Barry definitely didn’t START the rumor. It was whispered in and around Dallas shortly after Aikman was drafted. Again, I have absolutely NO idea whether there was ever anything to it, but the rumors have been around a long time.
But Barry Switzer promoted the rumors actively, through his personal scribe, Skip Bayless. Bayless is the laziest reporter in sports, and when he was at the Dallas Times-Herald, he always managed to latch onto ONE Cowboy source, and pretty much wrote verbatim whatever that source told him. While Switzer was coaching the Cowboys, HE was Bayless’ source.
In this particular feud, I don’t really side with either party. On one hand, I think Barry Switzer was a lousy choice as coach for the Cowboys… but then, Barry wasn’t hurting anything. He seemed content to let the assistant coaches do their jobs and be a figurehead. Barry was definitely a bit of a crook, but he’s also a charming, very likable guy. Troy probably SHOULD have swallowed his pride and not made an enemy of Switzer (which divided the team in the process).
The genesis of the Aikman rumor seems to be writer Skip Bayless, and FWIW, the other two members of the Triplets (both black, not that it matters to anybody but Bayless) have consistently denied the rumor. There’s a little more info here:
In the link Blake provides, Skip Bayless alludes to “black players” he was close to telling him Aikman was bi.
That fits pretty well with what I posted earlier- black players generally LOVED Barry Switzer, and with good reason. There has never been a coach in any sport who’s better at bonding with black athletes than Barry. There’s a reason the Texas Longhorns were outclassed by Switzer’s Sooners for decades: because Switzer was so good at getting top black athletes from Texas to come to Oklahoma!
Switzer effortlessly won the loyalty of black players, and he SHOWED the same loyalty to them. He recruited black players when many of his regional rivals (like Darrell Royal) wouldn’t. He played black men at quarterback when many of his rivals wouldn’t. He hired and promoted numerous black assistant coaches, when other schools didn’t. And Barry went to bat for John Blake, getting him the head coaching job at Oklahoma. Black coaches are few and far between in college football, so that was a big deal.
Black players love Switzer, and they’ve always known that he has their backs.
So, when feuds erupted between Switzer and Aikman, it wasn’t hard to guess which man the black players would side with. And when Switzer made accusations, the black players loyal to him were only too willing to take his word for it.
Again, I know NOTHING about Troy’s love life. He could be straight, gay, bi, or something else I haven’t thought of. I write this to show that there is more to this story than just the usual gossip. The rumors have been kept afloat for a long time by people who’ve had their own feuds with Aikman.
Ryan, nothing will convince me that he’s not gay. I ran into him at the grocery store before I knew who he was. No empirical evidence, but either my gaydar is in serious need of a tuneup or he is one of the gayer men on the planet.
When I first moved to LA, lots of people told me that prior to getting the role in Magnum P.I., Tom Selleck used to hang out at a Gay leather bar near Paramount Studios (that no longer exists). They said his nickname at the time was “Trucker Mary” and that he was a regular. Heard this from several people over the years - so either the rumor was widespread or lots of people knew him back in the day (and considering his looks back then, he was someone you probably wouldn’t forget…)
I know - he has been married and has a child, and he is also an outspoken, right-wing Republican, but still - just reporting what I heard from many people back in the late 80’s when I first moved to LA.
Country singer Chely Wright came out publicly today - although to be quite honest, who in the hell is Chely Wright? Not being a big fan of country music, I had never heard of her - but maybe those who do know country music might be interested in this tidbit.
One I just learned about today, Matt Bomer from White Collar. Apparently he has Anderson Cooper/Jodie Foster syndrome where everyone knows he’s gay and in a relationship, but he “doesn’t talk about his private life.”
A&E is actually planning a series called Coming Out in which out celebrities discuss their lives and, per the release, a couple of celebrities come out. (I’m guessing the ones who come out on the show make George Takei and Sarah Gilbert look like Orlando Bloom and Sandra Bullock in terms of current career heat.)
