Towards the Future...

Fair warning, that this will be a sports heavy entry (hey with football weekends & the baseball playoffs, it's kinda what's on my mind)...

While the 2007 season isn't done, it's time for Wisconsin to start looking towards the future. The Badgers defense couldn't stop anything yesterday, and as a result suffered what could only be described as an embarrassing defeat to the fuckin Illini of Illinois. Thankfully, Wisconsin's defense is young and will hopefully mature towards next season. Right now though, a patch needs to be made to salvage this season and still get to a big name bowl (maybe a 4th straight Capital One Bowl). At least it wasn't the worst upset of the day (for that, check out what Jim Harbaugh and the Cardinal did against the Trojans...or ND finally getting one upsetting UCLA...AGAIN!!! --- a bad day of football for the City of Angels)...

The Red Sox, another great win on Friday. Anyone who has interest has already seen it. I still don't think that Manny's homerun has come down (and if it did, it was probably through the windshield of some car speeding down the Pike). The same way I heard Yankees fans all September saying the didn't want to face the Angels, I of course was thinking, that's fine, give the Red Sox the Angels. 18 out of 26 at Fenway, and continued post season dominance, right now the next time the team from Anaheim sees Beantown again, it'll be too soon. Not sure if the Sox will sweep, but they still certainly have control in the series. The Yankees have their part as well, going down 2-0 to the Indians. I think the Yankees won't get swept, but their backs are against the wall. They at least get credit for variety. They lost game 1 in a blowout and game 2 in an excruciating extra-innings fashion.

Patriots take their 4-0 record back home to Gillette Stadium and take on old defensive guru Romeo Crennel and the Cleveland Browns. As long as the focus is there, win #5 should be theirs in a matter of hours.

The other football note was Thursday night. I went to a speakers panel on Gays and the NFL (as it is Gay Superbowl Weekend in NYC). The panel, moderated by the founder of Outsports.com, had on it, among others, former out NFL players Dave Kopay (the pioneer in out athletes) and Esera Tuaolo. The discussion included not only stories from their own playing days, but questions/comments from the crowd (which included a forner 4-year NFL journeyman himself). The crux of the conversation, centered around feelings I could echo as my feelings on the issue of "integrated" sports: a single person is, for the most part, smart on the issue of having a gay athlete as a teammate. However, the group think of people (and in this case, a team) is much harder to change. It will change from the bottom up, in high schools and colleges (where it is very slowly happening). A transcendent moment would be a major athlete (like a Tom Brady) coming out. However, nobody really had a clue if/when that would happen. (Btw, it was basically agreed upon by the audience that Tom Brady = hot, Peyton Manning = not; made me smile.) The more likely idea is a high school athlete, say a quarterback, who comes out in high school, and is so talented, that a major school in a liberal area (I hate to say it, btu like a USC) would take him, develop him, and he'd continue to advance because of his skills, with his being gay an open fact the entire time. I don't know when I'll see an active, openly gay football player, or baseball, or basketball. It'll hopefully be sooner then later, but the one thing I can say, it's only a matter of time. As this generation, and future ones, which are more accustomed and more accepted of living with openly gay people, become the athletes of the future (much like the politicians of the future), change will come about...

~SS