OUTSPORTS.COM
WEEK IN REVIEW

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GAYS IN SPORTS
 Outsports was at a panel discussion in San Francisco last week "Gays and Lesbians in Professional Sports." Sponsored by the New York Times, the panel consisted of retired and out NFL player David Kopay; retired and out pro baseball player Billy Bean; out Mills College (Oakland, Calif.) Athletic Director Helen Carroll and commentator and ex-champion swimmer Diana Nyad.

Moderated by the excellent Times sports columnist Robert Lipsyte, the panel was generally worthwhile. But the topic of gays in pro sports actually got short shrift, as much time was taken up with the bios of the participants, leaving little time for give and take and even less time for questions. But there were some quality insights and here are some highlights:

Kopay came out in his seminal 1970s book "The David Kopay Story." Before his revelation Kopay would join teammates in verbal gay-baiting.

"The biggest fag haters I know are the ones most confused about their sexuality and I was one," said Kopay, echoing something all gay men know in their bones.

Kopay and Bean painted a bleak picture of the odds of anyone coming out in a major professional team sport. Both agreed that it would take a superstar, one totally secure in his place with the team. 

Team sports are a "totally clandestine society," said Nyad, a commentator with NPR and Fox. Bean, who came out last year in the Miami Herald and to a larger audience on Page 1 of the New York Times and on "20/20," said the competitive pressures of making a team and fitting in would make it that much harder for a player to come out due to "the whole fiber of masculinity and being tough." When he played, Bean said he never knew any other players who were gay and did his best to hide. He was married and "nobody was more homophobic than me and I was gay."

Bean, who came across as totally gracious and down to earth, seems to have taken to his role as a spokesman and model. 

"I feel I can make a difference," said Bean, who lives with his partner in Miami. He recounted a desperate letter from a gay 16-year-old in North Carolina confined to a wheelchair, who told Bean his main goal was to commit suicide. But when the teen saw Bean on TV he decided he wanted to live. "I'd like to fulfill the opportunity to do something good," Bean said.

Carroll sees the issue from the standpoint of an openly gay AD, and urged coaches to address the topic of homosexuality head on. This is primarily true in women's sports, where it is often assumed a woman is a lesbian until proven otherwise.

"If we didn't have lesbians in sports, we wouldn't have women sports," she said, adding that straight and gay women need to team up to fight a bigger battle, sexism in sports. 

Nyad, a terrific-looking 50, talked about the positive aspects of sports for gay people. She recounted a horrifying tale of being raped as a young teenager by a coach she regarded as a surrogate father, a story that had many in the audience in tears. Her swimming helped her through many a dark times, she said.

"Sport made me feel strong and independent and gave me unshakable self-esteem."

MEN'S BASKETBALL
March Madness, indeed. With an emphasis on "Mad." Only one top seed (Michigan State) in the Final Four. Two No. 8s (North Carolina and Wisconsin), considered lucky to have been invited, stormed to Indy. They join No. 5 Florida, which needed a last-second miracle to win its first-round game. Bet the folks at CBS are having nightmares over a Florida-Wisconsin final.

As usual, though, the tournament has provided an amazing amount of shots of hot athletes hugging, high-fiving and crying (both winners and losers). You want to reach into your set and give some of these guys a hug.

BATTLE OF THE MASCOTS
ESPN's annual battle of the mascots will be decided this weekend, with Wisconsin's Bucky the Badger taking on the winner of this week's matchup between Penn State's Nittany Lion and Arizona State's Sparky.  2000 also marks the first year since 1996 that Stanford's Tree was allowed to participate, after the famous Tree Tampering Incident that year.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Form held as the Final Four features two top seeds (Tennessee and Connecticut) and two No. 2s (Penn State and Rutgers).

Rutgers was upset because it was forced to fly commercial from Oregon back to New Jersey after winning the West Regional. Plans for a charter flight fell through. The school was so pissed, that Sen. Robert Torricelli wrote a letter bitching to the NCAA. Let's see: Gas prices are up, guns are everywhere, the world has a crisis on every block, and Torricelli's cause of the week is a screwed-up flight.

TENNIS
Retirement at 19 - must be nice.

That's what reigning WTA Tour Diva Venus Williams is considering after being sidelined for the last four months with tendonitis.  Of course, this is according to her father, who openly addressed the perception of him in most media:  "Maybe I'm crazy," he said. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

With two daughters in the Tour, one of whom has amassed $4.6 million in tournament winnings plus lucrative endorsement deals, we'll take crazy over retirement at 55 any day. 

NFL
Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson had one of the great Super Bowl lines, when he was asked in 1978 if Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw was dumb.

"He couldn't spell `cat' if you spotted him the `c' and the `a,' " said Henderson, a Dallas linebacker at the time.

Forget spelling. Henderson only needs to learn to count to 28 million. As in dollars. As in how much he won in the Texas Lottery last week.

Fortunes have certainly changed for Henderson, who was convicted of a sexual assault in the 1980s.

``I am just going to continue to do the charities that I do, take care of my children and buy my momma a Town Car,'' he told the Associated Press.

BASEBALL
No one could accuse the Atlanta Braves for not having a sense of irony.

Reports this week said the Braves were trying to trade xenophobic-racist-homophobic idiot John Rocker to, of all teams, Montreal. You know, that cold, foreign place north of here where they speak a funny language called French.