Bumping this back up to the top for MDB, the heart and soul of this competition.

Rememeber to vote, each and every one of you!

Hey Hey Hey. I'm back and exhausted from the Vegas extravaganza. And I actually pocketed a couple of hundred bucks too.

Thanks to all for bumping this thread up.

Voting ends tomorrow at 11:59pm....so if you haven't voted yet. You have one more day.

Go Owen! Go Bloom!

Welcome back Duck hope you had a great time

Thanks azaf!

Reminder: Voting ends tonight at 11:59pm.
37 days and it comes down to this.

We have 10 votes logged. And no, I am not able to see the results either so I really don't know who's winning.

Will Jeremy Bloom defend his King of the Hardwood Crown? Or will Cinderella Michael Owen pull of a stunning upset?

The Outsports world awaits the results. Should I send up a puff of white smoke at midnight?

[ April 20, 2005, 11:14 AM: Message edited by: Mariner Duck Boy ]

The poll was set to end at 11:59AM today - so, the voting has ended . . .

You're right! It's over! The final vote was 58-45 in favor of....

Only ten people voted?

Oh, wait, no is apparently the answer ... Joe has posted stats.

[ April 20, 2005, 12:09 PM: Message edited by: Gaga4Gaby ]

Duh! I forgot the end time of my own poll!!!

Congratulations to.....oh, go see for yourself!

[ April 20, 2005, 12:30 PM: Message edited by: Mariner Duck Boy ]

Geee, I thought there would be more fanfare than this. If it was Joey, I could pretty much garantee a ticker-tape parade, strippers, and cowboy monkey's riding sheepdogs.

For Joey we would have this:



For Jeremy, we have this:

I would have been on here earlier congratulating the fine-as-hell Jeremy Bloom on his much closer than expected victory, but I too thought the voting ended at midnight.

YEA!!! Jeremy won!!!

*blowing whistles and noise-makers*

Married Lady cracks me up. Too funny. I have those trick monkeys on a video which I play for my dog sometimes, it's suppose to entertain him.

Bloom is like the New England Patriots. They repeat as Champions, but they do it without much fanfare. Just business as usual.

Until someone snatches that crown off his head, Jeremy Bloom successfully defends his 2003 crown and is officially the 2005 King of the Hardwood Champion. Since we didn't have a 2004 KOTH tournament, Jeremy is now defending champion for 3 years in a row. All Hail Jeremy.

Now, if only a couple of people had switched their votes to Harrington instead of Owen in the semi-finals, I'm sure we would have heard much more trash talk. :mad: Until then, it's "Wait Until next Year" Maybe I should resurrect "He Who Shall Not Be Named" next year just to stir things up in the tournament. eek! eek! eek!

Here is the Final Bracketlogy:

Final Bracketology Chart for the 2005 Outsports King of the Hardwood Tournament.

Thanks to all of you for playing & I hope you had fun! Keep talking about hot jocks because I am watching and keeping a pulse on the board for candidates for the 2006 Outsports King of the Hardwood competition.

No Jeremy next year!! LOL

Maybe you could do the Ken Jennings thing and have the whole tournament, get the final 2 and then add Jeremy into the final 3 for a hot, sexy, 3 way vote!!!

Can we start our list of requests for next year now? wink

THANKS MDB!

Michael Owens was robbed!!!

Jeremy also played football. It seems some people has conventiently forgot this skill of his.
Way to go JB.

I am opposite- I always remember him as a football player and model before I remember that he really initially got his fame from his snow-driven activites.

Go figure.

Cyd thanks for the Cover story! Very cool.

Congratulations again to J-Bloom, but he better watch his back because 2006 will be the year of Joey!

How was the interview with Jeremy arranged? I was quite impressed to see that.

When Cyd wrote for Genre, he met Bloom's publicist, contacted her and she agree to an e-mail exchange. Great job by Cyd and it was cool of Bloom to participate.

I am so happy Jeremy won. I think he is so totally hot and beautiful. I don't care what the nay-sayers may say...he could model for me any day of the week.

"Not honored that much because beauty is a shallow thing." Well--put a finger in my gay eye!

That's like the pope saying he's just a "simple, humble worker." Yeah, right. That's why Jeremy has a whole section in his elaborate website titled "eye candy," while promoting his 2 posters, one of which is provocatively shirtless [having what to do with football or skiing?]

Take a look at the photos he's posed for...and you tell me he wants the message to be all about his "character and determination." Would-to-god we all had such glistening, rippling characters!



No friend has ever come out to Jeremy? And he goes to a big university and travels the world? Hmm....yeah--I guess we see/report what we want to.

So I guess he could get "over it" IF there were a gay teammate who's "preference" were gay. Like there have been no gays on all the teams he's been on so far.

I don't begrudge anyone making a living by promoting themselves--and when it comes to athletes, by means of their bodies. But lets not let someone sell us their hot bod, and then dis those who recognize him for the very thing he set out to do, just because we're not of the Known [acceptable] Preferences.

When he stands up for gay friends, teammates and fans--then I'll know he's a man of real "character and determination."

It's hard to read between the lines when it comes to being a sports hero and being "endorsement" correct. I am not saying that Jeremy wasn't being honest but you never know what motivates anyone to answer a question that could be thought of as controversial. It's sad to me that everyone can't be secure in their belief of choice and just state it without fear of back lash or anything else. I am not referring to Jeremy in particular but we have such a long way to go. It's frustrating for me to see the homophobia in sports , at work or anywhere else. I hope in my lifetime I will see great strides made for all of us.

