Davis Says He Feared Coming Out Would Sink NFL Career

[Blue_Tires]

A decade ago, Wade Davis was a cornerback struggling to make a National Football League roster. He was also in the closet.

"Honestly, I wasn't strong enough as a person," Davis said, explaining why he only came out as gay seven years after leaving football, in an interview with OutSports.com this week.

Since leaving the NFL, where he was a defensive back for the Tennessee Titans, Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins, Davis, 34, has found a new calling: helping LGBT youth deal with the same pressures he experienced as a player.

Now an assistant director of job readiness at New York City's Hetrick-Martin Institute, which provides services such as GED preparation, HIV education and mental health support, Davis said his new job is an opportunity to inspire "other Wade Davis's out there to live in their own truth."

Davis said he feared revealing his homosexuality would sink his career.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/davis-strong-nfl/story?id=16520512#.T9E-9tn0-YE

[MrSlayer]

1. Sadly, it would have.

He comes out and at the next practice he's crippled. The NFL is a bastion of fundie whack jobs and homophobic "macho men".
The NFL has made gay people a protected class against discrimination but that wouldn't stop someone from cheap shotting him out of the game.

There is still a ways to go before we see an openly gay player in one of the major pro sports.

[tblue]

2. It's true in all these 'macho' sports

to one degree or another. Is there anyone who is out playing on any pro sports team? I can't think of any. And odds are there are many.

God bless, Wade Davis. I wish him all the success and love in the world.

[Blue_Tires]

3. No...We've never had an "out" active player in the major sports

[zellie]

4. You are probably right

it can be a tough world out there.