Yunel Escobar wrote “you are a faggot” on his eye black and then apologized. His apology, an activist says, illustrates both how far tolerance in sports has come and the lengths it still has to go.

Image by Ray Stubblebine / Reuters

After writing "tu ere maricon," which translates more or less to "you are a faggot," on his eye black, Yunel Escobar was suspended by the Toronto Blue Jays for three games without pay. He apologized, and his apology left a little to be desired.

Via: hardballtalk.nbcsports.com

Asked who his gay friends were, Escobar said, "the person who decorates my house is gay … the person who does my hair is gay.”

The Blue Jays made the decision to split Escobar's forfeited salary between two LGBT-rights organizations: the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and You Can Play. The move was a pleasant surprise for You Can Play founder and Philadelphia Flyers scout Patrick Burke, who told me he had no advance knowledge that YCP would receive funds. Burke also weighed in on the mixed message of Escobar's apology.

"To a lot of athletes and people in society, saying, for example, 'Don't be a fag,' you ask them what they mean by that — do you mean, don't be a homosexual? And they say, 'No, I mean don't be a loser, it's just a word.' People use homophobic slurs and don't intend them to be homophobic," Burke said. "It doesn't excuse their use, it doesn't make it OK, and it doesn't mean they shouldn't be punished for it. It's this massive disconnect in athletes between their language and their beliefs."

Aaron McQuade, the director of news and field media for GLAAD, told me that, despite the awkwardness of Escobar's apology, he does believe the shortstop's contrition was genuine — as partly evidenced by Escobar's stated willingness to work with his organization. GLAAD, You Can Play, and the Blue Jays have begun to discuss the idea of doing a Spanish-language You Can Play spot.

Escobar's apology is redolent of casual homophobia, but the swiftness with which he was brought to task and You Can Play and GLAAD were brought on has to make one optimistic that these kinds of situations will become less and less common. (Perhaps some of the speed and comprehensiveness of the reaction can be attributed to the fact that this happened to a franchise based in Canada, a country that generally considers itself farther along with regard to LGBT issues than the United States.)

On that note, one thing the next athlete who makes a homophobic remark might not want to say by means of apology is "the person who decorates my house is gay... the person who does my hair is gay." Said Burke: "It's tough, because guys in this situation look for some connection to the community, and that's the best they can come up with. He ends up looking foolish. Either that, or he's really close with the guy who decorates his home."

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An amazing Tumblr tribute to the world's most apathetic quarterback.

Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler is known for seeming aloof and apathetic. How did one Bears fan react? By putting a cigarette in Cutler's mouth to properly capture how little he cares.

Source: smokinjaycutler

Source: smokinjaycutler

Source: smokinjaycutler

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The 30-year-old running back went from NFL hero to getting pulled over drunk in four hours.

Approximately 8:45 p.m.: Touchdown

Image by Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images

Turner got on the board early in Monday's game against the Broncos, rushing for a touchdown to put the Falcons up by seven less than two minutes into the game.

Approximately 12:15 a.m.: Game Ends

Turner also had the last relevant carry of the game, a first-down run late in the fourth quarter to seal the Falcons' win

The game went pretty long, ending (not including halftime) in 3 hours and 27 minutes. "I bet here in Atlanta there will be a lot of people not showing up for work tomorrow, " Mike Smith joked, not knowing one of those people would in fact be his running back.

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This guy in Senegal has some pretty impressive bike skills.

Because someone had to.

Joe Flacco - Sam The Eagle

Source: s3-ak.buzzfed.com

RGIII - Rowlf The Dog

Not to mention RGIII is a division rival with Michael Vick

Ben Roethlisberger - The Bread Monster

Sam Bradford - Bull

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That terrifying moment when that little piece of trash you toss off the field turns out to be a grenade.

The details of the story are vague right now, (and take this with a grain of salt, as a YouTube description is the source), but during a club soccer match in Iran, some fans threw an object onto the field. A player found the object, and thinking it was trash, tossed it off the pitch. As soon as it hit the advertising board it exploded. No one was injured, and the match was called off. Authorities are investigating the matter.

And people say the bleachers in Oakland are dangerous.

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Is it too late for him to join the cast for the new season of Arrested Development ?

