The time may finally by right for a gay NFL player to come busting out of the closet, though the biggest challenges he may face exist outside the locker room.
According to CBS Sports’ Mike Freeman:
Based on interviews over the past several weeks with current and former players, I’m told that a current gay NFL player is strongly considering coming out publicly within the next few months — and after doing so, the player would attempt to continue his career.
I’m told this player feels the time is now for someone to take this step — despite homophobic remarks from San Francisco 49ers defensive back Chris Culliver and the controversy arising recently at the Indianapolis Scouting combine, when prospects were asked questions about their sexuality.
This player’s true concern, I’m told, is not the reaction inside an NFL locker room but outside of it. The player fears he will suffer serious harm from homophobic fans, and that is the only thing preventing him from coming out. My sources will not say who this alleged player is.
There has never been an active openly gay player in a major American team sport, but the information I’ve gathered on the player in question comes from several current and former players.
“I honestly think the players of the NFL have been ready for an openly gay player for quite some time now,” said Scott Fujita, a free agent linebacker who recently penned a letter in support of gay marriage for The New York Times. “Trust me, the coming out of a player would create much bigger waves outside the locker room than inside. The way I’ve seen the conversation around LGBT issues evolve, especially in the past few years, has been encouraging. Guys are more accepting than they used to be. Even those who raise personal objections to homosexuality, some of whom are good friends of mine, would still be able to coexist and accept a gay teammate.”
Fujita was among the supporters of a marriage equality brief to the Supreme Court started by NFL players Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo. Should the Supreme Court overturn Prop 8, Freeman said it would “send yet another signal to closeted gay NFL players that the environment is changing for the better.”
EGO
It is time for all LGBTs to come out and let people know that we are in all walks
of life. There are several LGBTs who are in the eye of the public who have come out.
The repeal of DADT and the support of same sex marriage by national figures is a good
example of our civilization becoming more educated about LGBT.
LubbockGayMale
I hope he is sincere in this, and I wish him the best. I have to applaud ANY athlete who comes out before retirement, and feel this is the only way to change attitudes about gays in sports. A retired athlete can be dismissed as ‘marginal’, ‘non-contributing’, ‘practice squad material only’, etc, but an athlete under contract cannot be ignored!
technicolornina
I don’t follow football much (my sister and bro-in-law are the big sports fans in the family), but I might feel the need to actively support a team that accepted an openly gay player (can it be Pittsburgh? That way I don’t have to face the whole “oh god, my teams are going up against each other” dilemma).
Anonymous Player–Some dicks will speak against you. They always will. Whether it’s 2013 or 3013, they ALWAYS WILL. But plenty of people just won’t care, and plenty more will go “really? Cool! Now show me a touchdown from the sixty-yard line, man.” Go for it.
Windsor519
@EGO: Why?! As a gay community – a virtual one online – we now know ‘what we’re getting’ before coming out in real life. Almost every gay social site suggests you’ll be coming out to a group of rude, catty, elitist assholes who think they’re too good for you, the ‘dating pool’ are mostly guys you want absolutely nothing to do with in terms of their personality or character, and the concept of ‘friendship’ amongst these guys is a foreign one – lying, two-faced, it’s almost a cross of the worst character traits of narcissistic women and judgmental men into one gay community. We aren’t there for each other; we treat one another as if we’ve never met or we snub each other for such trivial reasons and our expectations of each other are porn fantasies that we ourselves don’t measure up to. Now why on earth would any closeted gay man want to go running out and say he’s gay in real life when it’s clear that he’ll most likely be alone six months later, ‘the community’ will be super friendly and interested (until the next new guy comes out) and the liberation that is felt from the ‘freedom to marry’ will be short lived once it’s discovered that in order to enjoy the benefits of same-sex marriage, one has to have someone to marry. And within the small percentage of men who are openly gay, that doesn’t yield much. This is why fewer gay men are coming out in real life and instead live a fantasy online where they can look at photos of non-gay college-aged jocks, create a profile that portrays a fantasy of who they wish they were and looked like…the line between fantasy (the guys we wish to God were gay but never are) and reality (the guys who, unfortunately, are gay and are a good 20 years older and 100 pounds fatter than those models we fantasize about) are so blurred now that coming out is no longer necessary. Finding a relationship (especially for gay men) is such a losing bet, why bother?
hotshot70
I can see all the jokes: “Is he a tight end? After I’m with him, he’ll be a wide receiver!”
LadyL
@Windsor519: Windsor519, I’m sorry your experiences have been so unhappy that they’ve left with you such a bleak and bitter worldview, but coming out is necessary, always.
Understand that no one comes out to a group, catty, elitist or otherwise. We don’t do it for the “gay community” (whatever that hell that is). We come out, finally, for ourselves, for own health and well-being, our own sanity. That is why this NFL athlete, whoever he is, is considering coming out of the closet–because the closet is a dark and scary twilight place that strangles self-respect, stifles self-confidence, strait-jackets honest discussion and poisons loving relationships.
I hope this is real and that he does make the leap. I’m not a sports fan, but I’m rooting for him–and in your heart of hearts, I’ll bet you are too.