Full Clubhouse passes the side-by-side comparison test.
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What does in shape even mean? Technically I am a shape.
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“The last 12 months have been very difficult for me, to the point where I became concerned with my mental health,” Sam said Friday.
Michael Sam, as seen while a member of the St. Louis Rams on Aug. 28, 2014.
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Michael Sam, who made history last year as the first out gay player to be drafted into the NFL, is leaving football, he announced Friday.
In a series of tweets, Sam said he was "stepping away" from the sport after a difficult 12 months that gave him concerns about his mental health.
The WNBA star had been seeking the annulment after just 28 days of marriage.
Brittney Griner
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This Instagram photo has since been from Johnson's account.
David Denson, a first baseman on the Helena Brewers, publicly came out in an interview with the the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The announcement makes Denson the first out gay baseball player on an MLB-affiliated team.
Minor league first baseman David Denson made baseball history Friday when he publicly announced that he is gay.
Denson, 20, came out in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In the interview, Denson described opening up to his teammates a month ago, and said the announcement was a "giant relief for me."
"Talking with my teammates, they gave me the confidence I needed, coming out to them," Denson also said. "They said, 'You're still our teammate. You're still our brother. We kind of had an idea, but your sexuality has nothing to do with your ability. You're still a ballplayer at the end of the day. We don't treat you any different. We've got your back.'"
According to the Journal Sentinel, Denson came out to his family in the spring.
Denson plays for the Helena Brewers. He joined the team in 2013 and has also played for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.
The Helena Brewers are affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers, and Denson's announcement makes him the first out gay baseball player on a team affiliated with Major League Baseball.
Minor league pitcher Sean Conroy, of the Sonoma Stompers, came out in June. However, Conroy's team is part of the the independent Pacific Association and is not affiliated with the MLB.
The announcement also comes about a year and a half after then–college football player Michael Sam publicly came out as gay. Sam went on to join the St. Louis Rams and became the first out gay player drafted to a National Football League team. He later joined the Canadian Football League after being dropped from the Rams and, later, Dallas Cowboys' practice squad, but announced Friday that he was "stepping away" from the sport.
Unlike the other major men's sports of basketball and soccer, however, there has never been a publicly out, current player in the MLB.
We should have known all along.
He certainly looks like he *could* be one.
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The mission started smoothly. The goalkeeper kept a clean sheet and was in great form.
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“I’m not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best,” Steelers linebacker James Harrison wrote on Instagram.
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I came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing, participation trophies!
While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy.
I'm sorry I'm not sorry for believing that everything in life should be earned and I'm not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best...cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that should drive you to want to do better...not cry and whine until somebody gives you something to shut u up and keep you happy. #harrisonfamilyvalues
Sarah Thomas and Jen Welter FTW.
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“We love you so much, always and forever.”
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Cooper Rennan was in the back seat of a VW Tiguan with two of his friends. It is alleged that the car was traveling in excess of 100km/hr, before failing to take a turn and rolling off the road.
Cooper, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown 40 metres from the vehicle.
“BuzzFeed Cheer Team- look out colleges around America!”
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The Batley Bulldogs prop said: “The only time I felt free of the torment was when I stepped on the rugby pitch. Now I feel free.”
The 27-year-old told the Sunday Mirror: "At first I couldn't even say 'I'm gay' in my head, let alone out loud. Now I feel like I'm letting out a long breath that I've held in for a long time."
He said: "She blamed herself when we separated, but I knew she'd done nothing wrong. I couldn't bear it any more, the guilt of it all, of her not knowing why I left. It was eating me up. I went to her and asked if I could have a word. My stomach was in knots. We sat at the kitchen table and I said, 'There's something I need to tell you'.
"I couldn't get the words out, I felt like I was going to be sick. But I managed to say it. She didn't say anything at first. I explained why and how I felt, it was very emotional. We were both in tears."
You’re trying to be the Leslie Knope of your team, but you feel like a Jerry.
