Jaguars associate strength ach out as gay a first for US-based pro leagu

Contents:

• THIS GAY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER IS BEG HONORED FOR BOOSTG LGBTQ PRI HIS HOMETOWN
• THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB
• IT WAS A SIMPLE TEAM PHOTO, BUT MEANT THE WORLD TO GAY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER
• IN A LLEGE FOOTBALL FIRST, HBCU PLAYER OUT AS GAY
• JEFF ROHRER — RETIRED DALLAS COWBOYS LEBACKER — COM OUT AS GAY, REVEALS HE'S GETTG MARRIED
• RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB OUT AS GAY, THE FIRST ACTIVE NFL PLAYER TO DO SO
• RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB ANNOUNC HE’S GAY, AN N.F.L. FIRST
• GAY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER SAYS FEAR KEEPS HIM THE CLOSET
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 103-YEAR HISTORY
• JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990
• ‘I HAVE BEEN FIGHTG MY SEXUALY’: A-LEAGUE MEN PLAYER JOSH CAVALLO OUT AS GAY

THIS GAY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER IS BEG HONORED FOR BOOSTG LGBTQ PRI HIS HOMETOWN

In addn to creasg visibily, Jake, 17, wants to normalize g out and beg gay his hometown. His favore football memory happened durg his sophomore season, when he revered the ball on fense, and everybody on his team went wild. The subject was the impact of Carl Nassib g out as gay the NFL for the Las Vegas Rairs.

Matea offensive leman Jake Strer, who is gay, is one of five current or former LGBTQ athlet profiled. “When I returned to football my sophomore year after g out was bee I knew that if I qu football was jt the begng of thgs I would qu or hold myself back om bee I was gay, ” Strer told Outsports.

THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB

“To fast forward to my last football game my senr year and have end wh ‘NFL 360’ there to clu me a story celebratg the first openly gay football player NFL history is still really unbelievable to me. EST, we see scen of Strer’s last game as a Matea Mtang, terspersed wh him speakg about beg gay football and what Nassib’s g out meant to him. Their experienc are universal, ways good and bad, for many LGBTQ people — Pick talkg about the pa om the ial rejectn by her mom; O’Callaghan discsg suicidal thoughts before beg rcued by a therapist; Rapoport’s touchg rellectn of g out to NFL Commissner Roger Gooll by approachg him at a Super Bowl event holdg her girliend’s hand and Gooll’s se upon seeg ; Saffold discsg growg up Black and gay on the South Si of Chigo “where there are rampant levels of homophobia” and Strer on how he ed to worry “about how bad my life might be after I me out.

IT WAS A SIMPLE TEAM PHOTO, BUT MEANT THE WORLD TO GAY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER

“I thk 11- or 12-year-old kids playg football prr to Carl Nassib g out didn’t thk there uld be a gay football player, ” Rapoport said. It was a simple team photo, but meant the world to gay high school football player. 15-year-old sophomore Jake Strer serly thought of qutg his Illois football team after beg outed, but he cid to embrace who he was and ma all the difference.

Though I am on the team, ’s still a b awkward when you are a 15-year-old gay guy.

There is absolutely a “gay by associatn” phobia high school and ’s a big unspoken thg. I get and unrstand that wh matury the realizatn that gay isn’t ntag. I had never had an actual verbal nversatn wh any of my teammat about me beg gay.

IN A LLEGE FOOTBALL FIRST, HBCU PLAYER OUT AS GAY

I am not the gay guy — I’m jt a football player.

Their embrace of me was somethg I never expected after a year of anxiety and stggle of g to terms wh beg gay. I started hearg that people outsi of the team heard I was gay. It was someone I had tsted wh the rmatn that I was gay and knew I was not out.

Two weeks after I me out to my parents, right after my football season had end, I went on Snapchat and posted the gay flag emoji on my story. I then said, “If you don’t get , I’m gay.

JEFF ROHRER — RETIRED DALLAS COWBOYS LEBACKER — COM OUT AS GAY, REVEALS HE'S GETTG MARRIED

I was bldsid when some kid who I really didn’t know my last perd class kept g LGBTQ slurs while knowg I was gay. I didn’t know how to handle beg outed, how to handle g out to my fay or people at my school, and I fely didn’t know how to handle gay bashg. I was sayg was OK to drive someone om a sport bee they are gay.

I was fearg the “gay by associatn” that is a livg breathg thg for teens, pecially guys. I am proud to say I am gay.

RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB OUT AS GAY, THE FIRST ACTIVE NFL PLAYER TO DO SO

Jake Strer, 15, is a sophomore at Metea Valley High School Aurora, Illois, and an offensive and fensive leman on his high school football team. When Kansas State offensive tackle and NFL hopeful Stt Frantz me out to the natn as gay last week, he shared that his teammat, to whom he'd e out earlier, had warmly received the news, a sign the most alpha of locker rooms may fally be ready for equaly. So, wh two gay players takg the field the top tier of llege football this season, has the future fally charged onto the turf?

RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB ANNOUNC HE’S GAY, AN N.F.L. FIRST

Here's a list of players llege and pro ball who have proved you n be gay or bi and still n the KopayRunng back Dave Kopay, who signed wh the San Francis 49ers 1964, would play for five teams before hangg up his jersey 1972. Coach Vce Lombardi had apparently nfid Smh that he knew of his sexualy but would never let impact him negatively; Lombardi's brother was also gay.

