Former NFL player Wade Davis has said he wishes he would have had the guts to come out gay while playing.

Davis, who played for the Tennessee Titans, the Seattle Seahaws and two NFL Europe teams, the Barcelona Dragons and the Berlin Thunder, came out gay last year. His professional football career ended in 2003 when he dislocated his kneecap and tore his patella tendon at a Washington Redskins training camp.

The former cornerback now works at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a non-profit dedicated to serving the needs of LGBT youth.

In an appearance on cabler Current's Say Anything, Davis told host Joy Behar that he regrets not speaking up earlier.

“I wish I had the guts to have come out while I playing,” Davis said.

“That's asking a lot of yourself,” Behar responded.

“It's asking me to learn to love myself at a very young age,” Davis said. “And to understand what sexuality was, which I didn't. You know, I didn't talk to my parents about it. I didn't talk to anyone else about like what it meant to be gay. I just didn't have the understanding.” (The video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)