Man, what's that smell? Oh right, it's a lawsuit.

In a move that almost defies comprehension, Law & Order: SVU decided to take the Boston/New York rivalry over the cliff with a ludicrous episode entitled "The Closet" that appeared on TV Tuesday night.

In the episode, a pro football player who wears No. 12, has a cleft chin and a supermodel girlfriend, plays in a red-and-blue stadium and is "the best quarterback in football" just so happens to be the prime suspect in a gay murder.

Saucy!

The names are a bit different, of course. Brady is Lincoln Haver in the episode, and Gisele is Natasha Gorski. Bill Belichick is played by a non-responsive robot.

Ironically, the murdered man was an investment banker, and not a backup quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.

Anyway, the Brady character ends up getting arrested and convicted for the crime - even though someone else did it, thus outing him as a gay man and ruining his career.

Totally subtle Law & Order: SVU. Still, it was better than your original idea of putting a message up on the screen for an hour that said "Tom Brady is a closet gay and we hate his guts."

I just hope Boston responds in kind. My suggestion is a Boston Legal episode where two openly gay New York area ball players come to town to play the "Crimson Sox" and file a class action law suit against the abusive Boston fans.

The players names: Albert Rodriguez and Darren Jeter. Subtle, but effective.


[HT: Boston Herald. Awful Announcing also has a good post on this.]