8 Male Football Players who Dared to Come Out As Gay [2023 Update]

Contents:

• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB
• CARL NASSIB, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ACTIVE NFL PLAYER, ULD BE TURNG POT FOR MALE SPORTS
• RAIRS’ CARL NASSIB ANNOUNC HE’S GAY, AN N.F.L. FIRST
• JAKE DANIELS BE FIRST UK MALE FOOTBALLER TO E OUT AS GAY SCE 1990
• 'GO GAYS!': WHY USA'S LGBTQ WORLD CUP STARS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
• 8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY
• MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 104-YEAR HISTORY
• JOSH CAVALLO BE ONE OF THE FEW PROFSNAL MEN'S FOOTBALLERS TO E OUT AS GAY

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay. Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual. Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021.

Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. 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. “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.

THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB

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.

“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.

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

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.

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

Ranks the worst when to homophobia athletics. 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.

This, of urse, don’t mean there haven’t been closeted gay players. In 2014, Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team, when the St. (In 2015, he beme the first openly gay player the Canadian Football League when he spent a season wh the Montreal Alouett.

This is where misogyny to play, maniftg a culture of homophobia. To be a gay man is to face beg stereotyped as weak or effemate — the oppose of what a football player, or an athlete, is “supposed” to be. ““In llege, football was a great ver for beg gay, ” O’Callaghan told Outsports 2017.

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

” 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. “I thk ’s safe to say there’s at least one on every team who is eher gay or bisexual, ” O’Callaghan speculated 2019.

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.

'GO GAYS!': WHY USA'S LGBTQ WORLD CUP STARS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

ViotranscripttranscriptCarl Nassib Be First Openly Gay Active N. 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. 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.

8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY

“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.

MEET THE 16 OUT GAY AND BI FOOTBALL PLAYERS THE NFL’S 104-YEAR HISTORY

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.

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

“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.