Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon
Ayanbadejo said Sunday that he and several colleagues are “laying
the foundation” for an NFL player to come out.
Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation,
moderator Bob Schieffer asked Ayanbadejo, “Would a gay person feel
comfortable in coming out, as it were, if he were a football player
in the NFL?”
“Yes, I think so,” Ayanbadejo
answered.
“If you go back three or four years
ago, people were a lot more harsh. And this issue really wasn't
talked about. It was a little bit swept under the rug. Now, we're
trying to bring this issue to the forefront and I'm preparing and
Chris Kluwe and Scott Fujita, we're all preparing and laying a
foundation for the athlete, our Jackie Robinson, that does come out,
that he'll feel comfortable, he'll have a support group around him.
And it seems like the San Francisco 49ers with the It Gets Better
campaign that they did and also with the Baltimore Ravens, the
announcing discrimination, I think we're laying the foundation for a
player to be comfortable in 2013 to come out, if he is ready to do
so,” he said.
(Related: Brendon
Ayanbadejo sees gay marriage as a civil right.)