Meet 22 gay and bi college football players who played out and proud
There have been many publicly out gay and bi college football players, including at least a dozen in NCAA Division I alone. The post Meet 22 gay and bi college football players who played out and proud appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
There have been more publicly out gay and bi college football players than most people know. In fact, Outsports knows of nearly two dozen of them.
There have been plenty of other college football players who have been out to teammates and coaches while competing, but the didn’t necessarily share that publicly on social media or in media interviews.
Most famously, Michael Sam played out and proud in front of national TV audiences that never noticed he was wearing a Pride rainbow bracelet his entire senior season. The future NFL Draft pick had come out to his team and coaches before that season in which he won the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Years earlier, Brian Sims was out to his team at Division II Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. Though again, he wasn’t out to the media — They very well have may not even known to ask.
Below are the gay and bi men who were publicly out while playing college football — meaning the general public knew, through news media or social media, they were gay or bi.
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NCAA Division I
Jake Bain, RB, Indiana State
Jake Bain came out publicly when he was a gay college football player in his freshman year at Indiana State.
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Xavier Colvin, LB, Butler
Xavier Colvin was one of the first gay college football players in Division I to come out publicly. He’s the son of two-time Super Bowl champion Roosevelt Colvin.
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Mason Darrow, OL, Princeton
Mason Darrow was the first NCAA Division I football player to actually play in a game after coming out. He came out publicly with a powerful story and video on Outsports: “It’s not as scary as it all seems.”
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Brandon Davis, RB, Montana State
Brandon Davis was a running back at Louisiana Tech, but he felt he couldn’t come out there. So he transferred to Montana state where he played football and rugby.
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Ryan Deluca, WR, Furman
Ryan Deluca found immediate support coming out as a gay college football player at Furman University in South Carolina.
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Scott Frantz, OT, Kansas State
When Scott Frantz came out publicly while playing for the Kansas State Wildcats, he become the highest-profile college football player to come out publicly. Head coach Bill Snyder and various teammates expressed support. Frantz was an NFL prospect at the time, but he never made it to the league.
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My-King Johnson, DE, Arizona
The Arizona Wildcats recruited My-King Johnson knowing the defensive lineman was out as gay in his high school life. Johnson sat out his freshman season at Arizona as a redshirt. He left the team the following offseason and played one season for the junior college New Mexico Military Institute.
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Bradley Kim, DB, Air Force
Bradley Kim came out to teammates slowly, then took a giant leap out of the closet with an Outsport story and a post on Instagram. When he came out to one group of teammates, they gave him a standing ovation.
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“It doesn’t affect my ability to play football. It doesn’t affect my ability to serve my country.”
Kennedy McDowell, DE, Colorado State
Kennedy McDowell played defensive end for the Colorado State Rams for two seasons. He ultimately left the team for medical reasons after dealing with a high-profile concussion and a year-long stomach parasite.
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Byron Perkins, DB, Hampton
Byron Perkins came out as gay at Hampton, the first football player at an HBCU to come out publicly. He was a strong player who took a shot at pro football in the NFL Draft and other avenues.
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Chip Sarafin, OL, Arizona State
Chip Sarafin came out publicly as gay while a walk-on on the Arizona State Sun Devils football roster. Though Sarafin never played in a regular season game, he was on the scout team and contributed to the team’s success.
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Jaden Vazquez, RB, Fordham
Jaden Vazquez came out to his Fordham Rams teammates and told Outsports he never heard a single negative word.
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NCAA Division II
Jacob Van Ittersum, OL, Northwood University
“After I came out as a bisexual to my college football team in May, my biggest worry was with our locker room. I wasn’t sure if the guys would want me in there anymore,” Van Ittersum wrote on Outsports in 2018. “Then my quarterback, Joey Garbarino, whom I have played with since the fourth grade, stepped up.”
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NCAA Division III
Scott Cooper, LB, Augsburg
Scott Cooper found true acceptance in Minnesota on his Augsburg College football team, which included him being asked by a coach to speak on National Coming Out Day and introducing his partner at Senior Day.
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Mitch Eby, DE, Chapman
Mitch Eby was, as far as Outsports knows, the first active gay college football player to come out publicly on a wide scale, when he shared his story of playing for Chapman University in California on Outsports a few weeks after Michael Sam shared his.
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Mitch Eby gave a moving coming-out speech to his Chapman football team that sent them into applause. One teammate called him his hero.
Conner Mertens, K, Willamette
Conner Mertens became the first publicly out active LGBTQ college football player when he came out as bi in 2014. As a kicker on the Willamette football team, he had told his teammates shortly before sharing his story on Outsports. Mertens has gone on to be a long-time advocate for LGBTQ people in sports.
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Wyatt Pertuset, WR, Capital
Wyatt Pertuset had some big moments playing college football for Capital University. He had his first college touchdown featured on ESPN, as an out gay athlete. And he was a heck of a punter.
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Avery Saffold, DB, Amherst
Avery Saffold had his best season for the Amherst football team after coming out as gay. His teammates had his back, with his first message post-coming-out from a teammate reading: “I’m always here for you no matter what, love you man.”
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Jack Storrs, LB, Pomona-Pitzer
Jack Storrs came out to his team, and his teammates responded by wearing Pride stickers on their helmets.
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Christian Zeitvogel, OL, Kalamazoo
Christian Zeitvogel came out to teammates and found the biggest hurdle were the fears inside himself.
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NAIA
Cy Hicks, OL, College of Idaho
Cy Hicks told Outsports in 2019 that acceptance from his teammates and coaches, even in Idaho, came from them on Day 1.
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Darrion McAlister, OL, Marian
Darrion McAlister won an NAIA national championship with Marian. He would eventually come out to teammates during a game of “Never Have I Ever.”
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If you know of anyone we missed who was publicly out while playing college football at any level, please drop us a line at team@outsports.com.
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The post Meet 22 gay and bi college football players who played out and proud appeared first on Outsports.
