrong and if you don’t like it too d a m n bad! Life is not fair and we should not sugar coat it just to oppease someone or groups of people.

Then there’s neloving, who thinks you spell “word” W-O-R-K…

The work homophobic is the most mis used work in history. A phobia is something feared not something of a disagreement. This work is all too often applied to people who simply disagree with a chosen lifestyle.

And on and on and on…

Here’s hoping Bourne writes about this issue on a monthly basis instead of this just being his one “gay column.”

Hat tip to Ted Rybka at GLAAD.

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