Chris Broussard drew nationwide attention when he went on ESPN's Outside the Lines Monday in the wake of Jason Collins coming out in Sports Illustrated and said homosexuality was a sin and a "rebellion against God."  The transcript of his comments can be found here.

Broussard has been crushed and ESPN has been questioned for allowing him on air to provide his opinion for the story in the theater of an apparent debate with LZ Granderson.  Broussard released a statement on his Twitter page yesterday only slightly walking back his position while supporting Collins' NBA career.

ESPN also released a statement committing to diversity and saying they regretted distracting from the news.

While the reaction to Collins' Sports Illustrated piece has been mostly positive, the fallout from Broussard's comments struck a chord.  There has been plenty of multi-dimensional fallout from his stance on OTL as freedom of speech, religious beliefs in public life, tolerance, and more topics have all been lobbied around the internet.

Broussard's comments, and the reaction to them, struck a chord with me as well.  So while we're being open and this important discussion is taking place, I feel the need to personally speak up.  I posted some personal thoughts as a Christian and a sports blogger last night on my Twitter page and will repost them below after the jump if you are inclined to read further.  It's something I strongly feel needs to be said in light of the reaction to Jason Collins' announcement.

Over the weekend, Peyton Manning attended a fundraising gala for the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. Apparently, he put on a little impromptu concert with country singer Luke Bryan where he sang one of the classic hits of Johnny Cash:

I'm biased, but as a Canadian who has spent a lot of time south of the border, I feel I've watched enough of both TSN and ESPN that I'm qualified to state that Canada's premier 24-hour sports network just does things better than the "Worldwide Leader."

Usually when arguments like these are made, those on TSN's side build their thesis around TSN SportsCentre and its joker hosts, Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole. But our latest example of TSN kicking ass comes from its "NHL on TSN" panel, who -- for no particular reason -- decided to create a five-minute, self-deprecating, poorly-acted but incredibly well-produced parody of "The Hangover."

To put it all together, James Duthie, Darren Dreger, Aaron Ward and Bob McKenzie even enlisted the help of some Los Angeles Kings players and some local L.A. celebrities, including Ottawa native Matthew Perry.

Lionel Messi added yet another brilliant goal to his loaded resume when he slipped past several Athletic Bilbao defenders this past weekend. In total, he worked his way around four defenders. He touched the ball just seven times while carving up the Bilbao defense. The end result was a predictable beautiful finish into the left side of the net. 

What could possibly upstage a spectacular Messi goal? An even better goal call from beIN's Ray Hudson. 

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
Prairie View A&M at Texas -- Longhorn Network, 7 p.m.
New Mexico at Texas Tech -- Fox College Sports Central, 7:30 p.m.

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

Golf
Inside the PGA Tour -- Golf Channel, 6:30 p.m.
Golf Channel Academy: Bernhard Langer: Short Game -- Golf Channel, 7 p.m.
Golf's Greatest Rounds: 1996 The Players -- Golf Channel, 8 p.m.

Minor League Baseball
Buffalo Bisons at Rochester Red Wings -- MLB Network, 11:30 a.m.

Sometimes you just never know what you'll see on live television. On Sunday during NESN's telecast of the Houston Astros-Boston Red Sox game, reporter Jenny Dell was in the stands to interview a family regarding "Autism Awareness Day" at Fenway Park.

As she was talking to Red Sox fan Jennifer Colbert and her son Elijah about what the day meant to them, a portly Red Sox  fan walked in front of them despite Dell's gestures to him not to. And while the interview continued, you could tell Dell was quite perturbed at him. And when the interview finished, NESN's cameras cut back to  Dell as she was lecturing the fan and his wife about walking in front of them.

Earlier today, the live daytime episodes of SportsCenter once again relapsed into an episode of TebowMania.  Much to the surprise of nobody who has observed ESPN over the last year and a half, SportsCenter went all in on Tebow, dedicating almost half of their airtime to a man who faces a struggle just to make another NFL roster.

But this morning in particular was distressing because ESPN remained with Tebow as their lead story in spite of other highlights and a story that is garnering national attention - Jason Collins being the first active athlete in the four major pro sports to come out.  In spite of the positive steps ESPN has made in the last several months journalistically (their new sourcing policy, coverage of the Boston Marathon, etc.), today showed there was still a sense of warped priorities in Bristol.  In other words, Tebow still trumps all.  It took several hours for Jason Collins to replace Tim Tebow as ESPN.com's top headline and the 12 PM ET SportsCenter mentioned Tebow's name 25 times before it did Collins' once.

On his ESPN Radio show today, evening SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt let it be known he wasn't happy with talking about Tim Tebow as his "One Big Thing" and called out his brethern at the daytime edition...

We're seeing a pretty good response to the news of Jason Collins coming out as gay in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated. Mike Francesa of WFAN in New York isn't one of them. On his radio show today, Francesa said he "doesn't care" about Collins coming out, and that the announcement was a "dramatic attempt to sell magazines". He also repeated the phrase "I don't get it" several times.

Correct Mike, you don't get it. We know there are plenty of gay people in America. That's not news. Francesa even touched on the fact that gay athletes hadn't come out in the past because they didn't feel comfortable, so there's no reason for them to be forced out. Collins wasn't forced out, and the fact that he was finally comfortable enough to come out *is* a big deal.

Just because there have been retired gay athletes in the past doesn't dim the importance of Collins' announcement. Imagine having a personal detail about yourself potentially affecting the rest of your career. That's the situation Collins is in now, and if you don't understand why that's a big deal, I don't know what to tell you.

[Business Insider]

The Milwaukee Bucks made the playoffs this year for only the second time since 2006-07. The NFL draft takes place each and every year. But that didn't stop the vast majority of sports fans in the Milwaukee area from tuning into the draft last Thursday, rather than Game 3 of the Bucks' first-round series with the Miami Heat. 

Monday, April 29

Washington Nationals @ Atlanta Braves (ESPN 7PM) Dave O’Brien, Aaron Boone, Rick Sutcliffe

Tuesday, April 30

Cincinnati Reds @ St. Louis Cardinals (MLBN 8PM) Bob Costas, John Smoltz [Alt: Padres @ Cubs]

Wednesday, May 1

Washington Nationals @ Atlanta Braves (ESPN 7PM) Sean McDonough, Mark Mulder, Doug Glanville

*McDonough in the booth, Mulder & Glanville in each team's dugout.  

Thursday, May 2

Washington Nationals @ Atlanta Braves (MLBN 7PM) Bob Costas, John Smoltz [Alt: Marlins @ Phillies]

Friday, May 3

Boston Red Sox @ Texas Rangers (MLBN 8PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Cardinals @ Brewers]

Saturday, May 4

Baltimore Orioles @ Los Angeles Angeles (FOX 4PM) Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, Ken Rosenthal
St. Louis Cardinals @ Milwaukee Brewers (FOX 4PM) Justin Kutcher, Eric Karros
Washington Nationals @ Pittsburgh Pirates (FOX 4PM) Howard David, FP Santangelo
Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants (MLBN 9PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: D-backs @ Padres - 8:30p.m.]

Sunday, May 5

New York Mets @ Atlanta Braves (TBS 1:30PM) Brian Anderson, John Smoltz
Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants (ESPN 8PM) Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, John Kruk

H/T Sammy!