I thought the young man came off as sincere. Sure he sells posters on his website, but the business end of his life is different from how he engages himself everyday. Or so, that's how I read that. So the young man is still growing, finding out who he is in a very tough, difficult world--I congratulate him for even raising the issue of 'character.'

I think he was being honest. I especially like his answer about a gay teammate in the locker room. He acknowledges that it would be tough, and he'd feel awkward. I don't think he was trying to couch any of his answeres.

Ditto Brent's comments.

Can JB now become "He who shall not be named II?"

Only if he wins next year. wink

Now, can someone please find one of the "Holy Grails" of Hot Jock Pictures please? Namely, "The Shirtless Joey Harrington" for Married Lady, or the "Javy Lopez Shower Spy-Cam" for Gaga4Gaby.

A la Jeremy Bloom, I think we would have to go to Joey's rep for that kinda thing. But, maybe you never see him shirtless because he has some sort of growth on his chest, like Quato from "Total Recall." eek! That is the theory my husband came up with. You never know . . . :confused:

If an Outsporter needs to go undercover to hook up the equipment - ahem - I'm totally there!

We need someone from the media to take a picture of them in Spring Training when it's hot & sweaty. Maybe one of these days Joey will take off his shirt to cool off...

Maybe we need Tonka to find Joey & order him to remove his shirt and then snap a quick photo when he sees him out and about in Portland

[ April 21, 2005, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: Mariner Duck Boy ]

YES!!!! Congrats to Jeremy...now, how do we get the award to him? I'm willing to deliver it in person.

Wait, you have a video of monkey's doing this? Where did you get this video? I want one!

I also ditto Brent's comments. We don't know about JB's character and determination because that's not what he's trying to sell. He's trying to sell his looks; how many other football players pose shirtless doing cartwheels with a football?

The reason he is famous is because of his aggressive marketing of himself as physical jock perfection. There is nothing wrong with that but don't try and sound like the beauty queen who wants people to respect her for her mind.

But the real question: Can he 3-peat? If

Alex Smith doesn't win next year, this thing is rigged!

But if you take JB's comments at face value, then respect has to be given to him for at least addressing the issue of character. It's like he's saying that the looks aren't all there is to him. I know a lot of models, some famous and some just people who work in the business, and truthfully, they do what they do because it's what's pays the bills. And yes, they would like people to know there is more than skin surface. I don't begrudge them at all.

And I like Cyd bringing up the gay issues with JB, even if I don't exactly like his response. The more times he's asked the questions, the more aware and posssibly sensitve he becomes. I think it would be great if more athletes were posed such questions so the stygma would go away. It reminds me of The Rock playing gay in Be Cool and then in interviews saying it was no big deal, as his father's or uncle's best friend was gay.

He CAN'T win next year. Next year is the year of Joey! Of course, we are going to have to see if Joey is still playing professional sports, but there's a chance!

No...Joey had his chance and lost out. Next year is this-year's-much-snubbed Andy Grant's big year.

What is this, the Oscars? Does Joey get a Lifetime Achievement Award?

The pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre-pre beackets have Alex Smith projected as a 4 or 5 seed next year. As for Andy Grant, I don't see the attraction because it looks like he has a bad perm But he'll probably make the field just to shut Bobby up Ha! Actually, there has been a lot of support for Andy so he's on the list for the tourney - unless, of course, he quits swimming.

You give Andy Grant a year- and he's going to be a beaute. Bobby's guy-Andy Grant Bobby and I agree on men. Come Cyd- don't you see upside here? wink

I agree with Brent.

As for his comments, which seem nice, saying things and meaning them are two different things.

I mean, just look at his 'I'm suffering' campaign against the NCAA. The major thing with that case is that even though he's saying he needs this endorsement money to keep skiing, he refused to agree that the money would be used just for skiing. But hey, the NCAA is the devil.

I give Bloom points for being willing to speak with OutSports--I think we all know lots of athletes would turn down such an invitation--I do find it somewhat ingenuous for a person who markets "beefcake" photos of himself to whine about being thought physically hot. Such folk should follow Halle Berry's lead: when she's called beautiful, she merely smiles and says "thank you." She accepts the compliment--one she gets constantly--for what it is: a compliment.

I still think Brad Ausmus should have won--and only because Joe Sakic (swoon) wasn't included in the competition.

~Adam

personally, i don't think we should read too much into this 'interview'. it's hardly an "up close and personal piece". it was conducted, let us not forget via email which means none of the answers were in real time, and perhaps, not even written by jb himself.

if his publicist is worth anything, the answers to cyd's questions were written even before the questions were -- straddle the fence, be pc, don't piss anybody off. it's tough to get a glimpse into the heart or soul of a person under those circumstances. what we got was a press kit very thinly disguised as an interview.

props to cyd, though, for throwing in one question (where would you be drafted?) that, seemingly didn't have a pre-written answer. the answer to that question seems to be in another voice entirely, with words not as carefully chosen -- probably the only question jb actually answered, at least without significant rewrite. if we get a glimpse at the real jb, however slight, it comes in his answer to that one question. and his response was refreshing. he acknowledged he's a good football player, but not in the same league as some of the top kids in the draft. that answer gives me hope that maybe there's a there there.

Agreed, thersis; it sounded awfully canned. And to paraphrase Shakespeare, "First thing we do, let's kill all the publicists."

You know what the most important question is to me?

Will this interview and his answers hurt him next year as he tries to Threepeat as the King of the Hard Wood?