Gay men nfl

Smith moved to Austin, Texas, in the 1980s and opened a gay bar. The 2003 first-round pick played in 86 games for the 49ers and Raiders. He appeared in the thirty-fourth season of the CBS reality competition show “The Amazing Race.”

2. Driss Dallahi

In 2019, Driss Dallahi became one of the first two male cheerleaders for the Patriots in over three decades.

His former teammate, David Kopay, revealed in his 1977 book that the two once had a fling, essentially outing Smith and confirming his sexuality. Justine Lindsay

Justine Lindsay made history as the first openly transgender cheerleader in the NFL when she joined the TopCats in 2022. "I know that 30 isn't the be-all-end-all ...

Jenkins, 69, later became the first openly gay justice on the Supreme Court of California in 2020, a position he still holds today.

Roy Simmons (1979-83)

Simmons played a few seasons on the offensive line for the New York Giants and Washington Redskins, and he played in Super Bowl XVIII with Washington.

Called "Sugar Bear" by his teammates, he struggled during his NFL career with drug abuse over concealing his sexuality.

In a coming out story in 2017, O'Callaghan revealed his plan after football was always to kill himself. His writing has appeared in numerous major outlets and in 2014, he became the NFL's first LGBTQ+ inclusion consultant.

Kwame Harris (2003-08)

Harris grew up in Delaware but chose to move far from home and play offensive line for Stanford after his parents had trouble accepting his sexuality.

Yet for the third consecutive season, there will be none in 2025.

Carl Nassib was No. 16 and the first one to come out as gay while on an active roster. That made him the first NFL player to marry someone of the same sex.

Rohrer played for the Cowboys in the '80s and played in 83 games. Underwood often talked about his virginity on "The Bachelor," and he didn't come out as gay until 2021.

He told ESPN his declining play may have been due to the pressures of hiding who he was. It was far from the most important work he would do, though.

“I was always the only boy on the dance team in junior high and high school,” Jinnies told Refinery29. He played in 111 games and recorded 200 tackles and 12 sacks. The journey toward inclusivity in NFL cheerleading continues to evolve, with each cheerleader contributing to a more accepting sports culture. He also revealed his addiction to painkillers.

Napoleon Jinnies

Napoleon Jinnies, a California native, began his dancing in the seventh grade.