Source: youtube.com

Romey needs a new writer, and to show that I've got the stuff, here is a hot take perfect for Jim's show.

Dear Mr. Jim Rome,

Here is my cover letter to be a writer for your show, The Jim Rome Show (Jim Rome). I thought the best way to show that I'd be a swell hire was to write a sample script. Feel free to use it on air, or read it into your bathroom mirror while flexing: either of these would be fine.

JIM ROME: SO. Concussions. Concussions have been a big deal in the NFL this year, real big, because apparently, players are ruining their brains, ha, playing football! Football. Playing football. *inhales* Playing football doesn't ruin anyone's brain. Being soft is what ruins brains.

*chugs pure taurine*

Now, we take these guys, these football players, and we coddle them so hard that that's what's giving them concussions. How very SOCCER of us. We're making our football players soft by treating them like little diapered primadonnas, strutting around the field with their pearls hanging out like a bunch of gangly internationals. You know why football is the only major American professional sport without a bunch of European footie-burglars running around throwing no-look passes, showing off like they're walking the catwalk for PRADA! Because football is a man's sport, and everyone knows *deep breath* that the only men worth their weight in fine dirty-burning coal energy are the ones you find in the good ol' U. Essss of freaking Ay-merica, esquire, period.

*forgets own name*

HOW VERY SOCCER OF THEM.

Look at a guy like Darelle Revis. Darelle Revis — even his name is a little suspicious, you know? Let's call him Darelle Re-CHRIS, as in Christina, as in a girl. Darelle Re-Chris sat out last week with a *makes air-quotes with toes* concussion, which he got when his own teammate stepped on his face. I mean, the Jets, right? They're like three squads of cheerleaders trying to build a pyramid. A pyramid! They say Re-Chris is the best cornerback in football, but what does Rome say? Rome says, how can you be the best cornerback in football when you don't even play?

*waves finger at camera*

If Revis is so delicate, I can think of a good spot for him: Barcelona. Soccer Barcelona. In Spain. Ronnie Lott got a concussion every play, and he wore bells inside his helmet, because he liked that ringing noise, it kept him sharp. You know how many concussions I got on the show last week, Re-Chris? Two. And I'm out here right now, chewing my cud, spitting my takes. Eat that with your curds and whey, little Miss Muppet.

Thank you, Jim Rome.

Love,
Kevin

Here is my resume:

(Note: I actually applied for this job.)

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“You can't COVER UP 61 years of success with honor.” Eh?

This billboard was recently erected in State College, Pennsylvania, a few blocks off the Penn State campus.

Via: http://@onwardstate

Joe Paterno started as an assistant at Penn State in 1950, and died in 2011, after 61 years at the school. According to Onward State, the billboard is at the corner of Pugh Street and Beaver Avenue. The billboard was paid for by "Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship," which describes itself as a group of "alumni, students, friends and supporters working together to achieve positive change at The Pennsylvania State University as a result of recent events."

Does a pro-Joe billboard three games into the Bill O'Brien era really show a commitment to "achieve positive change"? Meanwhile, the message itself — "You can't cover up 61 years of success with honor" — could've been worded better. It sounds like the honor is the thing covering up the success. And why is "cover up" in yellow? The Sandusky case involved a lot of abhorrent behavior, but it wasn't really a cover-up — if anything, Paterno and others were faulted for not even trying to find out whether there was anything that needed to be covered up in the first place.

(h/t Onward State via Larry Brown Sports)

The broke quarterback has been bleeding money since before he received his diploma.

Image by Rick Stewart / Getty Images

In the midst of numerous legal troubles, Vince Young was still involved in a dispute related to a lawsuit over trademark rights to his name — a lawsuit settled in 2010 — as recently as last month, court records show.

The suit, which was first brought by Young against former major league infielder Enos Cabell and two other men in 2008, was, according to court records, settled with a sealed agreement in 2010. But conflicts over payments and attempts to collect attorney fees from both sides have kept the case alive.

According to the suit, the three men trademarked the nickname "Invinceable" and Young's initials without his permission while the quarterback was still in college. Young's lawyers claimed in the suit that the trio, who didn't know Young, sought the trademarks the day after the 2006 Rose Bowl. His lawyers argued that Young's use of his nickname and initials were, in legal terms, "associated in the public mind" with him and thus owned by default. (Jeremy Lin won a similar case to trademark "Linsanity" earlier this year.)

