amen brother. AMEN. Just another reason why I love Canada so much. Now lets go get a Molson, eh?!

'View from the blue line' - "Trust me, Life in Fort Wayne is not much in the way of stimulation. Far from it friends."

Dudes, come on...why you gotta bust balls about Fort Wayne? There's some great barbecue to be had there and also the bowling scene is pretty outstanding in my mind. And my aunt and uncle live there and they are really interesting people, not that you'd know them, but if you did, you'd agree. Buy a Wii.

I think it's pretty cool to just have courage and live. And just do you regardless. If someone did use this thread as a witch hunt springboard for the team you mentioned it'd probably cause the team to rally round since it would be an outsider trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, and more than likely, it would be seen as some dude angry about his sexuality looking to stir things up or someone from another team looking to stir things up. No distractions during the season = live and let live in my mind.

And there are a lot of gay people in the Midwest with visibility so I don't think it would necessarily hurt your team at the gate. I could actually see you developing quite the lesbian fan base if this ever became a marketing issue for the Komets. There are folks who walk around ready to preach, but most of them aren't the boycotting type, especially in terms of sports teams. A non-Fort Wayne cousin just dropped a huge college football bomb on me this weekend about a gay player and my cousin actually beat up a dude in a bar once after the guy made a groping pass at him. But this gay player is my cousin's favorite player and remains so. I'd like to think that people in the Midwest can get past things like sexuality, gender, race, and class if you are somehow cool or popular. We're shallowly complicated that way.

Go Komets

Wow! That's more tops than you find in most U.S. cities!!

Sorry, I know this is a serious discussion, I just couldn't resist. Where were we? Oh yeah - don't worry, blue line, most of us believe you. Like Joe said, what on earth would your motivation be to make it all up?

My one piece of advice for you is that if it ever does come to pass that you are inadvertently outed, just don't let shame rule the day. Hold your head high knowing that it is okay to be gay, and anyone who has a problem with it is living in the past.

Oh, and go Komets, of kourse!

Yeah, yeah, tell Mike Modano.

And OK. I'll jump on the Komets' bandwagon!

Sean Avery said this last week about playing in Toronto...

"No, I never enjoy going to Toronto, really. . . . Why? Let's see. . . . Because I don't enjoy hockey-obsessed Canadians. The [U.S. dollar] exchange is not very good right now. And it's going to cost me a lot of money in tickets for people I don't even like. How's that for an answer? Would you like me to go on? Nah, I think that's probably enough."