What is it with this obsession with other people’s business? I’m talking about Terrell Owens’ big mouth and people being gay.

As you probably know by now, Owens gave an interview for Playboy’s September issue where he hints that former teammate Jeff Garcia is gay. It’s understood that there’s been something personal between the two when they were teammates in San Francisco.

Says Owens: “Like my boy tells me, if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat.” Never mind Garcia is dating some Playmate of the year.

Anyway, listening to this guy on ESPN Radio called, Colin Cowherd, is like listening to a dreaded sermon about the ways of the world.

Cowherd goes on and on about how we’re really interested in this kind of gossip but don’t want to admit it. Then he tells us that he doesn’t know if someone is born gay then proceeds to tell us a story about when he was in the third grade drawing flowers for his mother and his teacher said something like, “boys don’t draw flowers,” so he tore that up and drew a red truck.

Excuse me? Is this supposed to tell us that being gay or straight is a nurturing thing and a stern, but ignorant teacher teacher, can lead us down the wrong path to Gomorrah? Or is it Sodom?

Well, does anyone else think ESPN has gotten so big that the people they hire seem to be challenged to be higher than that? Especially on radio where some of these guys end up talking about themselves, or THEIR issues, more than the issues at hand.

I was waiting for Cowherd to say something like, “It would have been better if Owens would have just said something like, ‘hey, it’s none of my business what someone else is.’”

But all we got was a repeating dialogue of being ignorant on how a person becomes gay and personal stories…and more repeating and more personal stories.

Even Dan Patrick, on the follow up show, kept mentioning Owens’ comment about Garcia possibly being gay.

To Patrick’s credit, he did finally say something along the lines of what was suggested above, on what Owens should have said to Playboy. But his comments kept filtering in like subliminal cuts.

The subject was even covered on today’s afternoon show by some stand-in for Eric Kuselias on ESPN’s, the SportsBash. Even this guy went on and on about Owens’ comments about Garcia possibly being gay.

Finally, on Thursday, Garcia fired back in the press by saying that he doesn’t have time for this nonsense, or something to that effect.

Good for him.

Now, back to Wednesday’s show, Kuselias was talking about his beehive at home with neat little sound affects like bees with intermittent sprinkles of Owen’s comments again.

Just one question: When did ESPN feel that sports news is a big joke?

I’m wondering if this was some subliminal message about the birds and the bees and don’t stray from the trees type of thingy?

They pretended to pound Owen’s for his classless comments while throwing in the gay part as if it were a treat for the listeners, or something.

Anyway, does anyone really care if Garcia is gay? ESPN shouldn’t and neither would we if media outlets like that wouldn’t allow it to last through two days worth of radio programs.

Filed by J.D. Long