Despite court papers attesting the groups had reached a settlement, Young's lawyers filed motions on December 16th, 2011 asking for a new trial over court, attorney and other fees (though no amount was specified). The trio who originally held Young's trademarks argued in response that they were in fact owed $71,000 in fees.

Motions from both sides were denied earlier this month, and as of mid-September, the case is closed.

Young has reportedly lost more than $26 million, for which he blames his former financial advisors, while they claim in court papers that he spent on the money paying back ill-advised loans (Young is also involved in litigation with Pro Player Funding over a defaulted loan he claims was taken out without his knowledge by his former advisors), sabotaged his own marketing strategy and gave an uncle more than $1 million for unhelpful marketing services.

The trademark suit was mentioned by lawyers representing Young's former agent, Ronnie Peoples, who countersued Young after Young sued Peoples for allegedly mismanaging and stealing millions from the one-time Texas star. According to Peoples' lawyers, the suit's slow resolution made it difficult for Young to enter into endorsement deals.

See what the best damn pee wee football team from Urbania, Ohio is up to now.

Becky "Icebox" O'Shea — Shawna Waldron

After kicking ass in Little Giants, Icebox grew up. Like, really grew up. Like, had a major role in the just-this-side-of-porn Poison Ivy: The Secret Society. But unlike many of her co-stars, Waldron has worked pretty consistently over the 18 years since Little Giants came out. Becky O'Shea's doing well.

Rashid "Hot Hands" Hanon — Troy Simmons

Simmons didn't act much after Little Giants, and seemingly lived a normal life in North Carolina. He did, however, rap on this song under the name "Hot Handz." The years have turned that "s" into a "z."

Junior Floyd — Devon Sawa

Every girl I went to school with had a crush on Devon Sawa. I think if they've kept up with him, they probably still would. Sawa, who also was in Casper as a child, has acted very consistently since Little Giants, appearing in films such as Final Destination and SLC Punk, and more recently as one of the stars of the CW's Nikita. No word on whether he can still throw toilet paper like a young Joe Montana.

Jake Berman — Todd Bosley

The little guy with the over-protective mother and that CGI snot bubble grew up to be pretty funny. He was memorable in a stint on Scrubs and recently did voices for a little video game called Mass Effect 3.

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Stinky brown butter Rice Krispy treat? Where are the homemade preserves?!

Source: @darrenrovell

For those that may have trouble reading the menu in the photo:

McClure's Potato Chips
Baked in Brooklyn Everything Flatbread
Beigals Black and White
Tumbador Vitality Fruit And Nut Bar
Stinky Brown Butter Rice Kirspy Treat
Tumbador Chocolate Bar

and of course a:
New York ARTISAN Jumbo Pretzel

Regular jumbo pretzel are for plebs.

No word on if the domestic draft will be PBR. I do have a feeling you'll at least be able to get some locally grown vegetarian options somewhere. That kind of food will go great with your Brooklyn Nets jorts and your Brooklyn Nets flannel.

For Joe Flacco's sake, let's hope his blocking is better than these.

The NFL is doing a public service campaign called "Play 60" to encourage kids to go outdoors and play in an effort to curb childhood obesity. Throughout the year, the league is tapping players from different teams to tell jokes for their campaign. Michael Oher was up first and told these very funny jokes:

Oher: Where's the ocean deepest? Random child named Kiki: I don't know where? Oher: At the bottom!

Sigh.

Oher: Why do the sea gulls fly over the sea? Random child named Kiki: Why? Oher: Because if they flew over the bay they'd be called bagels!

Sadly, we were informed Oher did not write these jokes himself.

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Okay so a lot are missing, but this video from ESPN Unite is pretty tremendous if just for the Notre Dame bit.

Source: youtube.com

Sit down and shut up: I'm going to put my face inches from yours and scream “SMALL SAMPLE SIZE” at you until you cry.

