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

Contents:

• MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 103-YEAR HISTORY
• CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’
• CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB ANNOUNC HE’S GAY, AN N.F.L. FIRST
• THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
• JOSH CAVALLO BE ONE OF THE FEW PROFSNAL MEN'S FOOTBALLERS TO E OUT AS GAY
• EACH OF AMERI’S BIG 5 SPORTS CURRENTLY HAS AN OUT GAY MAN THE PROS. THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED

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

The NFL has played for more than 100 years and there have been 16 gay or bi players to e out publicly. 16 and the first one to e out as gay while on an active roster.

Over the years, Outsports has known of a few other players who are gay but have never e out, even when retired. The NFL Network produced a documentary on Smh beg gay.

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

Jenks is gay and this was the the first time he wily discsed his sexual orientatn. In June, Carl Nassib of the Rairs me out as gay. -based profsnal league to e out as gay.

Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St.

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTRairs’ Carl Nassib Announc He’s Gay, an N. 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.

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

ViotranscripttranscriptCarl Nassib Be First Openly Gay Active N.

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

I jt want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay.

Player to publicly clare that he is gay. “I jt want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay, ” Nassib said a vio posted to his Instagram acunt.

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

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. L., and mak him the first openly gay active player the league’s 101-year history. “Sports are, many ways, one of the last bastns of a place where homophobia n thrive, ” said Cathy Renna, a spokwoman for the Natnal L.

”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.

THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB

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. Players had prevly announced publicly that they were gay, but all after their playg reers were over.

David Kopay beme the first pro football player to publicly e out as gay 1975, three years after he retired. 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.

Simmons also said he never would have clared himself gay durg the four seasons he played for the N. ”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.

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

“Got no gay people on the team, ” Culliver said.

”San Francis nng back Garrison Hearst apologized 2002 for g a slur and sayg he wouldn’t want a gay player as a teammate. His ment me after the former Mnota Vikgs player Esera Tuaolo publicly me out as gay that year after he had retired.

Players like Brendon Ayanbajo, who played wh the Baltimore Ravens, fend same-sex marriage and gay rights and supported Sam at the time. Player to Announce He’s Gay. The subject was the impact of Carl Nassib g out as gay the NFL for the Las Vegas Rairs.

JOSH CAVALLO BE ONE OF THE FEW PROFSNAL MEN'S FOOTBALLERS TO E OUT AS GAY

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. “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.

EACH OF AMERI’S BIG 5 SPORTS CURRENTLY HAS AN OUT GAY MAN THE PROS. THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED

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.

“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. The Flyg Bats and Sydney Rangers Football Clubs, alongsi Pri Football Atralia, will host the Internatnal Gay and Lbian Football Associatn (IGLFA) World Champnships XXIV Sydney 2023. "For me, beg gay has helped my reer - massively.

Havg e out as a teenager to his much olr team-mat while playg for his lol si Camberley Town, and fdg himself accepted, he managed to si-step the uncertaty that other gay or bisexual people tend to stggle wh, their formative adult the non-league scene, the 32-year-old is well nnected and much admired, and his visibily has grown followg media terviews given durg a Hartley FA Cup n back 2015. "There's been many other gay people the game who have reached out to me for advice, or jt to make a ntact. Hzlsperger's hope for gay players.