Last week we bemoaned the early retirement of Minnesota Vikings running back Robert Smith, a super-bright and articulate superstar. We're even sadder after we read Dave Kindred's column in the Sporting News on Smith's take on Reggie White's gay-bashing:
``Dan Barreiro of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune once quoted Smith on the religious zealotry in the NFL. First Smith said of the evangelizing Reggie White, `I find many of Reggie's comments incredibly ignorant. His statements on gays are embarrassing and speak to how little he knows.'
``As for Cris Carter and Deion Sanders saying religion saved their lives, fine, `But wearing it on your sleeve to where it dominates the whole part of you, to where some guys seem to say they're better than you because of their religious faith, that bothers me.' "
BOTTOM OF THE WEEK
RAE CARRUTH
"I didn't even know her last name until we went to Lamaze class." Shocker - it's a quote from a former NFL player. At least, that's what former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth is saying after his conviction of the conspiracy to kill the mother of his child. And, what's more, Carruth added, "We were never boyfriend and girlfriend. ... We slept together.
... There was no conversation." And gay guys get a bad rap for their casual sexual encounters?
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
HOW MANY STRAIGHT
PLAYERS ON A GAY SOFTBALL TEAM?
For years most gay softball leagues, and the national organization, have had limits on the number of straight players on a team. The theory being that straight-dominated teams are everywhere (from church groups to businesses) and gay people would feel less inhibited to be on all-gay teams. The ``two non-gays'' rule was also designed to prevent teams from being stacked with ringers.
The rule is threatening to split the gay and lesbian league in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. As reported by Brittany Wallman in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel,
some local gay bars and groups are planning a boycott if the rule isn't lifted. The two-per rule remains for men's teams at the national level but has been abolished for women's teams.
Ft. Lauderdale Gay and Lesbian Community Center Executive Director Tony Beall told the paper that while the club is set up to help gays and lesbians, it is philosophically at odds with the league's policy. The league will no longer be able to use the building for its meetings, nor will the organization sponsor teams any more. A local bar and newspaper have also threatened to withhold support.
"If you create a league for gays and lesbians, the majority that will participate will be gays and lesbians," Beall told the paper. "And if you have heterosexuals that want to participate, that betters the cause and betters the movement, because it continually builds bridges."
One team coach, Chuck Dima of Hallandale, told the paper the rule is essential, and he won't stick around if a lot of straight guys join up.
"If they open it up to straights, a lot of people will quit," Dima told the paper, counting three others on his team. "One (heterosexual player) alone won't say (anything), but you get two together, and they're going to be making fun of the kids, mocking the kids."
It seems to us that this might be a generational issue. The older
softball players and managers remember the days when it was
necessary to form all-gay teams and we respect that.
But younger people, at least in more tolerant urban areas, are
finding more acceptance and an increasing willingness by straight
people to enjoy playing sports with gay people. There's often less
macho posturing in such mixed groups.
In the Los Angeles gay flag football group there are often as many
as 25% straight guys who show up on a given week, simply because
they like the brand of football being played.
PATRICK RAFTER
BECOMES A SKINHEAD Patrick Rafter's hair is the talk of the Australian sporting scene. This from ``The Age'' in Sydney: ``Olympic swimming champion Michael Klim (on Feb. 12) shaved Rafter's beard and head even closer than his own close-cropped dome before a throng of reporters at a Sydney nightclub. The long brown hair that some say contributed to Rafter's profuse sweating on court had almost attained celebrity status in its own right.'' Packets of the hair will be auctioned off for charity. See
the old Patrick
THE ANNA VIRUS Feb. 13 was a great day to be a gay male sports fan. As straight men and lesbians (but overwhelmingly
straight guys) all over the world opened a virus-laden e-mailed jpeg file of Anna Kournikova, infiltrating their computers and networks, gay men quickly deleted the file, saying something like, "Why the hell did Matthew send me a picture of her?" Next year's "Gabe Kapler" virus poses a whole different threat.