Meet the 10 gay or bi players drafted in NFL history
Michael Sam came out to tremendous publicity in 2014 as an out gay player in the NFL Draft. But there have been eight other gay players and one bi player who were also were drafted. The post Meet the 10 gay or bi players drafted in NFL history appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
With the NFL Draft starting Thursday in Pittsburgh, one historical fact holds true: There has been only one player drafted who at the time was publicly gay.
That player was Michael Sam and the year was 2014. Sam came out as gay in February before the combine in what was the biggest sports story in the country. Where Sam would wind up in the draft became a major guessing game.
He lasted until late in the seventh round on the final day of the draft, being selected by the St. Louis Rams. His kiss with his then-boyfriend on national TV after being drafted became an iconic LGBTQ sports moment.
Sam never played a down in an NFL regular season game, but the same is not true for nine other gay or bi player who were also drafted. The biggest difference is that none of these nine players were out at the time. Carl Nassib did come out as gay prior to his sixth season and played for two more seasons before retiring.
Here are the 10 gay or bi players who were selected in the NFL Draft.
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Jerry Smith (Arizona State)
Ninth round draft, 1965, Washington Redskins (NFL)
Eighteenth round, 1965, Kansas City Chiefs (AFL)
Smith played 13 seasons for Washington and his 60 career touchdowns are still the seventh-most in NFL history, way before the era of pass-catching tight ends came in vogue. Smith was a teammate of Dave Kopay, also gay, and the two had a one-night stand that Kopay vividly recalled:
“It was after this night of drinking,” Kopay said. “I was in bed already and all of a sudden I wake up and there was Jerry kissing me and all over me. It was like, holy sh*t, this is pretty good. He jumped in bed with me. … I wasn’t really attracted to Jerry, he wasn’t my type and I wasn’t his. What he liked were the most effeminate young men you could imagine. But it happened …
“I couldn’t believe he even came to me. It was a night of drinking and, boom, it happened.”
Smith died from AIDS in 1986.
Ray McDonald (Idaho)
First round, 1967, Washington Redskins
Despite being a first-round pick as a running back, McDonald only played two seasons. He was arrested in 1968 after having sex in public with a man and was out of football. McDonald died in 1993.
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Roy Simmons (Georgia Tech)
Eighth round, 1979, New York Giants
Simmons played two seasons as an offensive lineman. Simmons played in the Super Bowl following the 1993 season while with Washington. According to the New York Times: “In the stands that Sunday, he said, were friends he had invited, including three lovers — two female, one male. Somehow, he continued to keep his complicated sexuality a secret.” He died in 2014.
Jeff Rohrer (Yale)
Second round, 1982, Dallas Cowboys
Rohrer played linebacker for six seasons for the Cowboys. Rohrer married his husband, Joshua Ross, in 2018.
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Esera Tuaolo (Oregon State)
Second round, 1991, Green Bay Packers
Tuaolo played nine seasons for five teams and recorded six sacks. He played in the Super Bowl with the Atlanta Falcons in the 1998 season. He came out publicly as gay in 2002. Since retiring, Tuaolo has been a singer and public speaker.
Kwame Harris (Stanford)
First round, 2003, San Francisco 49ers
Harris played five seasons for the 49ers and one for the Oakland Raiders as an offensive lineman. He came out as gay in 2013.
Ryan O’Callaghan (Cal)
Fifth round, 2006, New England Patriots
O’Callaghan played for four seasons as an offensive lineman for the Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs and appeared in one Super Bowl with New England. He came out in 2017.
Michael Sam (Missouri)
Seventh round, 2014, St. Louis Rams
Sam played in the preseason for Rams in 2014 and was one of the team’s final cuts. He later was signed to the Dallas Cowboys practice squad and briefly played in the Canadian Football League.
Ryan (R.K.) Russell (Purdue)
Fifth round, 2015, Dallas Cowboys
Russell played one season for the Cowboys and two for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a defensive lineman. He came out as bisexual in 2017 and has been an advocate and writer since retiring.
Carl Nassib (Penn State)
Third round, 2016, Cleveland Browns
Nassib played seven seasons for the Browns, Buccaneers and Raiders as a defensive lineman. He came out as gay on June 21, 2021, in one of the biggest sports stories of the year. Since retiring, he has become an entrepreneur.
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The post Meet the 10 gay or bi players drafted in NFL history appeared first on Outsports.
