Michael Strahan, the former defensive end for the New York Giants, and his fiancee, Nicole Murphy, have filmed a video in support of marriage equality for the Human Rights Campaign.

“As a defensive end for the New York Giants, I always played the game tough but fair,” says Strahan, now an actor and football analyst for Fox, in the video. “It’s unfair to stop committed couples from getting married.”

The former NFL star joins professional athletes Sean Avery from the New York Rangers and Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns in contributing a video to the New Yorkers for Marriage Equality Campaign. The campaign uses high-profile figures and everyday New Yorkers to urge viewers to lobby their lawmakers to pass the marriage equality bill before the legislative session ends on June 20.

Full Story from The Advocate

Click here for gay marriage resources in New York.

 

By Mike Sakal, East Valley Tribune

MESA, Ariz. — The large black wool banner with the words “New York Giants” in orange lettering was packed away folded inside a closet of Robert Steckner’s den for decades.

The banner is believed to have been made by a merchants association to celebrate the New York Giants baseball team’s return to Phoenix for spring training in 1955 after beating the Cleveland Indians in the World Series the previous fall. It was given to Steckner, a native New Yorker and life-long Giants fan, by former Phoenix Mayor Frank Murphy.

After Robert Steckner died in 1997, his daughter, Susie Steckner, a freelance writer in metropolitan Phoenix who now is sifting through photograph collections to complete a book project about the Cactus League, placed the banner on a shelf inside her garage where it stayed for many years. Two years ago, she and her siblings donated the keepsake to the Mesa Historical Museum exhibit “Play Ball: The Cactus League Experience,” dedicated to the history of spring training in Arizona.

“When the museum started the Play Ball exhibit, I knew the museum would be a great home for the banner,” Steckner said. “It’s a perfect fit.

“I guess you could say that this book is a labor of love because my dad was a longtime New Yorker, a lifelong Giants fan (New York and San Francisco) and also a history buff.”

The banner now is among several hundred artifacts and stories featured in the ongoing Play Ball exhibit that represents all 15 teams that make Arizona their spring training home, some of which have done so for more than half a century. The exhibit also features some of the teams that trained in Arizona for a short time — the New York Yankees in 1951, the Seattle Pilots in 1969, the Baltimore Orioles in Scottsdale in the 1950s and the Boston Red Sox in Scottsdale and Phoenix in the 1950s and ’60s.

The exhibit is housed at three venues — the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe, the Arizona Museum for Youth in Mesa and a kiosk inside Terminal 4 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, where it’s poised to greet travelers arriving for the Major League All-Star Game at Chase Field in July. The Mesa Historical Museum plans to have a permanent home for the Play Ball exhibit in the future and its own museum within the next three to five years in Mesa as more corporate sponsors and Major League teams partner with the project.

The book’s working title, “Cactus League,” which will be another perfect fit to accompany the exhibit, is on track to be published in early 2012 in time for the beginning of spring training as Arizona is celebrating the state’s centennial.

NEW YORK — Former New York Giants star Michael Strahan is the latest sports celebrity to support same-sex marriage in New York.

Strahan and his fiancée, Nicole Murphy, filmed a 38-second video for the New Yorkers for Marriage Equality campaign.

“As a defensive end for the New York Giants, I always played the game tough but fair,” Strahan says in the video. “And I feel it’s unfair to stop committed couples from being married.”

The video closes with Strahan saying, “We believe everyone should have the right to get married.”

“Just as we do,” Murphy follows, while exchanging a smile with Strahan.

In recent weeks, New York Rangers forward Sean Avery and Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash also filmed video segments produced by Human Rights Campaign, a national organization leading the effort to legalize same-sex marriage in New York.

Nash lives in New York during the NBA offseason.

“There are a lot of tough New Yorkers, but none tougher than Michael Strahan, one of the most feared and accomplished defensive ends in history,” said Brian Ellner, the HRC’s senior New York strategist. “He’s our Super Bowl champion for New Yorkers for Marriage [Equality].

“We are honored that he and his fiancée, Nicole, would join us in this historic fight for fairness.”

In 15 seasons with the Giants, Strahan compiled 141.5 quarterback sacks, the fifth-most in NFL history. The Giants won the Super Bowl in 2007, Strahan’s final season.

Murphy is the ex-wife of actor Eddie Murphy.

Looks as if Giants 101 joined the crew of media who went out to cover the Giants’ workouts at Bergen Catholic this week, and they have a couple of reports so far, including this one on rehabbing receivers and this one on comments by Shaun O’Hara on the workouts and the labor situation.

“The business side of the league is never pretty for the players and it’s never pretty for the fans. This is the ultimate manifestation of that,” O’Hara said. “There’s no more respected an owner than John Mara. What the players love about him is that he’s not in it for the business, he’s in it for the game. The problem is that there are 31 other guys who all have to agree on the same thing.”

That is, of course, the problem, but the recent round of talks between players and owners indicate there’s been some thawing on that and a number of other fronts, so maybe things are moving the right way. O’Hara said he didn’t know anything about any progress that was made this week, and that the team has talked about getting together again later in the summer if the lockout lingers.

What’s good about the Giants getting together this week, from a fan’s perspective, is that it will stop the nonsense that was being thrown around about the lack of team workouts reflecting poorly on Eli Manning as a leader. I don’t think we can draw any real conclusions about anything based on which teams are working out and which aren’t and who’s attending how many workouts, etc. And even if we could — even if there were some predictive 2011 regular-season value in any of this — I certainly don’t think the fact that the Giants weren’t among the first teams to organize player workouts or that maybe they haven’t had as many as other teams have reflects on Manning’s ability to motivate and organize his teammates. But people are going to think what they think, and on Eli the thinking is very often unjustifiably negative. This week may or may not have accomplished anything real for the Giants, but it gives people one less thing about which to rip poor Eli.

NEW YORK (WFAN) – Last week, Giants running back Brandon Jacobs said there was “no chance” Plaxico Burress would return to New York once freed from prison on a gun charge.

The Philadelphia Eagles were thought to be the former Giants star’s preferred destination, an idea bolstered by the Phillies cap Burress donned upon his release.

How quickly things can change.

“You never know what may happen,” Burress told the Wall Street Journal in his first post-jail interview Friday. “I love New York. My fan base has always supported me there, and I’ve had teammates there who I’ve shared special moments with outside of football.”

Why the sudden change of heart? For starters, a report from The Associated Press on Wednesday stated “a person familiar with (the Eagles’) thinking (said) Burress isn’t in their plans.”

Eagles quarterback Michael Vick and several other Eagles have said they’d welcome Burress to Philadelphia.

“Absolutely it would be a great addition for our team,” Vick told WIP radio last month. ” I think we can fit him in and make it work. Obviously the ultimate goal at the end of the day is to put that ring on your finger.”

Another New York team may look to make a play for Burress. The Jets, already linked to Randy Moss, could look to fill a need with the receiver if they lose Santonio Holmes, Braylon Edwards or Brad Smith to free agency.

Burress’ interview centered mainly on the nearly two years he spent in prison, time that the receiver said took an “emotional toll.”

“There is nothing pleasant about prison,” Burress said. “There’s so much I can tell you and (at the same time) no one thing I can put my finger on. … There were definitely some guys I was around who’d done things that made me say, ‘Really, seriously, I am here?’”

Good news, Giants fans? Sound off in the comments below…