Gay former Patriots player rips anti-gay RB as ‘easily replaceable’

New England Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson launched into an anti-gay rant across numerous social media posts, as a Christian player defending NBA player Jaden Ivey for his own homophobic public comments.

Now gay former Patriots player Ryan O’Callaghan is responding to Henderson, saying in his six seasons in the NFL he’d never heard anything like this homophobia from any of his teammates.

If he had heard something like it when he was playing in the NFL, O’Callaghan said he’d try to get his teammate some psychological help.

“The first thing I would do is find information about a sports psychologist and discretely leave it in his locker,” O’Callaghan said.

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Yet O’Callaghan said that more important to him as a gay player in sports would have been the comments from Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, who has responded to Henderson’s comments with messages of inclusion.

“I think hearing the comment from my head coach, what Mike just said, would make me feel welcome,” O’Callaghan said. He has previously discussed his former teammate Vrabel being one of the first people to contact him after he came out publicly as gay. “Because that’s just one easily replaceable running back who’s clearly not fitting the culture they’re trying to build.”

During his time as an offensive tackle in college at Cal and in the NFL for the Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs, O’Callaghan blocked for the likes of running backs Marshawn Lynch, Corey Dillon, Laurence Maroney and Jamaal Charles.

In his rookie season in the NFL, TreVeyon Henderson played well for the Patriots, with 911 yards rushing and nine rushing touchdowns, adding another 221 yards and a score receiving.

Yet during the NFL Playoffs, Henderson was not good. He averaged just 2.5 yards/carry on 30 touches during the Playoffs, failing to score on any of his runs.

And…

“Running backs are the most replaceable people there are,” O’Callaghan said.

The gay former football player said he’d never heard anything like Henderson’s online anti-gay screed from any of his teammates in college or the NFL.

“Not even close. Every team I’ve ever been on, college and both NFL teams, there were always the religious guys. They’d do things like hand out personalized Bibles. But it was never like this.

“It was just them giving access to their beliefs, which is totally fine.”

Where will the Patriots go with Henderson? The Patriots have yet to respond publicly as a team. Robert Kraft has been one of the most pro-LGBTQ owners in all of major American pro sports.

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