Jaguars assistant Kev Maxen be first male ach major men's pro sports to intify as gay

Contents:

• JEFF ROHRER — RETIRED DALLAS COWBOYS LEBACKER — COM OUT AS GAY, REVEALS HE'S GETTG MARRIED
• CARL NASSIB, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ACTIVE NFL PLAYER, ULD BE TURNG POT FOR MALE SPORTS
• FORMER COWBOYS LEBACKER OUT AS GAY, ANNOUNC WEDDG
• MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 103-YEAR HISTORY
• RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB ANNOUNC HE’S GAY, AN N.F.L. FIRST
• TONY DUNGY: GAY MARRIAGE, FOOTBALL 'HAVE NOTHG TO DO WH EACH OTHER'
• GAY FORMER DALLAS COWBOY JEFF ROHRER IS MARRYG HIS BOYIEND THIS SUNDAY
• JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE NFL ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• CARL NASSIB, FIRST OPENLY GAY NFL PLAYER, TO BE RELEASED BY RAIRS
• PLAYERS’ SUPPORT OF GAY MARRIAGE ALTERS N.F.L. IMAGE
• THE SURPRISGLY LONG HISTORY OF GAYS PRO FOOTBALL
• JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR MEN'S PRO SPORTS TO INTIFY AS GAY
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

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

Retired NFL lebacker Jeff Rohrer is gay and set to bee the first former or current NFL player a same-sex marriage, he revealed a new terview published on Wednday. Atralian A-League soccer star Josh Cavallo me out as gay an October vio posted to his social media, beg hailed as the first current male top-flight profsnal soccer player to publicly do so. "He ntued: "Growg up I always felt the need to hi myself, you know, bee I was ashamed, and ashamed I'll never be able to do what I love and be gay.

CARL NASSIB, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ACTIVE NFL PLAYER, ULD BE TURNG POT FOR MALE SPORTS

The 28-year-old Natnal Football League player and Rairs fensive leman ma history when he me out as gay on Instagram durg Pri Month, beg the first veteran NFL player to e out as gay while signed to a regular-season ntract.

FORMER COWBOYS LEBACKER OUT AS GAY, ANNOUNC WEDDG

The Bachelor star and former football player (who was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted ee agent and was on the practice squad of the Oakland Rairs and the Philalphia Eagl) me out as gay April, sayg he had fally e to terms wh his sexualy and the "next step all of this was sort of lettg people know.

Corey Walsh, the 27-year-old pro BMX rir and Vans spokperson, said he isn't normally the type of person to "let people " on his personal life, but felt was important to e out as gay a March Instagram post bee "there are a lot of people still stgglg wh the same suatns" and he "jt wanted to let people know that they are not alone. Champn long track speedskater Conor McDermott-Mostowy never hid beg gay om his fay, iends, and fellow athlet, but he also wasn't one to rate his locker wh rabow Pri flags eher.

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

“I jt want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay, ” the fensive leman for the Las Vegas Rairs said a vio posted to his Instagram acunt Monday. And while someone g out 2021 might not feel like a big al, wh that simple statement, Nassib beme the first openly gay active player NFL that simple statement, Nassib beme the first openly gay active player NFL history. Though there are many openly queer women profsnal sports, the same nnot be said for homophobia of men’s sports culture has been well documented.

Currently, there is only one openly gay player on a profsnal men’s team the “big five” Amerin sports: Soccer player Coll Mart of the USL Champnship League (Mart me out 2018 as a member of Major League Soccer’s Mnota Uned) NFL has existed for 101 years, and that time, there has never been a player on an active NFL roster who has publicly acknowledged his gayns.

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

” Davis remembers spendg $1, 500 at a strip club an attempt to nceal the fact that he was gay om his spe society’s evolvg attus, the sports world seems to be movg far slower to mornize and stigmatize.

In 30 mut, the big moment support gay teammate Jeff Rohrer before his weddg: Happy 'he n be who he is'More:NFL Week 11 wners, losers: Cowboys save their season, Jaguars are major disappotment"By the power vted me by the State of California, I now pronounce you hband and hband, " Olson said.

He also said he felt guilty bee he was one of the Cowboys players who had joked about gay and other former teammat said they did not spect Rohrer was gay durg his playg reer part bee he had many girliends.

TONY DUNGY: GAY MARRIAGE, FOOTBALL 'HAVE NOTHG TO DO WH EACH OTHER'

Or that he had Sunday, some of the weddg guts learned the tails and more durg the said he gave Rohrer an ultimatum: troduce me to your ex-wife or I’m fally agreed to troduce the two but said he was terrified his children would fd out he was gay.

FirstThe Rairs fensive leman me out a statement posted to his Instagram acunt on Monday, beg the first active player the league to publicly intify as gay. I actually hope that like one day vios like this and the whole g-out procs are jt not necsary, but until then I’m gog to do my bt and my part to cultivate a culture that’s acceptg, that’s passnate, ” before addg that he would donate $100, 000 to The Trevor Project, a nonprof group that foc on suici preventn efforts among lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer and qutng youth.

