Jeff: What's the story?

Two sports stories today caught my attention, both because I can't believe they're getting any attention at all.

The first is Sheryl Swoopes has admitted to being gay. 99.999999% of people have two responses to that sentence: the first is "Who?" The second is "Who cares?"

The article contends that "Swoopes, 34, is the most recognizable athlete, male or female, to come out in a team sport." Um, WHAT?

First of all, the comment that Swoopes is the most "recognizable athlete to come out in a team sport" is ridiculous. Only the most die-hard of hoops fans, and women's hoops fans at that, know who Swoopes is. No matter how much ESPN and David Stern try to shove it down our throats THE WNBA IS NOT A MAJOR SPORT. NOBODY CARES. This is a good player from an obscure league. If this were Mia Hamm, Anna Kournikova, Michelle Wie, or one of the Williams sisters, THAT would be a recognizeable athlete. You ask 100 people who Sheryl Swoopes is, you'd be lucky to get 2 or 3 people that would know. You ask 100 people who Hamm, Wie, Venus, Serena, or Kournakova is, I would guess at least half the people, and possibly more, could tell you. Those are recognizeable athletes. Swoopes is not.

Second, I don't believe this opens the door of acceptance for both gay female AND male athletes. I really don't think there's much of a problem with the acceptance of lesbian athletes today. Much of the WNBA's fanbase comes from the gay and lesbian community already, so I think this helps a lesbian, not hurt them. And please don't make the argument that "well it hurts her endorsement opportunities with mainstream America." PLEASE. Gay or straight, she didn't have any to begin with. Furthermore, we've already had prominent female athletes in tennis, the most popular women's sport, come out. Billy Jean King and Maria Navratalova were two of the greatest in the history of the sport. I don't remember there being a real big deal made about this.

It certainly hasn't made mainstream America more comfortable with the idea of a gay man in a team sport. To think Swoopes coming out will change people's minds on that is naive at best. I'm not saying that attitude is right, but comparing Swoopes in the WNBA to a guy in one of the four major pro sports is like...well you know what there IS no comparison to that. Bottom line: GOod for Sheryl Swoopes, and I'm glad she feels better about things. I just don't care.

The second article is about long-time Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry making the comment that black players "can run very, very well." Here's the two comments he made:

'He said Air Force needed to recruit faster players. "We were looking at things, like you don't see many minority athletes in our program,"'

"It just seems to be that way, that Afro-American kids can run very, very well. That doesn't mean that Caucasian kids and other descents can't run, but it's very obvious to me they run extremely well,"

I'm sorry, but why is this an issue? Race relations are far from perfect in this country, but what's the problem here? The man isn't saying that all African-Americans do is run well, or run fast and that all they are or can be as a race is good athletes. Not at all. The man is simply stating a fact. The two positions in football that speed, quickness, and agility are most vital to are running back and corner back. Look at the NFL: you don't even need one hand to count the number of white running backs AND defensive backs. You simply need one finger. BRad Hoover, who started last year as Carolina's fullback, was moved to tail back after four, count them, FOUR running backs on the team got hurt. He was the only white RB in the league I can even think of. And corners? Now that the vastly overrated Jason Sehorn is no longer prancing around the league, there are zero white corners. None. And if you watch D-1 football on Saturdays, the number of quality white starters at those positions is pretty similar.

IS this racist? Of course not. Do all african-americans run faster? Of course not. But the best players should play, regardless of race, and the sheer number of african-americans playing those positions (as well as wide receiver) show that. Please leave DeBerry alone. He's got enough to worry about with that program as it is.