Sean Avery in a video that is part of the New Yorkers for Marriage Equality campaign.
YouTube
(CBS/What's Trending) - The last seven days seem to have been dominated by sports stars for all the wrong reasons. Yes, we had a brilliant Turkish Grand Prix. Yes, Manchester United all but sewed up the English Premier League by beating Chelsea. Yes, the NBA Playoffs are making us hold our breath every single game. And, yes, we lost a true great legend of golf. Seve Ballesteros, rest in peace, kind sir.
Let's start with Avery. It all started when the New York Rangers player appeared in a Human Rights Campaign video supporting marriage equality. Unlike his other infamous outbursts (See: Calling his ex-girlfriend "sloppy seconds" and getting suspended by the NHL), his speaking up for giving people to the right to enter into same sex marriage has garnered positive praise from critics and fans. In the last six days his ad has approached nearly 200,000 views on YouTube and became a trending topic on Twitter. I also applaud Sean for taking the time to give an honest view of a sensitive subject.
However, this didn't go down well with Don Reynolds, president of the Canadian-based Uptown Sports Management who decided to use to organisations twitter account to put his feelings out there.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the Canadian Post asked Reynolds to comment on his tweets. Reynolds, not content with already sitting in his own hole, decides to dig even deeper by comparing same sex marriage to bestiality.
"I think, of Canadians would say that they don't agree with gay marriage -that man and woman were created to be married, not man and man or man and horse, you know?"
We can only assume that Reynolds forgot to actually engage his brain before talking on this one, but our view? Expect this one to rumble on a little longer as players come out in support of Avery and start giving Uptown Sports the cold shoulder.
A quick pop over the Atlantic: This time it's French soccer coach Laurent Blanc hitting the headlines. This all started back in November when Blanc attended a meeting with other local coaches about "informally" introducing a quota to limit the number of "black and Arab" youth players in the French lineup. He believed there were too many players with dual nationalities playing for French youth teams before deciding to represent their country of origin later in their career.
Other people present were believed to be technical director of the Féderation Française de Football (FFF) Francois Blaquart, under-21 coach Erick Mombaerts and under-20 coach Francis Smerecki. Although the ministry backed down over charges, the FFF are due to make a decision on the outcome over the next few days.
Bearing in mind during 1998 when France won the World Cup, Blanc played alongside Lilian Thuram, (born in Guadeloupe), Marcel Desailly (Ghana) and of course, the master himself Zinédine Zidane who has Algerian parents, this really does defy belief.
I really think there is no other way than for Blanc to step down but what do you think? Do these role models need to be more careful? Should they be punished for their actions? Let us know below.
Uptown Sports Management tweet tirade against Sean Avery and Blanc's racist comments top headlines
/ CBS News
But, the real reason people have had sports on their mind is because of controversial comments made by leading sports figures. Sports agent Don Reynolds denounced Sean Avery, hockey's outspoken player, on Twitter for his pro-gay marriage stance. To boot, French coach Laurent Blanc was cleared by the Sports Ministry for the controversial racial comments he said.
Let's start with Avery. It all started when the New York Rangers player appeared in a Human Rights Campaign video supporting marriage equality. Unlike his other infamous outbursts (See: Calling his ex-girlfriend "sloppy seconds" and getting suspended by the NHL), his speaking up for giving people to the right to enter into same sex marriage has garnered positive praise from critics and fans. In the last six days his ad has approached nearly 200,000 views on YouTube and became a trending topic on Twitter. I also applaud Sean for taking the time to give an honest view of a sensitive subject.
However, this didn't go down well with Don Reynolds, president of the Canadian-based Uptown Sports Management who decided to use to organisations twitter account to put his feelings out there. As if this wasn't bad enough, the Canadian Post asked Reynolds to comment on his tweets. Reynolds, not content with already sitting in his own hole, decides to dig even deeper by comparing same sex marriage to bestiality.We can only assume that Reynolds forgot to actually engage his brain before talking on this one, but our view? Expect this one to rumble on a little longer as players come out in support of Avery and start giving Uptown Sports the cold shoulder.
A quick pop over the Atlantic: This time it's French soccer coach Laurent Blanc hitting the headlines. This all started back in November when Blanc attended a meeting with other local coaches about "informally" introducing a quota to limit the number of "black and Arab" youth players in the French lineup. He believed there were too many players with dual nationalities playing for French youth teams before deciding to represent their country of origin later in their career.
Other people present were believed to be technical director of the Féderation Française de Football (FFF) Francois Blaquart, under-21 coach Erick Mombaerts and under-20 coach Francis Smerecki. Although the ministry backed down over charges, the FFF are due to make a decision on the outcome over the next few days.
Bearing in mind during 1998 when France won the World Cup, Blanc played alongside Lilian Thuram, (born in Guadeloupe), Marcel Desailly (Ghana) and of course, the master himself Zinédine Zidane who has Algerian parents, this really does defy belief.
I really think there is no other way than for Blanc to step down but what do you think? Do these role models need to be more careful? Should they be punished for their actions? Let us know below.