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But other college athletes might be able to in the future, since their status as employees remains undecided.
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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has unanimously ruled that Northwestern University's football players may not form a union, overturning a March 2014 decision by a regional NLRB director.
The NLRB ruling did not make a determination about whether or not the players are employees of the university, allowing for the possibility that other college athletes — or graduate students — may form unions in the future. Had the Board approved the unionization bid, the ruling could have led to votes at other private institutions. As it stands, the secret (sealed) ballots Northwestern players cast more than a year ago will be destroyed.
This was the first case before the National Labor Relations Board in which college athletes attempted to unionize.
The NLRB ruled that because many athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cannot unionize, it would create instability in sports leagues for it to assert jurisdiction in this case.
"By statute the Board does not have jurisdiction over state-run colleges and universities, which constitute 108 of the roughly 125 [Football Bowl Subdivision] teams. In addition, every school in the Big Ten, except Northwestern, is a state-run institution. As the NCAA and conference maintain substantial control over individual teams, the Board held that asserting jurisdiction over a single team would not promote stability in labor relations across the league," the 16-page decision states.
State labor boards have jurisdiction over public schools, while the NLRB regulates private institutions.
The players, led by former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, were hoping to gain medical coverage for sports-related needs, compensation for sponsorships, and increased support for scholarships and degree-completion for current and former players, through organization.
"We applaud our players for bringing national attention to these important issues, but we believe strongly that unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes," said a Northwestern spokesperson in a statement.
Center: David Denson
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A few months before 20-year-old baseball player David Denson came out to his teammates, and then the media, he sent a text message to Billy Bean, Major League Baseball’s Ambassador for Inclusion and the only living former MLB player to come out.
“Hi, my name is David and I’m a player. I’m wondering if you could call me back.”
“He was very vague,” Bean told BuzzFeed News during a phone call Monday morning. “I told him I thought it was very brave for him to reach out to me. He didn’t tell me the first day that he was ready to come out, but I could tell that he had been thinking about it and he had told his parents and his sister.”
On Saturday night, Denson became the first active MLB-affiliated player to publicly announce he is gay. Denson was selected in the 15th round of the 2013 MLB draft by the Milwaukee Brewers and currently suits up for the Helena Brewers, the team’s rookie affiliate.
In a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by longtime Brewers beat writer Tom Haudricourt, Denson said that coming out to his teammates in Helena was a “giant relief,” and that “my teammates see me for who I am, not my sexuality.”
Meanwhile, Bean, who played six seasons in MLB between 1987 and 1995, admits he was nervous for the young player. “I felt like I was the kid who was still playing! But I’m happy to see David feel like this is a possibility for him. For me, I couldn’t even face the idea of talking to my own family, let alone the world. The work that a lot of people have done is paying off.”
During his time as a player, Bean concealed his sexual orientation and first serious gay relationship because he felt it was unlikely that professional baseball could reconcile his status as a gay man with his passion for the game. It was a fraught balancing act that hurt Bean on both sides: The stress and anxiety of being in the closet negatively affected his play as well as hurt his ability to have open, honest, and fair relationships with his family and partner, he said. After he retired, Bean came out as gay, and was only the second player to do so. He was preceded by Glenn Burke, who attempted to come out when he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A’s in the 1970s, but was shunted back into the closet. Burke died in 1995.
Just over a year ago, Bean was officially appointed as MLB’s Ambassador for Inclusion. As athletes such as Jason Collins, Brittney Griner, and Michael Sam came out as gay in their respective sports, MLB decided to bring Bean back to the game to serve as an adviser and point of contact for those who may want to come out in MLB’s front offices or on the field.
In April, Bean told BuzzFeed News his role is not to instigate any discussions about LGBT inclusion or convince players or executives to come out, but to be available to those who have already decided to further their own discourse. In his yearlong tenure, he’s appeared at spring training camps when invited and been a pillar of support for a few employees in the commissioner’s office who decided to come out. That a player, even in the low minors, would be bold enough to seek out Bean as a resource this quickly is a pleasant surprise for those who want to see the game become more inclusive.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Billy Bean.
