Are Professional Team Sports Too Intolerant To Accept Openly Gay Players In 2013, will professional team sports see the very first openly gay athlete? We have to ask, especially after reading an insightful piece in the Los Angeles Times about homophobia in professional sports. Here’s an excerpt: About 4,000 players spent time on active rosters in the NBA, NHL, NFL and Major League Baseball in 2012. With the best estimates of the gay population in U.S. ranging from 2% to 10%, it’s likely many of those 4,000 athletes are gay. Yet not one has come out of the closet. Not this year, not last year, not ever. There are openly gay congressmen and two senators-elect. There has been a gay governor and a cable TV network anchor. Just never an openly gay shortstop, quarterback or power forward. And changing that would require more than simply challenging convention. It could require a player to challenge his teammates as well. “It’s still taboo in the locker room,” explains the Clippers’ Grant Hill. Like in the New England Patriots’ locker room. Earlier this season linebacker Brandon Spikes sent out a tweet claiming to be homophobic “just like I’m arachnophobic. I have nothing against ho*****uals or spiders but I’d still scream if I found one in my bathtub.” Spikes later said he was joking. But former Angels outfielder Torii Hunter, among baseball’s most thoughtful and intelligent players, isn’t kidding when he says an “out” teammate could divide a team. “For me, as a Christian … I will be uncomfortable because in all my teachings and all my learning, biblically, it’s not right,” he says. “It will be difficult and uncomfortable.” David Kopay (Redskins running back), Billy Bean (Dodgers and Padres outfielder) and John Amaechi (NBA center-forward) are gay athletes who waited, like former NFL’er Wade Davis, to come out after their playing careers ended. Yet an active player coming out may be inevitable. In the last six months Puerto Rican boxer Orlando Cruz, a featherweight contender, and Kevin McClatchy, former owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, revealed they were homosexual. And hyper-masculine males such as Brendon Ayanbadejo of the Baltimore Ravens, Scott Fujita of the Cleveland Browns and Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings — all of whom are straight — have become impassioned spokesmen for same-sex marriage. Then there’s NBA Commissioner David Stern, who last year said it’s no longer a matter of “if” but “when” basketball welcomes its first openly gay player. “It will happen,” he said. “I have no doubt about it.” And talk like that, insists a cross section of professional athletes, former athletes, scouts and team executives, is laying the groundwork for a new locker room culture that will be more welcoming for gays. The views of older players, they say, are at odds with younger players, such as 26-year running back Arian Foster of the Houston Texans who, when asked this month about a gay player being in the NFL, told TV’s Jim Rome “People are more accepting of it…. I don’t think it will be long.” As older players retire and younger ones take their place, attitudes in professional sports are bound to change. That generation gap in social thinking mirrors public opinion polls on gay marriage, with a CBS News poll released last month showing the greatest support — 72% — among Americans ages 18 to 29. But journalist Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of the gay sports website Outsports.com, says something else may be at work. Zeigler interviewed more than two dozen current and former NFL players — including Redskins rookie Robert Griffin III, New England tight end Rob Gronkowski and Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, plus retired Pro Bowlers Jevon Kearse, Ahman Green and Eddie George — over the last seven months and found just one who said he would be uncomfortable with a gay teammate. “When I talk to these guys, the majority of them have a gay family member. And all of them know at least one gay person,” Zeigler says. Griffin had a gay teammate in high school, for example, Green has a gay brother and lesbian sister and Hasselbeck insists he must have played with at least one closeted teammate during his NFL career. Do you think that knowing someone gay makes people more tolerant of homosexuality or has it just become more acceptable thanks to public awareness about marriage equality and other issues? Which pro team sport do you think will have the first openly gay player? Any ideas about who the player may be? Photo Credit: John Loomis/WENN
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West may be growing closer by the day, but it will take a lot more than a few public displays of affection for the rapper to truly be a part of reality TV’s First Family. As long as Kim’s ring finger and womb remain barren, an insider tells In Touch , West will “not [be] on the family Christmas card.” “Kim has never had a boyfriend on the family Christmas card,” the source says. “The only guy she’s ever had on the family card was her first husband. If she marries Kanye, he’ll be on the card. Wait, then how was Scott Disick on the 2011 Kardashian Christmas card ? “If they get pregnant before they get married, it will have to be discussed with the family. That’s how Scott got on the cards,” adds the insider. The tabloid has actually see the holiday tradition and it includes a reference to Kim’s late kitten, Mercy . Reads the opening line: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Kim was waiting for Santa, while her cat Mercy played with a mouse. Kendall and Kylie hung their stockings on the chimney with care, as Rob was wondering why his SOCK designs were not there!” Shoot us now. Please.
