Some people have characterized ESPN’s Skip Bayless as the spawn of Satan, and that’s fine, but this asshole would argue that being such a prick wouldn’t hurt the credibility of statements he’d made about Troy Aikman’s sexuality. Bayless made the allegation of Troy’s policy of “pro-homo” in his new book, Hell-Bent: The Crazy Truth About The “Win Or Else” Dallas Cowboys. When pressed about his comments in an interview with The Starting Five, Bayless didn’t back down:

I wish I had sledgehammered [my statements] because it was the truth and everyone who knew what was going on inside the locker room told me the book was a terrific job and that I nailed it.

Because I did. It’s exactly what happened. All I heard from people around the country who didn’t read the book was, “You outed Troy Aikman?” I didn’t. The coach definitely thought he was gay and a lot of his teammates thought he was gay. More than that, they thought he was racist and they thought he was trying to get Barry Switzer.

I see nothing wrong with being a gay quarterback. I can only hope that someday, if this is true, that Troy will have the courage to come forward and fully reveal himself to a public that will accept him for who he is. But we’re not there yet, so let’s just point and yell, “Haha, you’re gay!”

[via Awful Announcing]

Paul Pierce wasn't the only one in Boston with a flair for the dramatic yesterday, evidenced when the Rays' James Shields plunked Coco Crisp in retaliation for a late slide the Red Sox outfielder made going into second the other day, which was in response to some other link in the daisy chain of baseball chippiness no one cares about. Crisp tried to get all slap-happy on the Tampa Bay starter before getting tackled by catcher Dioner Navarro. "Don't be afraid to use your nails, boys," manager Terry Francona chirped from the dugout.

Meanwhile, gay people in Boston are all, like, "stop defaming us" after Jonathan Papelbon joked about having "Elton John surgery" on his left arm. That's not offensive so much as inaccurate. Everybody knows Elton John surgery is administered to repair a ruptured colon as a result of teh butt secks. But, then, being the Red Sox, maybe that's what he meant all along.

Manny and Kevin Youkilis also got into a lover's quarrel in the dugout during last night's game. Hearts are a-flutter in Beantown, that's all I know.