Sporting News

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The winter Olympics don't do it for me because the only real sport I like watching is the figure skating ... which is so, like, gay. (I like gay, okay?) My preference is for the summer games because of all those half-naked bodies. Those divers always make me, um, wet.

But the mind wanders ...

My point here is that sports journalism is so freaking repetitive that I can't be bothered to follow it half the time. Plus it's just so bad. Once, on a lengthy road trip with a hockey-mad boyfriend, I spent the better part of an afternoon reading aloud the entire contents of the sports sections of the Star, the Globe and Mail and the National Post to him and found myself laughing hysterically at the writing. (Well, I am sorry, my dear friends and colleagues in the sports section, but it's true.) I'm not saying everything is bad all the time, just much of it much of the time.

UPPITY DATE: I have heard from a number of sports journalists who say I took a cheap shot at them. Okay, I admit it was a low blow. Now back to our regularly-written post ...

Another thing that bugs me is how faux-macho it is. Really, you have to wonder why sports news isn't printed on a jock strap instead of paper. I'm surprised sportscasters, who often look pretty gay to me -- especially if they're wearing silly jackets and too much hair gel -- don't grunt out the news.

And yet gayness is a subject that rarely comes out up in sports media.

A few weeks ago on CBC Radio's The Current, guest host Mark Tewkesbury, who won the gold in swimming at Barcelona, was discussing the pressures of being a gay athlete in a world where everybody is supposed to be playing on the other team. Why must gay athletes act as if there's something wrong with them, or hide, or live their lives as if there's something to be ashamed of?

Why, indeed?

Joe Clark has some thoughts on the matter here.

Of course male figure skater Johnny Weir is gay, as are Jeff Buttle and a host of others. Who are we trying to kid? We’ve managed to force male sportswriters to stop pretending that every elite athlete is straight, which was the problem before. I put in a lot of years of newspaper writing trying to kill that idea off. And now, like rebranding creationism as intelligent design, we’re being sold the same tainted tuna in a different can. Suddenly we’ve got sportswriter guys defending the right of gay athletes never to come out and never to be asked if they’re actually gay. I didn’t think things could be worse than the olden days, but this certainly is.

Clark is right: There is NOTHING wrong with being gay. Nobody needs to hide it -- and nobody needs to act as if it needs to be hidden on an openly gay athlete's behalf.

Now how gay is Don Cherry, hunh?

SKATE DATE: My Star colleague Mary Ormsby informs me that Buttle has never publicly said anything about being gay -- and so I have no idea if he is or not. (And if he is, there is nothing wrong with that.) That said, I still think all those outfits and spangles and sparkles are out of control. Salon's Video Dog has sniffed out the best of the worst here. (Free pass with advertising. Trust me it's worth it.)

Comments

[Bill-Muskoka]

Antonia,

WOWSERS! You are in a real state this week, eh? First its the Atkinson tattoos, flexibility, and no need for using a mirror.

Now its getting wet watching those half naked divers. ROFLMAO!

[Montreal Simon]

Antonia

Homophobia is everywhere. A faggot is the gay guy who just left the room. So why should we be surprised that it leaks like battery acid through the sporting world. Yesterday the women on our hockey team were heroes. A few years ago they were just a bunch of dykes. If they had lost instead of won, for far too many Canadians that's all they would have been again.

[Jesse Hirsh]

I agree that sports journalism in general is anything but. I don't think the poor level of writing is a reflection of the journalists themselves, but rather the culture of sports journalism is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I can't wait for the Olympics to be over.

[Joe Clark]

Don Cherry is actually not a homophobe and has supported gay hockey teams on “Coach’s Corner.” I kid you not.

But who can forget the Toronto Gay Hockey Association’s float at Toronto Pride two years ago, in which a guy and a girl wore complete Don Cherry drag (loud suits and high collars, the guy bedecked with dual Swedish flags), hugging and kissing through the whole parade route? I plotzed.

[H. (Bart) Vincelette]

As a gay Canadian man who lived in San Diego for many years , home to the Pacific Fleet ( US Navy and US Marine Corps) , I had to chuckle at the statement made , i'm sure; tongue in cheek - "How gay is Don Cherry?" Wanna know who from your high school days was most likely to really turn out gay ? The guys that cariied on super-macho ......f****** eh , f****** queers , etcetera.

[James Mirtle]

Doesn't it stand to reason someone who doesn't enjoy watching sports won't particularly like reading the sports section of a newspaper?

[Antonia]

Could be. Except there are many sports I do like watching -- and hockey is one of them.

Good hockey, that is.

I grew up in Montreal. My dad's idea of a good time was buying seats at the old Forum just above the glass behind the nets. I spent my Saturday nights as a kid fearing for my teeth and face.

[JPZ]

Love your stuff, AZ, but I gotta say your dissing of the sportswriting seems t/b based on ??? . . . a flabby argument at best. (And J-Hirsh's comments are laughable . . . yes, the jock scribes are victims of a mass dumbing-down; but, of course, not the horse-race lackeys on Parliament Hill, the earnest "film people" at TorFilmFest, etc. etc.). I've read a lot of newspapers and my two cents says the mediocrity virus is spread pretty evenly from section to section and from paper to paper.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Darts to the CBC producer who thinks split screen interviews are good thing during the closing ceremonies. Sheesh!

I am going to miss the BCE beavers for sure!

[Caligula Jones]

Wow. Someone who used to write about television cutting up sportswriters? Ms. Morrisette, we have another example of real irony...

[Sports Fan]

You're obviously reading the wrong writers. Anyone who can't appreciate the writings of columnists like Stephen Brunt, Roy Mcgregor or even Dave Perkins doesn't enjoy good writing.

Stop reading hacks like Dave Feschuk or Steve Simmons and you'll be much better off.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Tonight Global National gets this guy, Scott Reid, to lambast the Olympics regarding the the Canadian part.

Then they do a Voxpoll and 63% think our effort was dislikable!

Well, maybe they mised the crux of what such ceremonies are about...A nation's history.

Apparently Scott Reid thinks we portrayed our country as a bunch of fur hunting, and wearing, waybacks, who still cut holes in ice to gather our food.

Seems to me he also has a real thing about our Aboriginals and the heritage we all share.

But then, what the heck do I know? I am not a sports critic.

I wonder what others think about his views?