In an interview with Michael Tillery of The Starting Five blog (and there are two more parts!), noted eye/ear killer Skip Bayless explains how he outed, sort of, former Cowboys QB Troy Aikman. Probably should go ahead and jump.
UPDATE: As I said in the comments, Deadspin is one of the places I saw this interview mentioned today. (The other was The Big Lead.) Deadspin initially used an uncredited photo (taken by Nancy) originally posted here awhile back. Our editor, “Tim Ross” was able to convince them to add a photo credit. Genius.
[Barry Switzer] challenged some of the other reporters also telling them to tell the truth about Troy and saying he’s a hypocrite. He was saying here he is doing all these commercials for Brut cologne and Acme Brick in Dallas … these sorta macho ads … and he is not what he appears to be. It went all the way to the period where I was writing the book and Barry called me one day at home and asked me what’s going on. He said he heard I was having trouble with Aikman — which I certainly did because I was trying to write the book. Troy would call me at home saying I can’t write this and I can’t write that. It really wasn’t about the gay stuff. It was about the n word and game throwing. Barry would say he’s just afraid you are gonna write the gay stuff. I told Barry I had no idea and nor do I care if he’s gay or not. It definitely became part of the clash and mudslinging between the two of them. Again, Barry just went off on this tirade saying many security people have told him about this incident and this and this and this.
So I just wrote it became the clash between the two. My only regret about the book is that it does not say that Aikman is gay. I had no idea and nor do I care to this day. A number of the black players — with whom I was close — contended that he was bisexual. They didn’t like him to start with because he was distant, knee-jerk, emotional, quick-tempered. His friends on the team loved him for one reason and that was because he could play. When it was time to play, he performed. Deep down … trust me … the stars on that team … the black players … and you know who they are … they didn’t like the guy [Aikman].
(By all means, click through to the interview to read Bayless talk about the n-word incident and more or less accuse Aikman of throwing two Redskins games.)
