- Jason Collins may not have had much of a career as an NBA player but the career reserve is now in the limelight after making as history as the first active player in any of the "Big 4" American sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL) to come out as being homosexual. There has been speculation over the past few months that a number of players were ready to make official announcements but Collins will forever be known as the first to do so.
- Collins, who went to Stanford with his twin brother Jarron, has played in the NBA for 11 years but has never averaged more than 6 points or rebounds per game. While at Stanford he met Carolyn Moos, a female basketball player for Stanford and they had an year relationship that ended four years ago after they became engaged but Jason called it off. Carolyn said in a recent interview that she only learned that he was gay a week before he made the news public.
- There has been rampant speculation that the media and sports fans would not accept someone in a professional sports environment coming out, but so far the news has mostly been accepted by the general public. It may help others to make the same decision and stop, as Collins is quoted as saying: "telling myself the sky was red, but I always knew it was blue."
- Collins' announcement also paves the way for a lucrative career post-NBA in public speaking and endorsements targeting the gay community, something skeptics of Collins' timing have brought up. It's also opened the door for other, less serious statements (if you never thought there would be a Sesame Street reference on Sportico, you're officially wrong now) on freedom of choice within our culture.
NFL Draft
- Starting with the Kansas City Chiefs' selection of Eric Fisher and ending with the Indianapolis Colts taking Justice Cunningham, the NFL held their annual selection event last week. Fisher, who is only the second player from Central Michigan taken in the first round and the third player outside of a "major conference" taken with the #1 overall pick was a bit of a surprise at the top of the first round.
- An ever bigger surprise was the Buffalo Bills taking Florida State quarterback EJ Manuel with the 16th pick in the first round. Manual was the first quarterback drafted, but he was generally ranked as the 3rd or 4th best QB in this year’s draft. The generally accepted top QB was West Virginia’s Geno Smith, who slid all the way down to the 39th overall pick, the 7th in the 2nd round to the New York Jets. The drafting of Smith allowed for the Jets to cut Tim Tebow on Monday which still left them with 5 quarterbacks on the roster. Manti T’eo slipped into the second round as well, partially because of the situation with his girlfriend pictured here on the left and partially because he was measured to be too slow, was actually drafted one spot higher than Smith by the San Diego Chargers.
- The best drafts were had by the Baltimore Ravens, who needed to replace many players who left the team (either through free agency, being cut or retiring) after they won the Super Bowl last year. They spent their first four picks replenishing a very old defense that had lost its leader (Ray Lewis) and a few of its best players (Ed Reed and Paul Kruger) for various reasons. The St Louis Rams and Minnesota Vikings also had fantastic drafts, with the additional picks received from a few trades last year, they were able to make multiple quality first round picks, while adding a lot of players with incredible college pedigrees to young, up-and-coming teams.
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