Gay Bowl X

Gay Bowl 1

   In the first gay flag football tournament since the 1994 Gay Games in New York, Los Angeles won the inaugural Gay Super Bowl, beating squads from Boston and San Francisco. The two-day event was held April 27-28 in Los Angeles, and featured a round-robin format. In the first game, San Francisco jumped to an early lead and held off a late Boston rally to win, 26-12.

Los Angeles was dominant in its two games, beating San Francisco 64-12, then Boston 74-0, to take the title. Outsports founders Jim Buzinski and Cyd Zeigler who played for the Los Angeles, organized the event. On the tournament's second day, the three teams pooled their players and had a blast playing 3 hours of pickup football. The Southern California weather was perfect and Cheer LA provided cheerleading color for the event.

The second Gay Super Bowl was held April 26-27, 2003, in San Francisco.  The tournament featured teams from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

   The Los Angeles Motion won the tournament for a second time, beating Chicago who had made their first appearance, in the tournament final 54-24. The best game of the weekend was Atlanta's wild 49-48 win over the San Diego Hurricanes in a wild card game. Atlanta went ahead with five plays remaining on an interception return. San Diego had a golden chance to win, but a pass went off the hands of a receiver in the end zone as time was running out.

    The Washington Monuments, making their first appearance, went unbeaten to win GayBowl III during a rainy Boston Columbus Day Weekend. The two-day tournament, now called "GayBowl", featured seven teams, including newcomers from Washington D.C. making it the largest gay flag football tournament ever. Saturday's round-robin play was held under mostly sunny skies, but Sunday's playoffs went off in a day-long cold rain. Former All-Pro New England Patriots linebacker Andre Tippett was a special guest on Saturday, tossing the ceremonial coin. Tippett, who attended at the request of the Patriots, said he thought it was important to show solidarity with the gay community and try to help break down barriers in sports.

    The Washington Monuments came away with their second consecutive flag football tournament trophy at Gay Bowl IV in Atlanta the weekend of Oct. 8-10. Washington beat Boston, 34-33, in overtime when Boston missed a one-point conversion that would have sent the game into a second overtime. The final drew the largest crowd ever for a single GayBowl game. Players of other teams and fans in the stands hollered out cheers throughout the game. It was great to see such camaraderie amongst the teams that, just hours before, were beating up on one another on the field.

   The big event returned to the West Coast after two years, as San Diego hosted GayBowl V on the weekend of October 7-9. The Chicago Flames won the tournament championship under the direction of tournament MVP, Quarterback Will Ward. Chicago's receivers caught virtually everything thrown to them and it showed in the results. This was only the second of five GayBowls to be played without rain. Players departed San Diego wondering if they could host the tournament every three or four years. The weather over the weekend was beautiful in October, and made the whole event that much more enjoyable.

    The New York Warriors came away with their first tournament trophy at Gay Bowl VI in Dallas the weekend of Oct. 6-8. The level of play in the tournament had gone up every year to this point and 2006 was no exception. The athleticism increased to a higher level, in addition to the overall football smarts and play-calling. By all accounts, there were seven teams that could have won the title; the New York Warriors, Chicago Flames, Washington Monuments, LA Motion, San Diego Sharks, Salt Lake City Avalanche and the Atlanta Storm. Each edged out the other by the slightest of margins.

    The city of San Diego was represented well in Gay Superbowl 7 in New York City, as both teams that represented America's Finest City made it to the semifinals, with the San Diego Bolts advancing all the way to the Championship Game! This tournament featured sixteen teams from twelve cities and was played at the newly renovated East River Park. This also marked the first time that the national flag football contest was played on artificial turf.

    The New York Warriors came away with their third consecutive flag football tournament trophy at Gay Bowl VIII in Salt Lake City, the weekend of Oct. 10-12. The tournament itself went like clockwork, but the weather was definately something to write home about. Even though the only snowfall came Saturday night and early Sunday morning before the games, temperatures throughout the weekend stayed in the 30s with winds gusting up to 35mph at times. Early Sunday games played on snowy fields, but all of it had melted away by mid-afternoon.

    Won by Los Angeles Motion over San Diego Bolts, 31-30 The competition took a big leap forward this year as the difference between the top 10 teams narrowed significantly. The New York Warriors winning streak came to an end at 19 games when the 10th-seeded Michigan Panthers beat them in the round robin; And their quest for a four-peat fell short when the Phoenix Hellraisers avenged their quarterfinal loss last year. The final game saw Los Angeles return to the final game for the first time since 2003; San Diego returned to the final game for the second time in three years. San Diego jumped out to a 12-0 lead, but Los Angeles came back and took a 7-point lead with two minutes left. When San Diego scored with 2 plays left, their 2-point conversion failed and L.A. became the second city to win three Gay Bowls. It was a California sweep as the Silicon Valley Crash beat the South Florida Cat5 in the consolation finals, 33-13. The Gay Bowl fell on the same weekend as the National Equality March in D.C.