In football it’s obviously impossible to come out – because no-one has done it. No one. It’s crazy and sad. I thought: ‘Why don’t I step away and deal with this and my family and be happy?’ Imagine going to training every day and being in that spotlight? It’s been a bit of a circus anyway – but that would have been crazy. And you wouldn’t have much control because clubs are pushing you in different directions.
“I was just fearful. I was very fearful how my team-mates were going to react. Was it going to change them? Even though I’d still be the same person would it change the way they acted towards me – when we were in the dressing room or the bus?…
“I don’t think I would have been able to go training the next day. That would be so scary. The guys might have said, ‘That’s great, Robbie.’ Maybe. But because no-one’s done it and because of the things I’ve heard in the dressing room I just thought: ‘I need to get away from this – make my announcement, find peace, go from there.'”
— California-born 25-year-old former soccer player Robbie Rogers discusses coming out and retiring with The Guardian. He describes himself in a New York Times profile as a Catholic and a conservative who has never even hooked up with a guy….so free agent?
Photo: Facebook
2eo
I want to say something comforting but I just see another self loather.
MikeE
@2eo: I might not go quite that far… but I was surprised to read all the admiration for this guy when he came out, and all the talk about courage.
Had he actually BEEN courageous, he would have continued PLAYING soccer. He took the coward’s easy way out. He merits no more admiration than any other ordinary person who finally comes out of the closet.
DarkZephyr
@MikeE: Uh, coming out of the closet is pretty damned brave, even for an “ordinary person”. Don’t sell the average gay or lesbian short!
viveutvivas
Oh my god he’s hot!
B Damion
A real queen would have kept playing soccer even with all the odds stacked up against her
her. Please honey…all the queens now and before your time have made life alittle bit easier for you. So man up and go play that soccer Ms.Rogers.
erikwm
TRANSLATION: Oh noes! What if someone doesn’t want to be my friend now?! What is someone says something nasty to me?!
Man up! If a group of drag queens could stare down and fight the NYPD in 1969, when there was real risk to being gay and gender non-conformist, Mr. Rogers certainly could face a locker room of teammates as a gay man in 2013.
This guy is a coward.
balehead
Just another media ho making the decision her team mates should have had “the equal right” to make for themselves…what a coward!…
balehead
I said something smelled funny about this one…..
kayakriver
@2eo: @MikeE: easy to say, hard to be in the guy’s shoes.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Wow! You bitches must’ve have smelt blood or something, the way you relished attacking this guy — entirely unfairly. Have you even read the fucking interview or seen the NYtimes video? This is what happens when moms allow the basement-dwellers an hour of unsupervised Internet. Big mistake.
ArthurTreacher
Sounds like he’s got “outing remorse”. Trust me, they have gotten to this one, which is sad. Expect the usual soul-destroying rhetoric out of his sweet mouth soon.
iBLOW
They guy is young and he’s scared at least him came out and didn’t commit suicide instead.
MuscleModelBlog.com
@iBLOW:
I agree. We have no idea what his conservative Catholic upbringing was like. He must be incredibly conflicted.
Kieran
A professional athlete comes out and he’s even taunted here on a gay website by good-for-nothing slimeballs who refer to him as “her” and “Ms Rogers”. We can only imagine what he’d get in the locker room itself.
steve.72
@MikeE: I totally agree!
Billysees
@Kieran: 14
Interesting comment Kieran.
Robbie did the best he could do.
We’re all a bunch of fragile and needy people, and the whole world also.
2eo
@kayakriver: Size 13 shoes here. I’m out at my job and before I broke my shoulder I was also out for the rugby team I played for.
So yeah, I do have the ability to call from experience.
Lefty
@2eo: That’s your experience, not his. Again, none of us know what it’s like to be in his shoes.
Good for him for coming out.
viveutvivas
God save us from the judgmental queens!
Eric Auerbach
God some of you have ugly minds!
JayHobeSound
Chances are his teammates already had a good idea he was gay. Doesn’t mean they all would have supported his “coming out” while still on the team, but odds are high that he would have received more positive support than he gives them credit for. There would have been a buzz in the press for a short while of course, but few news stories last more than 48 hours anyway. After a couple weeks, he would have faded into being the soccer pla yer whoh is gay – no big deal really. However, I suspect the fear is less with teammates and club management than it is with the fans. Soccer fans riot when they win or lose, they have fistfights with visiting fans of opposing teams, so they were likely foremost on his mind, and understandably so.
IzzyLuna
I wanna see him on Sean Cody dot com.
2eo
@Eric Auerbach: Hey, I might be ugly, but my mind is pure evil, and nothing else.
Billysees
@viveutvivas: 19
” God save us from the judgmental queens! ”
Funny…….lol…….
@JayHobeSound: 21
Smart comment. Very intelligent assessment.
Fans can be awfully angry and mean people.