Robbie Rogers makes U.S. sports history as first openly gay male athlete to play in pro league

By Martin Rogers | Yahoo! Sports

CARSON, Calif. – It was the first time it happened and hopefully the last time it will matter.

Late into Sunday night, Robbie Rogers stood on the sideline at the Home Depot Center, took a deep breath, gave the slightest of smiles and stepped into United States sporting and social history by becoming the first openly gay male athlete to play in an American pro sports league.

That's a lengthy description for a seminal moment that perhaps shouldn't matter anymore, but it still does because decades of intolerance are not undone overnight and because acts of human courage like those of Rogers and Jason Collins deserve recognition.

It mattered to the crowd of 24,811 in this suburb just south of Los Angeles, mattered just enough to give Rogers a rousing welcome and a standing ovation, yet not too much to totally overshadow a resounding 4-0 trouncing of the Seattle Sounders.

Which, of course, is exactly what Rogers wanted.

"I just want to be treated like anyone else," he said. "And the guys made it real easy. Being four goals up made my experience very enjoyable. There was no pressure at all. I could just take it all in."

Rogers had many friends and family in the crowd but, quite correctly, there was no great fanfare. His name was not even announced immediately before kickoff as he was one of the substitutes and not a starter.

Major League Soccer is not perfect and its highest-profile club, the Galaxy, has its share of detractors. But both parties handled the acquisition of Rogers and the process leading up to his entrance in the 77th minute on Sunday with class and common sense that other American leagues may borrow when they face the same situation in the future.

In reality, the 26-year-old could not have wished for a more comfortable L.A. debut, coming on for the final rites of a game the Galaxy effectively won in the first half thanks to a hat trick from Robbie Keane.

Rogers announced his retirement from soccer along with his sexuality in a blog post written with the help of a few glasses of wine on February 15, and he would not have undone that decision for another club other than the Galaxy – who are situated a mere 15 miles from his childhood home of Rancho Palos Verdes.

There was a wish to be close to his family – to allow their support to assist him through his return to the game and to be on a team with established stars who naturally command most of the attention. To make that happen, some moves needed to be made as the Chicago Fire owned his rights were he ever to return from a spell in England with Leeds United and Stevenage Borough.

But the deal got done and here he was, entering the field, stooping to pick a blade of grass and getting a slap on the back from Landon Donovan. The game had petered out by the time he arrived and nothing of value could be learned by 14 meaningless minutes of playing time, a fact not lost on head coach Bruce Arena.

"Robbie did well, did well with the lead up to all this," Arena said. "He won't be judged on tonight or the next couple of weeks."

Rogers wants to be judged on his ability alone and in that sense he has tough shoes to fill. The Galaxy acquired Rogers' rights in a trade with the Fire and was forced to give up Mike Magee, one of their most productive and popular contributors, as part of the bargain.

To effectively replace Magee, Rogers will need to show the kind of talent that has earned him 18 appearances for the United States men's national team. The wide spaces of the Home Depot Center should suit his explosive speed and all-action style.

"Robbie is a good player and I said to him, 'Don't retire because you are coming out,' " said Seattle coach Sigi Schmid, who has known Rogers since the player was seven years old and with whom he won an MLS Cup with the Columbus Crew in 2008. "It was a good moment. Fortunately our society is more cognizant of people's personal choices now."

Sadly, other parts of the world may not be, at least in a soccer sense, which is why Rogers felt there was no way he could continue in England after coming out. Some of the worst elements of society lamentably still populate European soccer stadiums, where sickened minds concoct unrepeatable chants against opposition players, including homophobic jargon regardless of the player's true sexuality.

But one of the most likeable things about MLS is that its relative newness means it is untarnished by some of the beautiful game's ugliest traits. That is why Robbie Rogers is here, as himself, comfortable in his own skin and feeling at home.

