Well, there is the famous slogan, "It is always darkest before the dawn." I hope that is the case with the spate of professional sports and their athletes and coaches using homophobic slurs. My father, the late Jim Beauchamp, was a coach for the Atlanta Braves so this one hurts even more deeply, personally, than the recent Kobe Bryant issue. This incident was even worse with not only homophobic acts, but the coach, Roger McDowell, responded to his being taken to task for his vulgarity by physically threatening another fan and terrorizing the man's children.
Atlanta pitching coach Roger McDowell apologized Wednesday in response to a fan's complaint that McDowell spewed homophobic comments, made crude sexual gestures and threatened to knock out his teeth with a bat before the Braves played the San Francisco Giants over the weekend.Nice going there, McDowell. Also, notice a pattern here? Where is the direct apology for the homophobia? Using the words "responded" when your actions where abusive homophobic slurs followed by threats of assault with a baseball bat because he was asked to stop his vulgar and hateful behavior isn't simply "responding" to heckling fans.
"I am deeply sorry that I responded to the heckling fans in San Francisco on Saturday," McDowell said in a statement. "I apologize to everyone for my actions."
Justin Quinn, 33, of Fresno said he was in the stands at AT&T Park in San Francisco during pregame batting practice with his wife and 9-year-old twin daughters when he noticed McDowell hectoring three men and asking them, "Are you guys a homo couple or a threesome?" Quinn said he proceeded to make crude sexual gestures with his hips and a bat.
