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Kissing Is Not Foreign To Athletes

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By Andy Staples, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2007

Updated: 09/18/2007 12:44 am

GAINESVILLE - As sports kisses go, University of Florida safety Tony Joiner's peck Saturday on the cheek of quarterback Tim Tebow could have been worse. After all, Joiner smooched his roommate to celebrate a Tebow touchdown run that gave the Gators a 21-6 lead.

That sure beats the snog Chelsea soccer club manager Gianluca Vialli received from Chelsea chairman Ken Bates in 2000. For Vialli, it was a kiss off. Bates had just fired him.

'Luca is a gentleman and we parted on good terms,' Bates told BBC Sport. 'In fact, as he left the room and I led him to the door, we departed with the usual Italian formalities of a bearhug and a kiss."

Tebow and Joiner have had fun with their kiss, though it promises to follow them for eternity now that two clips of it have hit YouTube. A four-second video shows only Joiner smacking Tebow on the left cheek as the CBS broadcast transitions into a commercial break. A 92-second video provides more context, including play-by-play man Verne Lundquist's description of what may have been the first same-sex, interracial kiss ever broadcast on the venerable network's airwaves.

'The African-American senior and Tim Tebow, the white sophomore,' Lundquist said, 'they have become very fast friends.

Told Monday morning that anyone with Internet access could see just how fast, Tebow could only laugh.

'Great,' Tebow said. 'Somebody will probably show me that when I go to class here in a little bit.'

Tebow shouldn't be ashamed of Joiner's kiss. Smooching and sports have locked lips plenty of times.

In 1971, a buxom blonde tumbled out of the stands at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium and got to first base with Pete Rose. Nabbed at the Astrodome in 1985 after she pecked Houston Astros Nolan Ryan and Dickie Thon, Morganna 'The Kissing Bandit' Roberts avoided conviction by arguing that gravity - she claimed to wear a size 60I bra - made her fall over a fence and onto the field.

In 1988, prior to the first game of the NBA Finals, Los Angeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson and Detroit Pistons point guard Isiah Thomas kissed at midcourt. No one made fun of Thomas, who would have allowed the offending party to kiss the fists of Pistons goons Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn.

Tour de France riders actually compete for kisses. Typically, two gorgeous models employed by sponsor Credit Lyonnaise give the overall leader a congratulatory peck when presenting him with the yellow jersey.

Former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath once famously proclaimed that he wanted to kiss ESPN sideline reporter Suzy Kolber. The winner of NASCAR's annual race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway kisses the bricks after taking the checkered flag. The winner of golf's British Open kisses the Claret Jug. Olympic figure-skating venues have an entire area dedicated to kissing (and crying).

The act itself can be a sport, and Eastern Europe may be the Southeastern Conference of competitive kissing. On Sept. 1, some 6,980 couples in the Bosnian hamlet of Tuzla kissed for 10 consecutive seconds to steal a Guinness world record from those hicks over in Hungary.

That clip made it to YouTube, too. As of Monday afternoon, it had been viewed 509 times in 15 days. The Joiner-Tebow kiss had been viewed more than 10,000 times in fewer than 48 hours.

Reporter Andy Staples can be reached at (352) 262-3719 or astaples@tampatrib.com.

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