Maria Sharapova Dishes About 'Refreshing' Relationship With Grigor Dimitrov

Written by: ThePostGame Staff

Maria Sharapova hasn't been too keen on letting the press into her relationship with fellow pro Grigor Dimitrov, but in a surprisingly open interview with USA Today, she uncharacteristically gushes about Dimitrov -- and says dating a younger man (Dimitrov is 22 years old) is "refreshing."

"Maybe it makes me really young, too, inside, which is good," Sharapova, 26, told the newspaper.

As for what she's looking for in a man, she says: "It's about finding the person where you can be yourself all the time, where you're comfortable with being younger girl, the older girl, the mature girl, and the person that understands you and look at you and say you're completely off your rocker!

"I have so many things going on in my life and I really love them. Of course I want someone to be by my side to enjoy them. You know, I can jump on a plane tomorrow and go somewhere because I want to do it. And it's really important that that person respects me for the decisions that I make and the things that I do in my life."

She did not, however, offer any of her tips about outrunning the paparazzi.

The two were first spotted cozying up on a Madrid street earlier this month. Sharapova ended her engagement to basketball player Sasha Vujacic last year.

Utah referee Ricardo Portillo dies days after being punched in head by rec league soccer player

By Cameron Smith | Prep Rally

Prep Rally previously brought you a deeply disturbing story from Utah, where a teen soccer player had punched a recreational soccer referee in the head, landing him in critical condition at an area hospital. Now that tale has taken an even more tragic turn after the referee in question died from complications related to injuries suffered in the attack.

As reported by the Associated Press and a variety of Utah news outlets, 46-year-old Ricardo Portillo died Saturday at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City. The referee had been hospitalized there since the attack on April 27, where Portillo issued a yellow card to a player in a recreational match and was attacked by the player with a strong punch to his head.

The AP has reported that the player in question was a goalie, competing in a game at Taylorsville (Utah) Eisenhower Junior High. The yellow card was connected with a play on a corner kick, where Portillo saw the goalkeeper in question push an opponent and decided the action was worthy of a formal caution. As he wrote down the goalie’s name in his notebook, the player reportedly snuck up alongside the ref and punched him directly in the head.

"When he was writing down his notes, he just came out of nowhere and punched him," Johanna Portillo, the victim’s daughter, told the AP.

Portillo’s reaction to the punch was not immediate, but was frightening. The 46-year-old reportedly said he felt fine in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but then asked to be held up because he felt dizzy. Portillo then sat down on the field and began vomiting blood, eliciting panicked calls for an emergency ambulance at the field.

The goalie in question has since been booked into juvenile detention on suspicion of aggravated assault, though he could face additional charges now that Portillo has died. There has also been an ongoing debate about whether to charge the teen as an adult, despite the fact that he is 17 and not 18-years-old.

The now-deadly attack is just the latest disturbing example of aggressive action against referees going far beyond the realm of what is even remotely acceptable. More often it has been parents attacking referees, though players have occasionally gone beyond the realm of the reasonable in their reactions as well.

Most recently, a parent of an athlete in a Nebraska 7th grade church basketball league was attacked and had his glasses snapped in half. Similarly, a March youth hockey game in Hamilton, Ontario was the site of a parental attack on a referee who had the temerity (in their eyes) to break up a potential fight between players of the teams in the game was was officiating.

Perhaps the most disturbing attack before the Taylorsville tragedy came in Florida in 2011, where a group of players and coaches violently attacked a referee at a Sarasota youth football game.

Youth and prep soccer hasn't been free of violence in the past, either. While former New Mexico women's soccer player Elizabeth Lambert remains the benchmark for aggressive and violent play, Lewisville (S.C.) High athlete Annette McCullough received an assault charge for aggressive attacking a foe in a 2012 game and, in Utah, Salt Lake City (Utah) East High senior Petiola Manu was notably caught violently kneeing a foe during a game as well.

One can only hope that the lessons from this attack -- and the subsequent jail time that the teen in question is likely to serve -- will provide ample deterrent for future athletes and parents who struggle to contain their emotions in the midst of what is just a game, even if similar incidents in the past haven't succeeded in doing so.