Lindsay Lohan has enlisted the help of a spiritual advisor to counsel her and urge a judge to keep her out of jail at her hearing in January … you can’t make this stuff up. Lohan’s spiritual guru (yes, she really has one ) will write a letter on her behalf, with Lindsay believing that the letters will help prove jail is not the best option for her. The hot mess faces up to 245 days in the slammer for her recent probation violation (she’s on probation for necklace thievery), triggered by her recent legal altercations. Lohan was arrested for punching Tiffany Mitchell at a club, and also charged criminally for lying to police in the aftermath of her Pacific Coast Highway car crash. She’s convinced a letter from the spiritual advisor will have a real impact, specifically because he’s been helping her since 2008 … a lot of good that’s done. Lohan’s angle, despite her laundry list of legal woes, is that she’s benefited from counseling in the past, and her advisor can and will vouch for that fact. She allegedly admits she needs professional help – not coincidentally, when it’s the last alternative to eight months in the can – and is praying a judge will agree. The judge has the option to send her to counseling instead, and Commissioner Jane Godfrey, who will arraign LiLo, is seen as one who may actually grant that. Should she? Or should LiLo do TIME? Yes, that train wreck brat will never learn otherwise! No, quit trying to make an example out of her, haters! View Poll »
Stop!!! Put the sushi roll down and read this… there’s a new study out there that’s found extremely high levels of arsenic in rice. Consumer Reports already came out with their Apple Juice study earlier this year and now we’re finding out that rice has high amounts of the chemical too?!?! SMH According to the study, rice with the highest levels of arsenic comes from Texas, Louisiana, and portions of the Gulf Coast that used to grow cotton; since arsenic-filled pesticides were used to kill the boll weevil (a beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers), the chemical is STILL in the soil after more than a century ago! As the rice grows, arsenic enters and concentrates into the plant. Since the shell is still on brown rice, it’s actually more harmful than white as far as the levels are concerned. In case you didn’t know, arsenic causes lung, skin, and bladder cancer. Rice is a main staple in many cultures AND food ingredients, buyer beware! According to CBS News… …arsenic is also very harmful to babies’ brain development. If a baby is exposed to arsenic in the womb because the mother is eating arsenic or if a baby ingests arsenic in the first months of life in cereal, rice milk or other food, the arsenic could interfere with brain development, reduce the child’s intelligence, and cause behavioral problems. Landrigan recommended in the coming months and years that parents avoid rice altogether or just rice that was grown in Texas, Louisiana, and Missouri. “Stay with California rice, stay with Asian rice or when in doubt go with barley, go with oatmeal,” he said. “The smart thing to do is to be concerned and not do it. … Just avoid the rice.” Asked about adults eating rice, Landrigan said it’s smart to limit the amount of rice you eat, but that you don’t have to cut it out entirely. If you’re asking yourself why you’re just hearing about this now…blame the FDA. They don’t warn consumers about this kind of isht because there are NO federal standards for how much arsenic is allowed in food!!! The FDA has released a statement on arsenic, saying, “Based on the currently available data and scientific literature the FDA does not have an adequate scientific basis to recommend changes by consumers regarding their consumption of rice and rice products” That’s right! The Food And Drug Administration has got nada to say about rice and high arsenic levels. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg actually said that consumers shouldn’t stop eating rice, though she does encourage a “diverse diet”, you know, just in case : “Our advice right now is that consumers should continue to eat a balanced diet that includes a wide variety of grains — not only for good nutrition but also to minimize any potential consequences from consuming any one particular food,” she said. We all know the FDA doesn’t have consumers best interests in mind. If you can’t regulate isht because corporations control you then we’ll have to keep spreading the word on crucial news like this on our own! Images via shutterstock
Who’s bright fawkin’ idea was THIS?!?! Atlanta Fulton County Jail Uses Inmates To Test New Locks Jailers in Atlanta have a challenge for inmates: Get past the new locks being tested on cell doors and win free food. Officials have been trying to figure out what to do about hundreds of locks which can be jammed at the Fulton County Jail, allowing inmates to get to each other. Adger says jailers are choosing experienced lock beaters, to try to beat the new locks. County Commissioner Tom Lowe has said the lock issue has been blown out of proportion, but others say it puts inmates at risk of being attacked by other prisoners. Ya THINK?!?! There had to have been a better way to run tests than this. Image via Shutterstock Source