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After their initial conversation during Spring Training, Bean and Denson quickly bonded over their shared — but still unique — experiences as gay men in baseball. “We talked about the similarities with our parents struggling with it,” Bean said. To be out and a professional baseball player “is an intersection that is hard for a parent to understand.”
In early May, Bean paid a “very very quiet” visit to Denson while he was with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers without telling his bosses at MLB or anyone on Denson’s team. “I just sat as far away as I could and watched him play. I just wanted to let him know he had someone in his corner.”
Emboldened, Denson decided to come out to his teammates. It was a surprise to Bean, whose experiences in what he admits was a different cultural climate seem to make him more nervous about this process than Denson himself.
“He called me one night and said, ‘You’ll never guess what happened… It happened!” Bean recalled. “I was like, ‘oh my god.’ I got sweaty! I was like, ‘What did you do? Tell me, tell me, tell me!’ and he was so happy. David is naive in all the wonderful ways I wish I still was.”
“Until he came out publicly as gay and released that burden, Denson didn't think he could truly blossom and realize his potential on the field,” Haudricourt wrote in his Journal Sentinel story.
Bean had discussed with Haudricourt that there was a gay player in the Brewers system who was considering coming out, but kept his identity quiet until Denson made his final decision to come out to the media. The response from the Brewers and some of their biggest players have been overwhelmingly positive.
“David is a highly-respected member of the Milwaukee Brewers family, and he is a very courageous young man,” read a statement from team general manager Doug Melvin. Slugger Ryan Braun said he “thinks everybody is supportive.”
“Overall, we realize it’s a courageous decision by him, to come out and embrace his true self. I’ve never met him but I hope baseball as a whole is at a point where we judge people by their ability and not their race, religion, ethnicity or sexuality. I can’t speak for everybody on our team but he would be accepted and supported by me. And I would hope all of my teammates feel the same way,” Braun continued yesterday, hours before hitting a grand slam to tie the franchise record for home runs.
Bean admits he told Denson to carefully consider what he has “invited into his life. There is a reason there’s only been two players to come out in 146 years.” He is certain, though, that Denson made this decision so he could “walk up to the plate and be his best self and feel focused and single-minded toward playing. There’s not going to be any favorable treatment — he’s not going to get called up immediately. It is about being his own best player.”
As for baseball, everyone wants to know what Denson’s decision says about the likelihood of more and more players coming out on increasingly competitive rosters. Bean understands that this generation of players benefit by having “positive images that someone like myself never saw,” but isn’t sure that Denson’s decision is indicative of any developing trend.
“David is definitely a unique case — it’s not like he’s conveyed to me that he feels like there are others. It’s so hard to say, but the only way that I can see success in what we’re doing is that we’re giving players more examples of those possibilities for them. Maybe there’s a couple, maybe there’s more, maybe there’s a lot. I’m hopeful that his decision will be what he hopes it will. I hope he will be able to get back into the flow and be yet another great example of someone being their best self.”
“However, coming out while playing isn’t impossible anymore,” announced Bean. “David has proven that.”
LINK: Gay Former Ballplayer’s New Job Is To Make Major League Baseball LGBT-Friendly
LINK: Minor League Wisconsin Baseball Player Makes History By Coming Out As Gay
And by football…we mean football.
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#PutYourPeptidesOut is filled with different takes on the trend.
In August 2013 Hird was suspended for 12 months from involvement with any football club. This came after a doping and supplements saga involving the banned peptide Thymosin beta-4 and its use at the Essendon Football Club.
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The 4-year-old was given the ball by a player and ran the entire length of the pitch.
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“Courage is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty or intimidation,” the star tweeted.
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The Man United executive vice chairman is now not so popular with his club’s fans.
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