On Monday, NBA center Jason Collins, who played this past season with the Washington Wizards, came out publicly as the first ‘openly gay athlete in a major American team sport.’

Collins’ self-penned piece in Sports Illustrated starting with, “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay,” leaving nothing to interpretation.

It was a huge step forward for gay rights as no major sports professional athlete had come out while still being an active athlete.

While Collins has shown great bravery in coming out it has it’s questions as well. He’s technically a free agent at the end of his career:

“Now I’m a free agent, literally and figuratively. I’ve reached that enviable state in life in which I can do pretty much what I want. And what I want is to continue to play basketball. I still love the game, and I still have something to offer. My coaches and teammates recognize that. At the same time, I want to be genuine and authentic and truthful.”

He might never have played another minute in the NBA anyway. He’s old for a NBA player. He’s always been a bench player who received limited minutes of playing time.

However, those facts shouldn’t detract from Collins public statement today. It’s a first, technically, and it won’t be the last by a male professional sports athlete in America.  For the past few weeks there has been rumors of several NFL players coming out.  That will likely happen sooner than later.

It’s a big day for Civil Rights and equality in America. It’s not the biggest step, but it’s another big step for our country, sports, and equality.

Major props to Mr. Jason Collins on his courage, bravery, and penmanship. The article he penned for SI, which you can read HERE, is extremely well written and inspirational. No doubt he’s showing off that impressive Stanford education.

I’ve spent most of the last two days covering the Boston Marathon and the ensuing fallout from the bombings over on Run It Fast.

I was touched deeply by the senseless bombings and it flared up some old memories of ‘random acts of violence’ that I experienced earlier in life.  I tried to tie the two together with this blog post, “Out of the Ashes, Humanity Will Win the Boston Marathon.”

The rest of my coverage on the #BostonMarathon race and bombings can be found at these links:

• Out of the Ashes, Humanity Will Win the Boston Marathon
• Sports Illustrated Cover: Fallen Bill Iffrig from the Boston Marathon Bombings
• Photo of 8-year old Martin Richard Who Was Killed in Boston Marathon Bombing
• That Man Who Crumbled to the Ground During the Boston Marathon Bombings is Bill Iffrig
• Boston Athletic Association Releases Statement
• World Newspapers Response to Boston Marathon Massacre
• Bombs Explode at Boston Marathon Finish: Race Stopped (Photos)
• Lelisa Desisa Wins the 2013 Boston Marathon (Elite Male Results)
• Rita Jeptoo Wins Boston Marathon (Elite Female Results)
• Live Blog: 117th Boston Marathon Coverage

Please pray for Boston and those that were directly hurt and harmed by the bombings yesterday.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar guard Kobe Bryant went down in pain during the late moments of the Lakers home game tonight against the Golden State Warriors.

Team officials and Kobe believe that he tore his achilles. An injury that usually takes a year to recover and recuperate from.

The team will do a MRI on Bryant tomorrow to verify the prognosis. If true then surgery would be next, followed by a lengthy recovery.

The injury could be the end of Kobe’s career. His contract with the Lakers only runs through next year as the team is already trying to put Dwight Howard in place as the team’s next big superstar. (Don’t laugh! It’s their plan not mine!)

However, a dejected Kobe in his post game presser when asked if this was the last of him on a basketball court defiantly stated, “Are you kidding?!?

He went on to add, ”I can hear it already. It’s pissing me off right now thinkin about it.”

If this is the end of the road then he’ll be sorely missed. He is one of the greatest of all-time and one of the toughest warriors to ever lace them up on a NBA court.

Here is a wonderful GIF showing how Michigan Wolverines star Trey Burke cleanly blocked Peyton Siva’s layup attempt last night in the NCAA National Championship.

The no-call might or might not have made a difference in the game, but the Louisville Cardinals were too strong and went on to defeat the Wolverines 82-76.

NBA Hall-0f-Famer Magic Johnson’s son ‘EJ’ Earvin has formally announced that he is gay according to his father.

Magic and his wife, Cookie, are very supportive and ‘proud’ of their son:

“Cookie and I love EJ and support him in every way. We’re very proud of him”

Best of luck to EJ! Way to have the courage to live your life how you want.

[photo: EJ Johnson with his boyfriend on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles]

Former Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson won 11 NBA Championship rings during his coaching career.

Most basketball fans are aware of that, but Phil, who joined Twitter today (@PhilJackson11), came up a bit short of the rim in his first tweet.

The Zen Master tweeted, “11 champ;ipnsikp[ ringhs”

Well then! The tweet made ‘Phil Jackson’ trend and provided much of the sports world with a quick laugh at Phil’s expense.

It will likely go down as one of the most popular tweets in Twitter history when all is said and done.

Ted Johnson, is a former NFL linebacker, who obviously took one too many hits to the head during his career with the New England Patriots and other teams.

Because on Houston radio earlier today, Johnson was asked who had the ugliest wife in the NFL and he responded,

“You know what, I’ve got it,” Johnson said on CBS Houston when a caller asked him to identify the player with the least attractive wife (audio here). “And this is a big, big man. This guy had his way with the Texans this year. He won’t hear this —Vince Wilfork.”

First, Johnson should have never answered the question. Secondly, he should have never said that 325-lb man had the ugliest wife in the NFL. Thirdly, if he was dumb enough to answer then he should have been smart enough to respond with some kicker or punter’s wife.

