Month: September 2011

King of the Hardwood Eric Decker had two more TDs How I saw Week 2 of the NFL. The Bills win a wild one; the Dream Team loses; King of the Hardwood shines, plus hot player of the week and quick hits: It's way too early to make any declarative statements about the league. It's […]

Hats off to a couple guys writing about gays in sports in the last week. Former Deadspin editor and friend of Outsports Will Leitch penned a lengthy piece for New York magazine titled “The Last Closet” and asking the age old question: “When will a gay professional athlete finally come out?” And he heavily quoted […]

Early this week we got wind of a rumor on black gossip sites that rookie Memphis Grizzlies point guard Josh Selby is gay. The Web sites, which don’t deserve to be linked to, had shirtless photos of Selby (like the one on the right) and screen captures of an email telling the alleged male recipient […]

Sam Fuld Just a couple weeks ago, baseball's talking heads were repeating the same line: "What a boring September. All the races are over." I guess the Tampa Bay Rays never got that memo. When they woke up on Sept. 3 they were 9.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox for the AL wild card […]

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Brendan (left) and Patrick Burke Hockey, 2010. When Brendan Burke, student manager of the Miami (Ohio) hockey team, came out of the closet on ESPN.com in late 2009, the story was touching and heartwarming. The support of his father, Toronto Maple […]

Former NFL player Esera Tuaolo coming out was our #16 Outsports moment, as named in 2011.

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Rugby, 2009. Athletes at the high school, college and pro level had come out before, even in rugby. But Gareth Thomas’ coming out spoke to people in a way that many had not before. For one, he was an active pro […]

The latest video in Outsports’ partnership with the It Gets Better Project comes from Mari Burningham, head volleyball coach at the University of Redlands in Southern California. Burningham became known to Outsports readers after she wrote a powerful story about being a Mormon lesbian at BYU. In her video, Burningham details how things have gotten […]

After a wet U.S. Open that left a bad taste in the mouths of some players, it was what came out of the mouth of a runner-up that has left many scratching their heads. As (28) Serena Williams was in the middle of losing the women’s final to (9) Samantha Stosur, 6-2, 6-3, in embarrassing […]

The NCAA has finally adopted an official policy opening the door for transgender athletes to compete during and after transition. The news comes after a groundbreaking transgender-athlete think tank last year headed up by the NCAA, NCLR’s Helen Carroll and Pat Griffin. “I commend the NCAA’s commitment to creating and supporting an inclusive culture that […]

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Sports, 2001. The National Center for Lesbian Rights became the first national gay-rights organization to seriously tackle homophobia in sports with the creation of their sports project in 2001. They quickly tapped Helen Carroll, former NCAA national champion basketball coach and […]

We’ve been big fans of Eric Decker since he played for the University of Minnesota. Now with the Denver Broncos, Decker won the 2011 King of the Hardwood contest, voted on by Outsports readers as the world’s hottest athlete. It was cool that after winning, Decker tweeted a thanks to fans for voting for him. […]

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Media, 1998: ESPN made the issue of gays in sports the centerpiece for coverage on the air and online in late 1998 and into 1999. "The World of the Gay Athlete" was groundbreaking in that a major mainstream media outlet devoted […]

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Olympics, 2004. While the IOC has a long history of insensitive and often unproductive gender tests, they have also been ahead of the curve at times with transgender issues. In October 2003 a committee convened in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss the […]

Jonathan De Falco, 27, had been a professional soccer player for the Belgium team Racing Mechelen. But he left the sport this year after an injury to get into the gay porn business. His porn name is Stany Falcone and he says he is doing well. “For several months I have had a boyfriend,” De […]

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Basketball, 2007. Of all the homophobic actions by sportspeople in recent years, this may have been the stupidest. Just days after former NBA player John Amaechi came out of the closet, former NBA star Tim Hardaway told radio host Dan Le […]

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Soccer, 1998: Fashanu's death 13 years later still reverberates in the soccer world. His name is brought up an Exhibit A of why a soccer player can never come out. In his new book, German captain Philipp Lahm advised gay players […]

You can’t get anything past Outsports reader Texas DayTripper. He was watching the Seattle Seahawks-San Francisco 49ers game today and saw something that made him stand up and take notice. Seattle long snapper Clint Gresham wasn't feeling all that comfortable and just had to do a reach in, grab and adjust. We've all been there, […]

The Bills’ new look is sharp Bills prove that looks win out; Romo gags one up for Cowboys; Colts, Steelers look ugly; Watch Tom Brady's Ugg's commercial, hot player of the week. How I saw Week 1 of the NFL, which we all over-analyze for meaning:Looks matter: Last week, I wrote about a silly but […]

Part of Outsports’ series on our 100 most important moments in gay sports history. Figure skating, 1976: Days before the March world figure skating championships in Sweden, Britain skating star John Curry was outed by a German newspaper. The news caused a brief stir but was generally ignored by the media and public. Just a […]