DO Keep Faith In Your Stud Quarterback

Image by Mike Roemer / AP

Here are the top eight quarterbacks by Average Draft Position, paired with their current QB ranking in total points scored:

1. Aaron Rodgers (14)
2. Tom Brady (15)
3. Drew Brees (3)
4. Matthew Stafford (22)
5. Cam Newton (5)
6. Eli Manning (4)
7. Michael Vick (6)
8. Peyton Manning (19)

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN. Does it mean that black is white, cats are dogs, and we should all accept Alex Smith as our new Dark Lord? Should we trade Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning for scraps of bread and/or old Simple Plan CDs? The answer is... no! It's been two weeks. Rodgers and Manning both faced two of the leagues' best defenses in Weeks 1 and 2 — Rodgers had San Francisco and Chicago, and Manning tore up Pittsburgh before having a tough time with Atlanta. Meanwhile, New England dominated Tennessee and struggled against a surprisingly good Arizona defense, explaining Brady's difficulties. All three of these guys should get their sea legs pretty soon, and you shouldn't panic.

Meanwhile, Eli Manning and Drew Brees owners should feel pretty swell — both of those guys should be doing a ton of passing this year.

(Stafford's a slightly less clear-cut case: I've been saying for weeks that the Lions are due for a downturn, and though he understandably struggled against the 49ers, his Week 1 debacle vs. St. Louis is a little less easily excused — Robert Griffin III fared far better than he did.)

DON'T Go Nuts Over Two Weeks Of Defense

Image by Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP

I've actually read in two different places this week that the Houston Texans' secondary has suddenly become this dominant, suffocating force of nature. Yes, they've allowed zero touchdowns in two games so far, and that's great. 124 yards per game? Wonderful. But those achievements came against the league's two worst starting QBs, Ryan Tannehill and Blaine Gabbert. ESPN's prognostication for the Texans' D right now is, "With Denver coming off a short week to prepare for this unit, expect Houston to have a field day giving Peyton Manning and his receiving corps fits." This is hyperbole. Houston's D was a very good-but-not-great squad last year that feasted on a cupcake schedule. This year, they're good, again, but they're also not the behemoths they're being made out to be. You can also file the Seahawks and the Patriots in this category.

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Sir Charles thinks Tiger is too soft.

Via: cdn.cosbysweaters.com

Greg Norman made some waves in the golf world when he said earlier this week that he believes Tiger Woods is "intimidated" by current world No. 1 and adorably curly-locked 23-year-old Rory McIlroy.

Tiger responded to Norman's outrageous claim -- even McIlroy acknowledged it was nonsense -- in typical Tiger fashion, by brushing it off and focusing on the task at hand. Woods' boring retort was that golf is an individual sport and that a golfer's true opponent is the course, blah blah blah.

Charles Barkley, for one, wasn't all too happy with Tiger's lackadaisical attitude. In a radio interview with Chicago's Waddle and Silvy, Barkley dreamed of a world in which Tiger snaps at his haters and throws them through plate-glass windows, or something.

"These people don't like you, even though you made them, like, a gazillion dollars... and he still tried to take the high road.... I wish he would just go ballistic on Greg Norman... I wish I could just put some of my blackness in him. I mean, toughness, and not that 'mental golf' toughness."

You can hear the Barkley clip here. It's classic, outspoken, and slightly offensive Chuck, and of course Tiger would never publicly fire back at a detractor. But his interview brings up another, more pertinent point: With Tiger and Rory acting like pals, golf is devoid of any true rivalry.

McIlroy, of course, is the hottest player in golf. He's got the PGA Player of the Year honor all but wrapped up after winning three of the last five PGA Tour events, including the PGA Championship.

Rory and Tiger have been paired together in many of those events, and are currently battling for a $10 million dollar check in this weekend's Tour Championship. Next weekend, Rory and Tiger will be on opposite sides in the latest edition of golf's fiercest rivalry, the Ryder Cup. Still, there isn't much of a genuine rivalry between the two guys -- there's simply no bad blood. McIlroy arrived on the golf scene after Tiger's heyday and carries himself in such a way that it's nearly impossible to dislike the guy. There haven't been any epic battles between the two, and both Tiger and Rory seem to share a mutual admiration for the other. Though the torch hasn't officially been passed, it's clear that the relay will be between Tiger and Rory, and both are okay with that.