Big Vince did hear Johnson’s comments about his wife, Bianca Wilfork, and didn’t hold back in responding to him on his Twitter account (@wilfork75)

Good for Vince. He went on to include a longer message to Johnson using the notepad on his iPhone that he tweeted as well. You can read it below:

Of course Johnson, fearing for his life, immediately started apologizing on Twitter via his account (@TedJ52)

Gotta love when ugly people (see photo at the top) call other people ugly!!

Twenty-year-old model Kate Upton is covering Sports Illustrated‘s Swimsuit Issue cover has been leaked online, confirming that she’s gracing the cover for the second year in a row.

The cover, which was unexpectedly released, is set to be officially revealed on The Late Show with David Letterman on Monday night.

PHOTOS: Kate Upton Sassy & Topless For GQ (July 2012)

“Congratulations Ms.@kateupton! Making history,” 2010 cover girl Brooklyn Decker Tweeted to Upton almost immediately after the cover was leaked.

“We can finally talk about Antarctica!” Upton Tweeted Friday evening. “Took us 2 months to thaw out.”

She’s definitely beautiful, but is it not weird that she’s 20 and almost naked on a magazine cover? That means she was born in 1992, people!

[image: UsMagazine]

Four-time overall World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn was airlifted to a hospital after she injured herself on the slopes during the super-G Tuesday in Austria.

Vonn reportedly lost balance on her right leg while landing a jump. Her ski “immediately” came off, prompting her to slide off course into a gate.

Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsey Vonn & Husband Thomas Vonn Divorcing

She received treatment on the course for 12 minutes before being airlifted to a nearby hospital. According to the Huffington Post, her U.S. team had no immediate information on her condition.

[image: HuffPost]

Katie Couric is slated to have the first interview with Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o since admitting that he was the victim of a hoax.

New surfaced last week that Te’o's girlfriend, who had supposedly died of leukemia in September, actually wasn’t real. The football player claims that he was unaware that Lennay Kekua was just a fabricated online personality, despite the fact that they had never met.

‘Catfish’ Creators Believe Manti Te’o is a Victim in Hoax

Couric’s interview, which will also feature Te’o's parents Brian and Otillia, will air on Jan. 24 on her daytime talk show Katie. Before the actual airing, excerpts will be aired on ABC shows like Good Morning America.

Wonder how much ABC is paying this guy who got mass media attention for lying?

[image: UsMagazine]

Documentary film stars and the makers of MTV’s reality show Catfish are convinced that Notre Dame football player Manti Te’o was indeed the victim of a hoax.

News surfaced this week that Te’o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, who supposedly died in September from leukemia, was actually not a real girl at all. Te’o released a statement explaining that he had an online relationship and was the victim of a hoax.

Notre Dame Football Star Manti Te’o Claims He Was Part of a Hoax

“From what I gathered, and from some contact that has been made with me with people who have been involved in this story directly, I get the impression that this is a much larger scheme than he would have thought,” Nev Schulman, the creator of Catfish, said. “It doesn’t seem to me that he is in on it, although, of course, that is yet to be seen. I think, even though it seems hard to believe and he is a high-profile football player, he is just as vulnerable and susceptible to being Catfished as anyone.”

“It appears as though someone created Lennay’s profile on Twitter, at the very least, and was engaged in relationships with people apart from Manti,” Schulman continued.

“That’s definitely something that goes with what we’ve seen. They’re generally not one-off relationships with people who engage in Catfishing,” Max Joseph, Schulman’s co-creator, further explained. “People enjoy talking to more than one person, for various different reasons. When we meet them, they generally confess to doing it for a number of years and having spoken to anywhere from one to hundreds of people.”

UsWeekly has reported that the hoax was allegedly conceived by someone named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. Rumors have spread that he once auditioned for NBC’s The Voice. Details are still emerging.

[image: UsMagazine]

Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o has a lot of explaining to do.

News surfaced yesterday that his girlfriend, who died in September from leukemia, wasn’t real at all. Yes, you read that correctly: She didn’t even exist.

Te’o is now claiming that he was fooled by the entire situation. ”This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online,” Te’o said in a statement Wednesday. “We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her.”

He added: “To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone’s sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating.”

What made the story so heartbreaking was that Te’o's grandmother died the same week that his girlfriend, who he knew as Lennay Kekua, died. It was reported during the time of her death, that Kekua whispered “I love you” to Te’o just before she took her last breath.

Notre Dame has released a statement, clearing Te’o and saying that he approached the school later in the year after he realized he had been a pawn in the hoax.

“On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax,” the university said in a statement Wednesday. “Someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia.”

“While we still don’t know all of the dimensions of this … there are certain things that I feel confident we do know,” Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said at a press conference. “The first is that this was a very elaborate, very sophisticated hoax, perpetrated for reasons we don’t understand.”

Swarbick continued, wiping tears: “The thing I am most sad of is, the single most trusting human being I have ever met will never be able to trust in the same way ever again.”

The sports blogosphere has exploded with doubts that Te’o is telling the truth. Many football supporters think that the star player could’ve fabricated the story in an effort to guarantee the Heisman Trophy, which went to Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel.

An investigation has been launched by the college and is ongoing.