Sports/Events
This Gay Week in Sports: Matt Leinart, Michael Vick
By Dylan Vox

Apr 9, 2008

Matt Leinart

This gay week in sports, Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart gets raunchy with a champagne bottle; Beijing Olympic protestors scale the Golden Gate bridge to send a message; tennis players Serena Williams and Mikhail Youzhny beat up rackets at Indian Wells; Tampa lesbians gear up for the NCAA Final Four; cheerleaders give former friend a disturbing beat down; and Michael Vick plays football behind bars.  

Matt Leinart may not be the best quarterback in the NFL, but this week he certainly became the most talked about when racy pictures of the young stud frolicking with ex boybander Nick Lachey and underage coeds in a hot tub began to surface on the net.  

Leinart was verbally reprimanded for the antics by coach Ken Whisenhunt who said that he was “disappointed” with Leinart’s behavior because of the negative image it put on the league.

At only 25 years old and barely out of college himself, it seems harsh to be overly critical of the behavior, but many have complained because the images are of Leinart holding a beer bong for girls under the legal drinking age.  

Another image from a different occasion surfaced later in the week that was even more suspect. It showed Leinart in a champagne bottle fellatio act with another hot guy at the party. Certainly if the pictures were of Peyton Manning or Brett Favre, no one would give a crap, but with only a handful of touchdowns and even more interceptions in his first two seasons of play, Leinart is not proving to be the golden boy that the Cardinals hoped for.

After last week’s tennis outburst where Andy Roddick smashed two rackets, Serena Williams and Russian Mikhail Youzhny showed that they too had some built up racket aggression at the Sony Ericsson Open at Indian Wells.  

During his third round match, Youzhny hit a backhand into the net and then began pummeling himself in the head out of frustration. The shocking forehand to the forehead drew blood and he was cited for racket abuse.  

Not to be out done by the men, Williams threw her own temper tantrum in the finals against Serbian Jelena Jankovic when she just couldn’t seem to be able to close out the match. She pulverized her racket in one whack, tossed it to the side, and went on to play extraordinary tennis to win the championship.  

And people say that tennis isn’t a violent sport.  

Last month, the Olympic Flame took off from Greece for it’s 85,000-mile route to Beijing for the 2008 Games. The journey is supposed to symbolize awareness of the event and to bring the nations of the world together in harmonious celebration of sport. So far that has not been the case as protestors have been present at every step of the journey.  

The torch was extinguished in Paris for the third time as hundreds of pro-Tibetan demonstrators surrounded the Eiffel Tower. As the torch made its way to San Francisco, its only stop in the United States, three people climbed the Golden Gate Bridge and tied the Tibetan flag and two banners to its cables. The banners, which said "One World One Dream. Free Tibet," and "Free Tibet 08,” were later removed. Heightened security was placed around the torch carriers, and one even excused himself from duty because of the potential danger.

The protestors, however, have said that they will continue nonviolent actions to express discontent with Chinese government policies, human rights violations, and relations to Tibet 

While Stanford prepares to take on Tennessee for the NCAA championship title, the lesbians in Tampa, Florida have been getting ready for the event for the past few weeks. The Final Four tournament is seen as the biggest lesbian gathering in the nation, other than the Dinah Shore golf weekend in Palm Springs of course.  

To prepare, local bars all across the bay area are hosting parties and are providing a line up of female musical talent. Even the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ hosted their mega party in celebration of the event.  

Kelly Costa, a St. Petersburg resident, told the Tampa Tribune, "I don't care about sports. I can't wait to check out all the parties and the great lesbian scene and being around a lot of great girls."  

Guess Costa is looking to get lucky this week.  

In Lakeland, Florida, six cheerleaders gave “Bring it On” a whole new meaning when they lured former friend Victoria Lindsay to a home and beat her unconscious.  

"It's absolutely an animalistic attack. It's a pack mentality, when you see what those young girls were doing to that 16-year-old, it's atrocious," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said of the videotape, which has circulated over the net.  

Apparently the victim called the other girls “slutty” on myspace and was rewarded with a mild concussion and damage to her left eye and ear. She is now referring to the girls as “psycho” rather than “slutty” and they seem much happier with that label.  

The six girls and the two boys who were guarding the door at the ambush have been arrested and authorities are hoping to charge them as adults.

And finally, our old dog-abusing, pot-smoking, career-ruining Michael Vick seems to be getting back into football, only this time, it’s in the big house. 

The former Atlanta Falcon quarterback was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison and three years' probation for his role in a dog fighting conspiracy earlier in the year.  

This week, Falcon’s owner Arthur Blank told the New York Daily News that Vick is playing ball at Leavenworth to keep his body in shape and his arm limber in case he is asked back to the team after his release.  

"Apparently, there was a prison football team and he played quarterback for both sides,” Blank said.  

Federal prison officials, however, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Vick did not arrive at institution in time to participate in the facility's football season, so the rumors are unfounded.  

Either way, it has to be a little funny to imagine the jailhouse team selection. “I’ll take Bubba the career arsonist and you take the dog killer Vick.”  

Till next time, Blog Hard!