A History of Controversial Homophobic Remarks in Sports

Complex revisits despicable instances of bigotry in the world of ball-playing.

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Complex Original


Italian national team soccer coach Marcello Lippi wants only CIGAR smokers on his team.

When a bunch of sweaty jocks, jock managers, and jock handlers are dangling around a locker room, slapping asses, 11 times out of 10 some thick neck genius is gonna call somebody a "homo fag queer cocksucker faggot ass-pirate" or something equally clever. You see, there's still a lot of homophobia in sports, so it comes as no surprise that Marcello Lippi, coach of Italy's national soccer team, recently told a web TV program, after anti-gay violence in Rome made headlines, that he'd never allow openly homosexual players to play for Italy because it would create scandal. Gay rights groups blew a whistle on him for the foul. If you needed a reminder that there are a lot of bigots who play with balls, just check out past slips of the tongue that created controversy.

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