Pregnant Woman Plays Dead After Being Kidnapped And Shot If the world doesn’t end in 2012… we are in for some deep problems. Because, people of the world today are crazy and doing anything to anybody: A 22-year-old pregnant woman and her unborn baby are alive expected to live after being kidnapped, set on fire and shot in Warren, Mich., police said. The woman, who is nine months pregnant, told police she was dropping her ex-boyfriend at his new girlfriend’s home early Saturday morning after seeing a drive-in movie. After they pulled into the garage and got out of the car, the garage door closed unexpectedly, she told police. “The next thing she knew she was grabbed by the throat and a gun was put to her head,” Warren Police Commissioner Jere Green told ABC News affiliate WXYZ-TV in Detroit. “She was ordered to the ground.” Duct tape was placed over her mouth and wrapped around her hands and feet, and she was blindfolded, before being put back into her car and driven to an alley in Detroit, Green said. “She didn’t know where she was at the time,” Warren police Sgt. Dave Geffert told the Detroit Free Press. The man who kidnapped her indicated that it was because of her pregnancy. “[The suspect] said ‘you know why this is happening’ and then he asked her about how far along she was,” Green said. The woman told police she felt liquid being poured on her, heard a match strike and then was set on fire. “She was able to get out of the car and start rolling on the ground, trying to put the fire out,” Green said. “And when that happened, two shots were fired and she was struck once in the back.” The woman played dead, and the man left, police said. “Right after the assailant had shot her, he fled the scene,” Geffert told the Free Press. “I’m saying ‘he’ because she reported a male voice, unknown description.” She freed herself from the duct tape and drove to her mother’s house in Detroit. Her mother took her to the hospital. Police took the woman’s ex-boyfriend into custody on Saturday and named him a person of interest in the case. He had not called 911 when she was kidnapped, police said. A possible motive is the boyfriend not wanting another baby, police said. An ultrasound performed after the attack showed the baby is healthy, police said, and the woman is expected to recover. Turn the page for the full video report.
Pedro Hernandez confessed to murdering Etan Patz yesterday, meaning that after more than three decades, the famous missing persons case may be over. Hernandez, a former corner store worker, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder after he confessed to strangling 6-year-old Patz in 1979. “He was remorseful, and I think the detectives thought it was a feeling of relief on his part,” New York police Commissioner Ray Kelly told the media. Incredibly, today, May 25 marks the 33rd anniversary of the disappearance of Etan Patz, who became the nation’s first “milk carton child.” Etan Patz Case: Pedro Hernandez Arrested The case sparked the movement to raise awareness of missing kids. Etan vanished on his way to a New York bus stop, triggering a massive manhunt, but no sign of the little boy had ever been detected. The Etan Patz case returned to the headlines last month when authorities re-launched the search , tearing up the basement of a nearby building. Kelly said a recent tip led investigators to Hernandez , 51, a Maple Shade, N.J., resident with a teenage daughter. The commissioner said: “In the years following Etan’s disappearance, Hernandez had told his family that he had ‘done a bad thing’ and killed a child in New York.” On Wednesday night, Hernandez was questioned in New Jersey and then voluntarily returned with detectives to New York, says Kelly. “He brought them to the scene of the crime, which is now a store that sells eye glasses,” says the commissioner. “Hernandez described to the detectives how he lured young Etan from the school bus stop at West Broadway and Prince Street with the promise of a soda.” “He then led him into the basement of the (store), choked him there, and disposed of the body by putting it into a plastic bag, and placing it into the trash.” At the time, Hernandez was a 19-year-old stock clerk in the business and lived in an apartment nearby, says Kelly. Kelly said investigators arrested Hernandez based on “the fact that he had told his story in the past, and the specificity of what he said in the confession.” Hopefully, as horrible as this is, the family can finally have closure.
Fired (But Free-Alive) Detective In Sean Bell Shooting “I’m Not Sorry… No Apologies” [Video] This fool is crazy: A detective who fired the first shots in the 2006 shooting of an unarmed man on his wedding day says he believes his life was on the line that night and said he has “no regrets.” “I’m not looking back, no apologies, no regrets. I came to grips with what I did,” Gescard Isnora told News 4 in his first extensive public comments about the shooting of Sean Bell. “I am able to sleep at night. I am here talking to you.” Isnora and two other officers were acquitted of criminal charges in a 2008 non-jury trial. Last fall, he was found guilty of violating NYPD guidelines by using unnecessary force, and was fired two weeks ago by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Isnora was the first of the NYPD officers who opened fire Nov. 25, 2006, firing 11 shots. In the 50-bullet barrage, Bell was killed and two of his friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, were wounded. No weapon was found, sparking accusations and months of protests that the NYPD was too quick to use deadly force. At Isnora’s disciplinary trial in October, attorney Adam Sheldon described Isnora’s actions as “outrageous, unimaginable and unjustified.” But Isnora, speaking to News 4, blamed the actions of the men leaving Bell’s bachelor party at Club Kalua in Queens that night. Isnora, who was at the club on an undercover operation, said he heard threats of gun violence outside the club after the men got into a confrontation with a man named Fabio