The Hoton Oilers Had Two (Mostly) Openly Gay Players In 1993

Contents:

• EDMONTON OILERS CELEBRATE PRI NIGHT BY HONORG OPENLY GAY PLAYER LE PROKOP
• PROKOP REFLECTS ON YEAR SCE G OUT AS GAY
• THE NFL ALREADY HAD TWO GAY PLAYERS 20 YEARS AGO
• THE NFL'S BEEN OKAY WH GAY PLAYERS FOR 20 YEARS? YEAH RIGHT
• GAY NHL PROSPECT LE PROKOP GETS TRAD TO HIS HOMETOWN
• FORMER OILERS SAY TWO PLAYERS ON 1993 TEAM WERE GAY, NOBODY RED
• '93 OILERS SAY TEAM HAD GAY TEAMMAT, WAS 'NO BIG AL'
• THE HOTON OILERS HAD TWO (MOSTLY) OPENLY GAY PLAYERS IN 1993
• EX-HOTON OILERS SAY THEY HAD GAY TEAMMAT; WAS ‘NO BIG AL’
• TWO EX-HOTON OILERS WERE GAY AND ACCEPTED BY TEAMMAT, ACRDG TO REPORT

EDMONTON OILERS CELEBRATE PRI NIGHT BY HONORG OPENLY GAY PLAYER LE PROKOP

But the Oilers’ celebratn had a twist — they were able to honor an active player who is gay, Le Prokop. Prokop, 19, plays for the Edmonton Oil Kgs, the Oilers’ Wtern Hockey League anchise, and he me out as gay July.

If Prokop mak onto an NHL roster, he will be the first openly gay player league history.

PROKOP REFLECTS ON YEAR SCE G OUT AS GAY

After g out, Prokop did not keep quiet about beg gay like some other pro athlet. The play-by-play broadster for Uti, the New Jersey Devils' Amerin Hockey League affiliate, publicly me out as gay October 2021, fluenced by Prokop's cisn.

"I want to be the first openly gay player to play the NHL, " he said.

THE NFL ALREADY HAD TWO GAY PLAYERS 20 YEARS AGO

The NFL's Hoton Oilers had two gay players on s 1993 team, acrdg to terviews wh players om The Hoton Chronicle. Most signifintly, nobody on the team really article is om the archive of our partner NFL's Hoton Oilers had two gay players on s 1993 team, acrdg to terviews wh players  The Hoton Chronicle, and most signifintly, nobody on the team really Chronicle's Ultimate Texans blog provid a preview of s g Sunday piece on the Oilers' tumultuo 1993 season. In extensive terviews, several players acknowledged they didn't re that two "key members" of the team were gay.

”It's not the most enlightened thg to scribe the homosexualy of the players, who were not intified by the Chronicle, as "not exactly right, " but still, the team's acceptance is a big step for gay football players ntemplatg g out. “Everybody knew certa guys (were gay).

THE NFL'S BEEN OKAY WH GAY PLAYERS FOR 20 YEARS? YEAH RIGHT

)Acceptance of a gay player among teammat uld go a long way toward more athlet g out publicly the major sports leagu. When NBA forward Jason Colls me out as gay to Sports Illtrated this sprg, he beme the first active player the major major Amerin sports leagu to do so.

Siarly, the NFL me close to havg a "handful" of gay players e out unison back the sprg, but "fear" of beg ostracized gay players were accepted back 1993 — on a playoff team that went 12-4, by the way — works to feat some of the fears current gay players surely article is om the archive of our partner The Wire. Former Hoton Oilers players says the 1993 roster was okay wh two spected gay teammat, but their ments aren't as supportive as they've been ma to Hoton Oilers 1994. (AP / Lynn Sladky)The Hoton Chronicle ran a 9, 000-word oral history of the 1993 Hoton Oilers last week, and ments om former players Lamar Lathon and Bubba McDowell regardg gay teammat, a ty part of the story, garnered the most attentn om natnal the Chronicle:McDowell: “Everybody knew certa guys [were gay].

”As more and more retired athlet have e out recent years, homosexualy and spots has bee a high-profile topic lately. Sce this story surfaced, Lathon’s and McDowell’s ments have been ced as support for the ia that NFL might be ready for openly gay players. Sports, for example, led s verage by sayg “The topic of whether a gay player would be accepted a NFL locker room is probably overblown.

GAY NHL PROSPECT LE PROKOP GETS TRAD TO HIS HOMETOWN

”Remend ReadgWhile that seems to be the general takeaway om the Chronicle piece, some have treated as a evince that locker rooms have been reasonably iendly environments for gay players for two s.