Yet he nspicuoly has never been ducted to the NFL Hall of SimmonsRoy "Sugar Bear" Simmons, an offensive leman for the New York Giants and Washgton Redsks, beme the send NFL player ever to publicly reveal he was gay. So Coach Vce Lombardi knew McDonald was gay when he took over learship of the team 1969, but ma clear there would be no discrimatn his locker room, those close to the legend say. He would e out to HBO Sports 2002, where he discsed lghg off gay jok and slurs for years while he played DavisCornerback Wa Davis, who played preason wh the Tennsee Tans, Seattle Seahawks and Washgton Redsks and spent two seasons wh NFL Europe teams Berl Thunr and Barcelona Dragons, me out as gay 2012, nearly a after his retirement.

He would later nfirm his sexualy on CNN and s down wh ESPN to discs the challeng of growg up gay Jamai and playg football while closeted. Michael SamThe world took notice 2014 when All-Amerin fensive end Michael Sam me out as gay to ESPN while still llege.

GAY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER SAYS FEAR KEEPS HIM THE CLOSET

Louis Rams and beme the first openly gay player ever to get drafted by an NFL team.

He did end up playg two years wh the Montreal Alouett, makg him the first openly gay player the history of the Canadian Football BryantA Purdue alum who gaed more yards than any other non-Heisman Trophy wner Big Ten history, Dorien Bryant failed to get drafted 2008.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU

He later cled to sign wh the Tennsee Tans and Dallas Cowboys before g out as gay at 24, he told Philalphia Magaze 2013.

MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 103-YEAR HISTORY

He would later move to San Francis and jo the Fog, a gay gby team, and pen a g-out blog post GallagherA Universy of Ptsburgh offensive leman om 1977 through 1979, Ed Gallagher reprsed his sexualy until 1985, when he had his first sexual enunter wh a man, then attempted to kill himself 12 days later. He died LuhenA kicker for the Nebraska Cornhkers who played om 2003 through 2005, Eric Luhen told Outsports he was open about beg gay and suffered relentls bullyg om a handful of teammat. While he said he never kept his sexualy a secret, a "nspiracy of silence" left the matter unspoken the GendreA kicker for four seasons wh the Middle Tennsee Blue Rairs, Alan Gendre, openly gay om age 16 on, would end his llege reer as the lead srer Sun Belt nference history.

He ma the cisn to announce he was gay, the first active Divisn III player to do so, after nnectg wh Conner Mertens through You Can Play, he SarafArizona State leman Chris Saraf 2014 me out as gay to lol LGBT publitn Compete, makg him the first Divisn I player out of the closet. The move quickly brought msag of support om the athletic partment and universy officials, and the wrer for Compete told The Arizona Republic that the school fact approached him about breakg the SimsBrian Sims 2000 was named -pta for the Bloomsberg Universy football team Pennsylvania, makg him the first openly gay llege football pta NCAA history, acrdg to Outsports. Sims, post-football, entered polics and 2012 beme the first openly gay polician ever elected to the Pennsylvania Hoe of DarrowAn offensive leman for Prceton, Mason Darrow me out 2015.

JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990

He's now pursug a ont-office job profsnal JohnsonMy-Kg Johnson, a recent grad of Tempe High School Arizona, is set this fall to be the first openly gay scholarship player reced to play major-llege football, takg the field wh the Universy of Arizona. He said he wanted to enter his fal season of llege ball livg openly and hontly, and emailed the newspaper shortly after Kurdzlek, a iend and opponent on the field, me out PertetWyatt Pertet, a special teams player and receiver for Capal Universy, will be a sophomore this season. Why this gay pro athlete thks g out is so important.

For gay nner, his teammat lovg his nail polish showed him bond they created. A Hampton Universy football player me out publicly as gay, a first for a football player at a historilly Black llege or universy, acrdg to, an LGBTQ sports news se. Byron Perks, a Divisn I fensive back for the Hampton Universy Pirat, me out as gay an Instagram story shared Wednday.

I’m gay, let be known that this is not a ‘cisn’ or a ‘choice. ’ Y, this is who I am, this is who I’ve been, and this is who I’m gog to be, ” Perks wrote the story, acrdg to (Instagram stori are only available for 24 hours, so Perks’ origal story is no longer viewable) several Divisn I football players have e out as gay durg their llege reers — cludg the College of Idaho’s Cy Hicks, Amherst College’s Avery Saffold and Kansas State’s Stt Frantz — Perks is the first to do so at one of the untry’s 101 HBCUs, acrdg to both Outsports and Perks. Perks told Outsports that he’d like to help other gay Black men who are stgglg wh their sexualy.

‘I HAVE BEEN FIGHTG MY SEXUALY’: A-LEAGUE MEN PLAYER JOSH CAVALLO OUT AS GAY

“There hasn’t been an out gay football athlete at an HBCU. “I’m sure the young man has heard his fair share of slurs om teammat unaware that he is gay. Cyd Zeigler, the -founr of Outsports, noted that “so many ‘first’ gay athlet — John Amaechi, Jason Colls, Michael Sam — have been Black men.