If You Don't Know Sports...

Before I started this blog, I used to write a lot of blog posts for the gay sports website Outsports.com's Jock Talk Blog. I'm not sure my posts were all that popular with the site's readers because they more often focused on actual sports (with a particular slant towards Philly teams) rather than any gay angle. (To a great extent that's because Outsports co-founders Jim Buzinski and Cyd Zeigler Jr. are on top of any such stories very quickly and a post from me would be redundant.) But now and then I found something more Outsports-centric to write about.

Not long after I first began to blog for Outsports, I wrote a post titled "Should some gays not talk sports?" To summarize: as part of a special NFL section in the Philadelphia Daily News, locally and/or nationally famous people with Philly ties were asked whom they thought was the best Eagles quarterback ever. While many named names -- Donovan McNabb, Ron Jaworski -- Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, replied that "My favorite QB will be the first QB to publicly come out…that person will become a hero/role model to many when it happens. Till then any QB that gets the Eagles to the Super Bowl is my favorite." I was mildly critical because I felt that not every question or topic needs a "gay" reply, and besides, there's a big difference between one's favorite quarterback and the best quarterback.

Now I have to be critical again (but this time it's not about Mark Segal).
A post at NightlifeGay.com takes the Eagles and the NFL to task for not taking any action against DeSean Jackson for his "gay-ass faggot" remarks on Sirius/XM radio, nearly three weeks after he was on the air. "Without any type of penalty from the NFL or Eagles, they have endorsed this type of behavior when it comes to the gay community and that is not acceptable!" the post reads in part.

Again, as with the Mark Segal reply to the Daily News question, it's a wonderful sentiment and completely true. However -- and I'd reply on the site, but there seems to be no way to leave a comment on the blog -- because of the NFL lockout (which seems to be just about over, barring some shocking complications) neither the Eagles nor the league can even make contact with DeSean Jackson, let alone suspend or fine him. They can't even call him just to say "hello."

If the writer was familiar with the NFL he would have known this and not made such a completely unnecessary (at this point) post. This is why I tend to think that if you don't know sports all that well, you should either not talk about them or find someone who does know sports to educate you on what you need to know. Hmmm...maybe I should hire myself out as a sports consultant to non-sports fans...