The New York Daily News opened s story, “The qutn of whether the NFL is ready for a gay player was already answered 20 years ago. The language ed—vague ments alludg to tchg them the proverbial closet durg hotel stays and lunch breaks, and most of the team knowg “thgs were not exactly right”—tells a different story, one where homosexualy was kd of, sort of, but not exactly, okay. It sounds like beg gay was only excable bee was kept somewhat secret and bee those guys were beasts on the that Lathon and McDowell are the only players quoted, we don’t really get a full picture of what happened.

FORMER OILERS SAY TWO PLAYERS ON 1993 TEAM WERE GAY, NOBODY RED

Still, if the ments are te—that generally no big issu arose om havg (somewhat closeted) gay players the locker room, uld shed light on what might be like for the first active player who cis to e the ments om another member of that 1993 Oilers team offers a different visn of what life might have been like for a gay player the ‘90s, and by extensn, what uld look like today. For years, Ernt Givs, a two-time Pro-Bowl receiver, was acced of beg gay.

'93 OILERS SAY TEAM HAD GAY TEAMMAT, WAS 'NO BIG AL'

But when you start stereotypg athlet, start puttg that gay thg on them, that hurts more than anythg. Regardls of whether he was one of the athlet McDowell and Lathon were talkg about, he pated a much bleaker picture of what was like to be a (actual or imaged) gay football player at the time: Beg a crimal and puttg liv at risk was more acceptable than lovg another Lathon’s and McDowell’s ments aren’t proof that the NFL has been ready for gay players for 20 years.

THE HOTON OILERS HAD TWO (MOSTLY) OPENLY GAY PLAYERS IN 1993

They’re, at bt, jt another remr of how far the NFL, and profsnal sports general, still has to go when to acceptg gay was always slightly ahead of the tim when me to social progrs, and many ways has been a platform for men and women to break racial and cultural barriers before those barriers were broken wir society. But, at a time when 18 stat have legalized gay marriage, and when we have openly gay teachers, rporate CEOs, and policians, sports is, perhaps for the first time, behd the rt of the culture the move towards openns and one of the four major US sports has an openly gay athlete currently playg. Rhos, who ni he’s gay, has explibly found himself out of the league, and ’s hard to image ’s bee of lack of talent—he’s one of the bt the Febary, San Francis 49ers rnerback Chris Culliver was wily cricized for makg homophobic ments, sayg “a’t got no gay people on the team.

EX-HOTON OILERS SAY THEY HAD GAY TEAMMAT; WAS ‘NO BIG AL’

”The cricism of Culliver pots toward the league’s movement away om s former reputatn as a bastn of homophobia.

Culliver’s “sweet stuff” ments show the root of the difficulty for gay athlet: Too many people are stuck on the ridiculo notn that toughns (or weakns) directly rrponds to sexual orientatn. He hasn’t played a game sce October, and ’s unclear whether he’ll ever take the field a sport nsired to be Ameri’s apex of manls, where masculy n be seen as directly rrelated wh sexual orientatn, ’s not surprisg that gay players rema reluctant to speak up, pecially when uld mean their job. “Thgs were not exactly right, ” was how Lathon phrased his spicn that those two players back ’93 were gay, but he might as well have been talkg about the league self—then and now.

Gay NHL prospect Le Prokop was trad Wednday om the Nashville Predators anizatn to a mor league team operated by the same group that owns the Edmonton Oilers. Prokop, 19, beme the first out gay player signed to an NHL ntract when he publicly me out July. One of the most tellg quot surroundg Prokop’s g out me om Predators fenseman Mark Borowiecki, who said he didn’t thk there uld’ve been an out gay player the NHL when he was growg up.

TWO EX-HOTON OILERS WERE GAY AND ACCEPTED BY TEAMMAT, ACRDG TO REPORT

Prokop said he didn’t hear any gay slurs om teammat when he attend the Predators’ 2021 Developmental Camp.

While the topic of gay players on NFL rosters has garnered a great al of attentn over the past few years, is hardly a new issue. There are likely gay men playg profsnal football today jt as there were gay men playg profsnal football 20 years ago.

Acrdg to a few former players, the 1993 Hoton Oilers had two gay players on their roster and they were not ostracized any way. “Everybody knew certa guys (were gay), ” he said. Both McDowell and Lathon said that showerg and beg the locker room wh their gay teammat was “no big al.