Norman, it seems, is simply trying to create a bit of theater where there isn't any, and you can't really blame him. Barkley is obviously hungry for the same sort of drama. Golf is better a better game when its best players aren't best friends (see: pre-divorce Tiger and Phil Mickelson), but as much as we want the Tiger vs. Rory storylines to become real, the gap in age between the two ensures it'll never happen. Kobe vs. LeBron never happened, but luckily for the NBA and its fans LeBron found Kevin Durant. Golf has its next LeBron in Rory McIlroy, and it really needs a Durant-figure to emerge. Or Tiger needs to take some of Barkley's "blackness." Whichever works.

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It's about time we get a movie about history-making Dodgers player Jackie Robinson, and the fact that Harrison Ford costars makes it even better.

Sensitive female singer + deft color manipulation = STONE COLD TESTOSTERONE EXPLOSION!!! Watch until at least 1:40, but don't skip ahead.

The Michigan football team was terrible in 2009. They had a fun win over Notre Dame early in the year and then lost, as I recall, their next 58 games. But it's still a season I remember fondly as a fan, almost solely because of a four-minute YouTube clip I watched in September of that year — one which actually chronicled the even worse 2008 season and starts with 90 seconds of failure. Fans often create and share these kinds of sports-highlight music videos online, but this was not your typical hype video. Created by the site MGoBlog, it was set to the song "A Better Son/Daughter" by folksy, female-vocalist-fronted indie band Rilo Kiley — not an obvious choice to pair with college football, which is not a particularly "indie" pursuit.

I was reminded of that song and that video recently by this piece by Sean Collins about music and "the chills." Namely, I was interested in the assertion by Lisa Margulis, a University of Arkansas professor, that the most chill-inducing musical passages tend to involve sudden changes, especially when the change confounds our subconscious expectations about musical form. This video is so great, I think, because it piles changes on top of each other, adding visual and narrative surprises to the sudden turn in the Rilo Kiley song. It's got Triple Chills. The long buildup gets you accustomed to derfs in black and white (there were many derfs in 2008, the program's worst season ever, its inescapable badness being the reason a 100% rah-rah video wouldn't have worked), and then suddenly it's triumph in super-color. It's even better, of course, if you're a Michigan fan and the colors and images (end zone, home fans) are ones that you have a positive Pavlovian response to.

I can't even think of any other level of sensation that a video could work on, short of actually giving me a beer on Friday around 7 p.m., to induce good vibes. I even tested it on non-Michigan fans; my colleague Kevin, who is not only not a Michigan follower but someone who was born without some crucial "human soul" lobe in his brain and roots for Duke, admitted that it left him smiling involuntarily. My fiancee, who is not always totally on board with the all-consumingness of my interest in the athletic accomplishments of 20-year-old kids at a school I didn't even go to, actually gasped involuntarily at the crucial point.

As Collins wrote, "frisson [a term for the 'chills' experience] is a matter of expecting the unexpected: building to something big, something listeners can hear coming — but then doing it so much bigger, more exciting, more unexpected, that it blows up their nervous system anyway, every time." Sounds like a pretty good description of this video, and of great sports moments in general. Standing for three hours packed together with thousands of strangers, it turns out, is not all that different from going to the symphony.

An ode to the coolest jacket (with a built in fanny pack!) that's ever existed.

They had an awesome slogan.

And knew that plain-old zippers were for nerds.

They made catalogs fun to read.

And could help you fall in love.

They loved each other almost as much as they loved Joe Wolf.

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Dan Leberfeld claims he is working on a story about Scott's media boycott.

Image by Jeff Zelevansky / Getty Images

A Jets writer who had to be separated from Bart Scott during post-practice media time today said he was taking a picture for a story about the possible end of Scott's media boycott.

Scott was speaking to ESPN's Jane McManus when he began threatening "Jets Insider" publisher Dan Leberfeld.

"I'm going to smack the shit out of you," Scott reportedly shouted at Leberfeld.

Leberfeld then shouted back as Jets' public relations staff members stepped between them.

"I took these shots for a story I'm doing on Scott not talking to the media," Leberfeld on his website on Friday.

Scott has reportedly been upset about the media's coverage of the Jets.

According to other reporters' Tweets, Leberfeld also annoyed Scott earlier this week when he photographed him talking to different writer.

In his post on Friday, Leberfeld denied hearing any complaints from Scott prior to Friday's incident.