GAY FORMER DALLAS COWBOY JEFF ROHRER IS MARRYG HIS BOYIEND THIS SUNDAY

”Michael Sam, an all-Amerin fensive leman at Missouri, had been viewed as the most likely to acquire that distctn when he announced he is gay before he beg chosen by the Rams the seventh round of the 2014 N. The Dallas Cowboys signed Sam to their practice squad, but he never played a regular season Otero/Associated PrsSam’s draft stat was seen as a barometer of whether the climate of men’s pro sports was beg more acceptg of gay athlet, particularly bee Febary 2014 the N.

Had jt bee the first of the four tradnal major Amerin men’s sports leagu to have an openly gay active player when Jason Colls joed the Sam left the N. He played for ne seasons wh the San Francis 49ers and four other teams the 1960s and 1970s, and has sce bee an activist and an ambassador for the Gay Gam, a quadrennial sportg Simmons was the send former player to announce that he was gay, dog so 1992 after his reer wh the Giants and Washgton Football Team had end.

JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE NFL ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

”In recent years, the league has publicly supported Pri Month through promotnal efforts like changg official social media avatars to clu rabows and supportg the You Can Play Project, which provis rourc to enurage clivy youth sports, even as some players have ma rogatory statements about gay people wh ltle penalty or supported groups that oppose gay Wewerka for The New York TimIn 2013, Chris Culliver of the San Francis 49ers and Chris Clemons of the Seattle Seahawks ma offensive ments when asked about the prospect of havg a gay teammate. On Monday a quote om Tony Dungy about not wantg to draft Rams rookie Michael Sam -- the first openly gay player the NFL -- sent the sports world spng on s si; Dungy said he wouldn't want to al wh the "distractn.

Wednday he did some more talkg, appearg on the Dan Patrick Show to discs what happened wh the origal terview and the ensug as and ma the pot that his beliefs about gay marriage and his beliefs about nstctg a football team aren't related. ”The kdns of my iends and my fay and my teammat” he said, his voice tremblg, psg between words, dog everythg he uld to exprs the sudn joy that enveloped his new gay life.

He had never, while he was playg the NFL for the Cowboys or at any pot durg his marriage to his wife, dated men, had a boyiend or had any kd of gay experience. In that nversatn The Playmaker said he believed that if a teammate had e out as gay to the rt of the Cowboys the 1990s, they would have accepted him and moved on.

CARL NASSIB, FIRST OPENLY GAY NFL PLAYER, TO BE RELEASED BY RAIRS

Whether or not there were gay slurs thrown around the locker room, there is a machismo virtually every football locker room that seems to send an unspoken msage exudg heterosexism. In the 1970s we know that multiple Washgton football players – Dave Kopay, Jerry Smh, Ray McDonald – were gay, and that some of their teammat knew about them.

Beyond fdg a happs he never thought possible for himself, he now has the opportuny to break to the dark rners of that culture where anti-gay sentiment fters. If was hard to not like him when he was straight and married to a woman, for those very same people will now be hard to not like him now that he’s gay and marryg a man. No NFL ach had ever publicly e out as gay, so Maxen, an assistant strength and ndng ach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, kept quiet about his sexual that ma him angry — at himself.

PLAYERS’ SUPPORT OF GAY MARRIAGE ALTERS N.F.L. IMAGE

Acrdg to the article, Maxen ma his cisn to do so last year and reached out for advice om Carl Nassib, who 2021 beme the NFL’s first out gay active player as a member of the Las Vegas was Nassib who put Maxen ntact wh Outsports. “The Rairs, the NFL, have monstrated that they support this man as a gay man, ” Zeigler said, addg that Nassib’s succsful rerd will help him quickly fd a new team. ” Former NFL player Ryan O’Callaghan, who me out as gay June 2017, after his time the league, said Nassib’s reer monstrat that players do not need to promise their LGBTQ inti sports.

“It was unexpected to a lot of gay people to have someone om the most mascule sports league the untry e to the fense of the gay muny and attack this person, ” said Cyd Zeigler, a founr of “It was unexpected, and was awome.

In Mnota, there will be a vote on an antigay marriage nstutnal amendment that, if passed, would fe marriage as a unn between a man and a woman. It matters bee Brendon and Chris are profsnal athlet who are uniquely posned to help shape opns and say to fans, to people who may not be foced on this, that gays are jt like you and me. ”Kluwe, whose brother--law is gay, said all but “four or five of about 6, 000” msag he had received on Twter rponse to his letter were posive.

THE SURPRISGLY LONG HISTORY OF GAYS PRO FOOTBALL

Roy Simmons, a former guard for the Giants and the Redsks, me out 1992, and the former fensive tackle Esera Tuaolo, who played for five teams over ne seasons, did so , Ellner said, support for gay-rights issu is on the rise the league.

JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR MEN'S PRO SPORTS TO INTIFY AS GAY

As Amerins celebrated the Sunday stutn that is pro football, unknown to all but a few is a hidn history of gay alli, players, and creasgly, out gay fans.

However, even the acknowledgement that gays n and should play -- as the New York Giants did a groundbreakg vio last year -- is a step forward for the NFL.

Bee the tth is gays have, and most likely, do play pro football, while fans are currently votg on the football hero who will be named to the Football Hall of Fame Canton, Oh.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

" It wasn't until long after his time on the gridiron that Smh acknowledged beg a relatnship wh Dave Kopay, who ma history as the first profsnal team sport athlete to e out as gay.

But the other danger LGBT advot and sports journalists say has kept pro players the closet is the fear that they will lose support not only om teammat but om antigay fans who will turn spurn their team.