Two men really wanted a date with American footballer, Michael Strahan. The giant Giants player auctioned himself off at Buddha Bar's first anniversary party. A number of women threw money at his hot body, but the male couple came out the winners, according to Page Six:

Giants defensive end Michael Strahan put himself on the charity auction block the other night at Buddha Bar's first anniversary. He hoped to get a date with a lady, but the male sports fans in the crowd weren't having it. Two guys outbid 13 gals, leaving Strahan to agree to take both men to dinner for the price of $10,000 each. The dough will go to the Institute for Civic Leadership, a nonprofit educational organization.

Does this make Strahan gay for pay? Maybe… Regardless, it's nice to know an athlete's willing to have a date with not one, but two men.

New York Giants' defensive end Michael Strahan isn't going to great lengths to defend against rumors of his being gay, despite his ex-wife's claims. The trouble began last March when Strahan filed for divorce from his wife Jean, who then proceeded to file a domestic violence complaint against him (which was quickly dismissed). Fast forward to last week to divorce court when Jean claimed Michael lived an "alternative lifestyle." But, as the New York Daily News' Michael O'Keeffe notes, Strahan didn't take the typical route of a professional athlete denying he's gay (read: He's not Mike Piazza, who held a press conference to announce his heterosexuality).

The New York Giants' defensive end didn't hold a hastily organized press conference to loudly proclaim his love for the ladies. He didn't head to a trendy nightclub and pose for the paparazzi with the finest-looking women he could find.

Instead, Strahan went to a gym in the West Village, the birthplace of the gay rights movement. He went to dinner at a Meatpacking District hotspot with Ian Smith, the TV doctor Jean Strahan had suggested was his lover (Smith, who is married, says he is not gay). He told a New York radio station that he had many friends who were gay or bisexual and that he was cool with that.

"This is New York City," Strahan said during a brief phone call to the station. "If you can't accept people for being people, then you have no business being here."

Cue the requisite debate over whether professional sports are becoming more tolerant toward gays in their midst. Is one professional athlete – who still holds the small possibility of not even begin gay – having a more rational reaction to homosexuality going to change the industry? Certainly not. But a move like this could certainly be Giant.

Strahan's handling of `gay' tag a breath of fresh air [NYDN]