Crush Of The Week.

Be Ours, Dale Hansen.

Dear Dale Hansen,

How's it going for you on this lovely Valentine's Day? We'll try not to distract you for too long; we know you've got to get ready for your appearance on Ellen — bet that's something you weren't counting on at the beginning of the week — later today.

We really just couldn't help but drop you a line after your blistering Monday night commentary excoriating the unnamed NFL executives who questioned Michael Sam's NFL prospects.

We're nothing if not opinionated in this space, but to be totally honest, we couldn't have said it nearly as well:

It's like you read our minds.

Coming from someone who's about as legacy media as it gets in this town, we can't tell you how much we appreciate what you did. Instead of running scared from the issue, or reporting both sides as if they are equally valid, you called the idiots out on their bullshit. As far as journalism goes, the whole thing was about as heroic as it gets.

Thankfully, your piece quickly built some steam behind it, too. It got picked up by the usual sports media suspects, Deadspin and Awful Announcing sure, but it quickly spread to the likes of Salon and Huffington Post as well. It warmed the cockles of hearts to see Dallas media, for once, being lauded for doing something genuinely progressive, and it's all thanks to you.

Look, we know we've had our differences in the past — we still wish you'd cover a little less football and a little more baseball, or even tried to correctly pronounce the names of the hockey players in this town — but we really couldn't be much more smitten, or much prouder.

You've been fighting the good fight since you won a Peabody for your reporting on Pony Express-era SMU football, and it's clear you still have a lot of important work left to do. For our sake, and the rest of our fair city, we hope you'll stick around for a long time.

Be ours,

Stephen Young and the rest of the Central Track Staff