Cristiano Ronaldo, new gay icon and Footballer of the Year

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The awards just keep coming in for the new #1 gay icon Cristiano Ronaldo.  The UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) Club Footballer of the Year prize was awarded to Ronaldo at a ceremony in Monaco this past Thursday (8/28). The Portuguese forward for Manchester United was key to the club's success this past year.  He was also honored as the Best Forward at the same ceremonies. 

"I think Manchester had a great season and I scored many goals. I feel very proud to be the best forward as I played as a winger – it is very good for me and gives me more ambition to become better. Thanks to all my team-mates and those that voted for me."

Source: UEFA

Fantasy Football: Who ya pickin?

This is the big weekend for fantasy football. This is draft time! After the jump I've listed the players I'm looking at, and when I'm hopefully going to try to get them.

While the proven rationale is to pick running backs in the first two rounds, this year might be the one to shake that up.

Tennis: Jankovic gives good quote

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As long as I'm doing the splits, that means I'm healthy. I'm doing good. When I'm not doing the splits, you know there's something wrong. I'm not too sure about my body. If I go into a split, who knows if I'll come back up, you know?

- Jelena Jankovic on her fitness at the US Open

Power shots, doing splits, taking naps - JJ has all kinds of trickery to throw at her opponents. How could she not win her first Grand Slam this fortnight?

Source: Down the Line!

Tennis: Ivanovic performs the 'Serbian Slide', falls to 188th ranked lady baller

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Oh this is an embarrassing one: Ana Ivanovic continued her horrendous second half of the season at the US Open today.

The struggling Serb was unceremoniously booted from the second round 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 by Frenchie qualifier Julie Coin, a 25-year old ranked 188th in the world - ouch! Julie was also playing in her first Grand Slam tourney EVER - double ouch!!

Clearly Ana was way off her 'A' game and was lacking match play and practice. But seriously, she should've been able to wrangle this Frenchie journeywoman with her 'Z' game, right?

A sad state of affairs for the top lady baller - well, the top lady baller for now.

Source: Down the Line!

Rich Rodriguez blogs about tennis at Down the Line!

Caption this: Smith and Kallis get up close and personal

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Captain Graeme Smith and Jaques Kallis were spotted sharing a intimate moment during the South African nets session ahead of the 3rd Natwest one day international between England and South Africa at The Brit Oval.

I have my own ideas of what might be going on here and they don't involve cricket (though they do involve bats and balls.)

What's going on here? Tell us!

College Football Picks - Week One

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Kick off for the 2008-2009 college football season is hours away. Join me each week in predicting who will win the featured games by posting your list in the comments section of this blog. I will compose a list of those of you who are regular contributors and rank your overall records which will be posted on this site.  See if you can be a college football expert in predicting the winning teams. Good luck and enjoy the upcoming season!

Here are the games for Week One:
(my predictions are in BOLD after the jump)

Poll: How is the media supposed to cover gay athletes? Not even the LGBT community knows.

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NBC president Gary Zenkel just sent an apology to gay and lesbian viewers for not covering gold medal-winning out diver Matthew Mitcham's sexual orientation and back story -- responding to an angry AfterElton.com piece on the disappointment of gay and lesbian viewers.

But what we saw on Gay.com was a slightly different story: The comments we got after covering Fox Sports' deletion of all reference to Mitcham's orientation ranged from outrage at Fox for homophobia -- to annoyance at us for making an issue out of something that has nothing at all to do with sports.

So we want to know once and for all what gay people think: How should the media cover LGBT athletes?

Take our poll now - and include your opinions in our comments section!

Home team: West Hollywood Aquatics

Check out SwimNetworks.com video blog (after the jump) called Chlorination as they profile Gay and Lesbian swim team West Hollywood Aquatics. 

You can find more information online for the West Hollywood Aquatics and IGLA (International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics).

Joel McKenna blogs about swimming at the17thman.

Fantasy Football: The Draft

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So the draft is on. Now, what's your strategy? Who do you pick? And more importantly, when? If you're going in totally blind and don't even know the players, then you MIGHT want to pay attention. It's actually worked for me when I've been shitfaced.

Here's how you can maximize your picks on draft day, even without knowing who's who.

Michael Phelps on the MTV Video Music Awards

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Michael Phelps has really hit the big time now!  It seems swimming's golden boy will be making an appearance on MTV's VMAs.

How he'll be worked into the show is still up in the air but given that he was listening to Hip Hop artist Lil' Wayne before winning 2 of his races, odds are pretty good we'll be seeing these two together.