NPR Sports

NBA player Jason Collins came out as gay in Sports Illustrated this week. Reaction to his announcement has been largely positive. Melissa Block speaks with former tennis great Martina Navratilova about Collin's decision to come out, and Navratilova's own experience after she came out over 30 years ago.

For Jason Collins, coming out just might prove a winning career strategy.

Before this week, the NBA center seemed like just another second-tier professional athlete, slouching toward retirement while still in his 30s. But all that changed overnight when Collins acknowledged he was gay in an interview with Sports Illustrated magazine published Monday.

A soccer referee who was reportedly punched in the face by a teenager during a game is in critical condition in a Utah hospital, four days after the incident.

After sustaining what seemed to be minor injuries, the 46-year-old official later lost consciousness — leading doctors to find "far more serious head injuries than thought," The Salt Lake City Tribune reports.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. So begins an essay in the upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated, written by 34-year-old NBA center Jason Collins. And it's a big moment, not just for pro basketball but for all pro sports.

"I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport," National Basketball Association center Jason Collins writes in a Sports Illustrated essay posted Monday, "but since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation."

With that, the 34-year-old veteran of 12 NBA seasons and six pro teams becomes the first active player in the four major American team sports to come out.

When Fox Sun Sports reporter Kelly Nash was at Fenway Park in Boston on Saturday to cover the Houston Astros' game with the Red Sox, she decided to take a few "selfie" photos while atop the famous Green Monster in left field.

Below, batting practice was underway. So some balls were flying in her direction. Nash turned her back to the field, held her smartphone up and started snapping.

And when she looked at one of the photos she'd just taken, Nash says, she discovered she'd come much closer to being beaned than she'd realized.

In 2011, he was the hottest name in football, for his "Tebowing" and for leading the Denver Broncos into the playoffs.

Before the 2012 season, he was traded to the New York Jets — putting him smack dab in the center of the brightest of the media's spotlights.

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF SPORTS THEM MUSIC)

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The 78th Annual National Football League players' selection meeting, what you probably think of as the NFL draft, well, it wrapped up yesterday. And NPR's Mike Pesca, who is our top pick, was monitoring as it played out over the last three days.

Hey, Mike.

MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Ah, thank you.

MARTIN: You're welcome.

PESCA: Its swell to be a top pick

MARTIN: It was close.

PESCA: I'm putting on the WESUN hat right now.