Coicou. “Joseph Guzman said, ‘Go get my gun,’” said Isnora. “And there was another individual that said ‘Let’s ‘f’ ‘em up.” Isnora said he called for backup and followed the men as they rushed to their car. But the other officers did not arrive in time and Isnora said he felt he had to act. “I have to stop this car. If I don’t stop this car, Fabio Coicou gets shot. I served as Fabio Coicou’s last line of defense,” Isnora said. “They would have gone around the corner and definitely gotten to him.” Isnora said he pulled out his shield and his gun and ordered the car to stop. But Bell drove the car right at him, Isnora said, hitting his leg. Bell then ran the vehicle back and forth several more times, according to Isnora. “What people don’t understand is, a vehicle is a weapon as well. He used that vehicle. He basically wanted to run me over,” he said. Seconds later, fearing Guzman was reaching and raising a weapon, Isnora said, he opened fire. In grand jury testimony, Guzman denied saying anything about a gun outside the club; other witnesses also testified that the dispute with Coicou ended peacefully. Guzman and Benefield testified that they never heard the officers yell warnings before opening fire and tried to drive away because they feared for their lives. Isnora maintains he resorted to deadly force only after Bell bumped him with the car and smashed into an unmarked police van, and after he spotted Guzman make a sudden move as though he were going for a gun. “I’m still looking into the car. I noticed Guzman making an arm movement,” Isnora told News 4. “I yelled ‘gun’ very, very instinctively and fired my weapon.” Isnora fired 11 times into the car at Guzman just as the backup team arrived. Fellow officers would fire 39 times. “What is the right amount? What is not the right amount? In a heated situation, you are not counting bullets,” Isnora said. When asked whether firing a total of 50 shots was excessive, Isnora said: “People making those comments do not know the job that undercovers do. It was just survival at that time and moment, and the decision they took left me with no other choice.” Isnora said he didn’t learn until two days later in the press that the men in the car did not have a gun. “It’s easy in hindsight, it’s easy to say what could have been done, but right then and there, every step I took was correct,” said Isnora. Bell and Guzman “set the events in motion,” he added. Kelly fired Isnora last month, saying he broke NYPD rules by emerging from his undercover role before backup arrived and by firing into a vehicle filled with unarmed men. The city also paid more than $7 million to the Bell family and to Guzman and Benefield. His pension was also revoked. Detectives Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper were forced out but allowed to keep their pensions, a move that did not sit well with members of the Bell family. “It’s a slap on the wrist,” said Bell’s father, William Bell. “They’re going to get another job, their life is going to go on and mine’s just stuck.” Isnora said he is angry and feels betrayed the police commissioner and mayor. “I was fed to the wolves, if you want to use that,” Isnora said. “That’s exactly what the commissioner and the mayor did. I was there doing my job.” Isnora said city leaders, from the beginning, “were basically saving themselves. They couldn’t care about the rank and file members,” Isnora said. “I guess if it doesn’t look right to them, they will head for the hills. And that is what they did. They ran for the hills and they left us behind.” He said the police officers in the Amadou Diallo case and other controversial police shootings did not have their pensions taken away. Isnora grew up in Bushwick, the son of a Haitian immigrant who drove MTA buses for a living. His mother came to the U.S. from Mexico and worked child-care related jobs. Joining the NYPD was a proud day, and Isnora said he just wanted to help make the streets safer for children. Image and Source NBC New York More On Bossip! Making It Rain On Them House-Hoes: The Salaries Of The RHOA Have Been Leaked! International B.I.C.: Mommy Banger BeyBey And Hubby Hov Take Blue Ivy Yachting In St. Barths! Must Be Nice: Evelyn Soon-To-Be-Johnson And Stripper Pal “Tip Drill” Spend A Couple Stacks At G5 Strip Club In Miami Join The Craze: 10 More Celebrities That Need To Join Tumblr Like Beyonce
It’s safe to say Gregg Williams will never coach in the NFL ever again. Already suspended indefinitely by Commissioner Roger Goodell – due to his role in a New Orleans Saints bounty program , in which players under his control pooled money and offered it was a reward for debilitating hits – Williams is in the spotlight again this week because audio of a speech he delivered prior to a 2012 playoff game against the 49ers has been leaked. And it isn’t pretty. Gregg Williams Locker Room Speech: Hit the Head! As you can hear in the video above, Williams encourages his players to “kill the head” and “the body will die.” Referring to San Francisco running back Frank Gore, Williams tells his charges: “We’ve got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore’s head. We want him running sideways. We want his head sideways.” At other points, he screams at the Saints to take out receiver Michael Crabtree’s ACL and to focus on receiver Kyle Williams’ head because he has a history of concussions. The speech was recorded and released by documentary filmmaker Sean Pamphilon, who was filming in the locker room for a special he plans to produce on Saints special-teams player Steve Gleason, who is battling ALS.
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