49ers CB Chris Culliver was bombarded with questions from reporters Thursday. (Photo: Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports)
Story Highlights
There's no excuse for Chris Culliver's intolerant comments
Gays in the locker room a rare social issue where the sports world lags
Plenty of players perfectly ready to embrace all variety of teammates
NEW ORLEANS — There was plenty of elbow room at Frank Gore's podium during the San Francisco 49ers media session Thursday Thursday morning, with only a half-dozen reporters talking shop with the impressive running back.
Yet as Gore gazed one hundred feet or so across the room, he could easily see where the action was. The thick crowd was at Chris Culliver's table, ground zero for the hot topic of the day. The second-year cornerback ignited a frenzy with his senseless homophobic remarks to a radio shock jock, contending that a gay player would not be welcomed in the 49ers' locker room.
Deer antler spray, move aside. The needle has moved on another issue.
"I know Culliver," Gore said. "He didn't mean it the way it came out. He's a young guy."
There's no excuse. If Culliver, 24, is old enough to hold down a job, he should know better than to declare such a definitive anti-gay stance.
APOLOGY: Culliver sorry for homophobic comments
FACING THE MUSIC: Corner covered in repetitive questions
The way it came out from Culliver: "Ain't no gay people on the team. They gotta get up outta here if they do. Can't be with that sweet stuff."
The 49ers issued a statement denouncing this position and a contrite Culliver apparently learned a lesson. He apologized during his mob-scene press session.
Yet Culliver unwittingly provided the impetus for an intriguing question: Is the NFL ready to accept an openly gay player?
"Sooner or later, it's going to happen in sports," contended 49ers wideout Randy Moss. "We need to accept it and move on. I don't look at gays in sports as a problem."
The NFL, with its macho culture, has never had an active player come out of the closet and reveal that he is homosexual. It might take more courage than going over the middle.
"It would be tough," Moss said. "That person would be ridiculed. Is it a bad thing? No, it's not."
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbedejo is undeniably the most outspoken proponent for gay rights in the NFL, so naturally, he drew quite the crowd at the Ravens media session Thursday. Ayanbedejo got into a public skirmish with a Maryland delegate earlier this season over the issue of gay marriage, and on Thursday declared that "we're winning the battle" for acceptance in the NFL.
Maybe so.
I asked Terrell Suggs if he would have a problem with a gay teammate, and he didn't blink.
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Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has claimed he will stay at Anfield even if the club miss out on Champions League qualification.
Suarez has been the Reds outstanding player since his arrival from Ajax in January 2011 and has already scored 22 goals this season.
His prolific form - contrasted with Liverpool's indifferent start to the current campaign - has seen him linked with several of Europe's top clubs.
However, the Uruguay forward has insisted he sees his immediate future on Merseyside and is not looking for a move.
"I will wait until the end of the season and see how we are doing," Suarez told the Daily Mail. "We won't know until then how we are doing and what our position is so I am prepared to wait until that time.
"But I want to say now that, if you want to know what will happen to me if we don't qualify for the Champions League, then I will say this: I have a contract with Liverpool and I am very happy here. I will stay."
Suarez also singled out club captain Steven Gerrard for praise, admitting he thought it was "crazy" he had never won a Premier League winners' medal.
"Gerrard is such a good player and what he said about me I will never forget, it's unbelievable," Suarez added. "He has such a good record over many years in the English game and is a great example to all the players here, especially to me.
"It's incredible that Steven hasn't won a championship. Crazy. It must be like having a fishbone stuck in his throat. It is permanently irritating to him. I can't really believe it. You still have to recognise he is an outstanding player.
"He is a legend in the club and has lifted the Champions League for this club. That makes him special. After all, how many players in Europe have actually done that?"
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis addresses the media in preparation for Super Bowl XLVII. (Photo: Matthew Emmons, USA TODAY Sports)
Story Highlights
Elway, Schilling and others walked away after winning a title
Tony LaRussa, Scotty Bowman were among the coaches who pulled it off
Randy Moss could do it if the Niners should win the Super Bowl
Ray Lewis wants a storybook ending in Sunday's Super Bowl. Win the big game, two-step one last glorious dance and saunter slowly into the sunset — or, as Saturday Night Live suggested, ascend into heaven from the 50-yard line.
It's the American dream, dressed up in shiny helmet and shoulder pads: Make your last act a dramatic victory, preferably in the final, frantic moments, and exit stage right from the game's grandest stage.
LEWIS: Linebacker's antics annoy ex-Giant
Lewis, 37, emerged over 17 seasons as one of the NFL's all-time great linebackers. If his Baltimore Ravens win, he'd muscle his way into an exclusive club of sports heroes who memorably won championships in their last go-rounds. They include the likes of Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway, Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug.
"It's everybody's dream," Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin says, "to ride off on a white horse after winning" the Big One. The very notion of it promises a gauzy blend of slow-mo endings from feel-good sports movies and the happily ever after of fairy tales.
"What makes the narrative trajectory of going out a champion so appealing is it gives the impression of going out on your own terms," says Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
"Not because you were too old, not because your skills were beginning to wane, not because you didn't still have game. You stopped because you decided to, leaving behind the implied promise of other great chapters that could have been."
