Former NFL player Wade Davis has
publicly announced he's gay.
Davis played for the Tennessee Titans,
the Seattle Seahawks and two NFL Europe teams, the Barcelona Dragons
and the Berlin Thunder. His professional football career ended in
2003 when he dislocated his kneecap and tore his patella tendon at a
Washington Redskins training camp.
Davis first told his story to gay
sports blog Outsports.com.
He also discussed his experience as a closeted gay man in the NFL
with CNN.
The former cornerback now works at the
Hetrick-Martin Institute, a non-profit dedicated to serving the needs
of gay youth.
“It's the first job since football
that I wake up excited for work,” Davis told Outsports. “For
these kids, the question isn't whether they are shooting a basketball
well, it's whether they have a place to sleep tonight, whether
they've eaten today. Sports is less significant than what I see
these youth go through every day.”
Davis told CNN that keeping his
orientation a secret from his teammates took up “every bit of
space” in his head.
“Trying to understand the game of
football at an NFL level and then trying to just hide who I was for
such a very long time I became a great actor. I should get an Oscar
for it, honestly,” he said.
Davis added that he regrets not coming
out while in the NFL.
“It would make a difference because
youth can actually watch someone on television who's just like them.
I wish I had the courage back then to come out,” he said. “If I
could do it all over again, I would come out … while I was
playing.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.
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